Harper’s Globe

So last July I was invited by Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, the co-founders of EQAL (the production company behind the show), to produce their new series, Harper’s Globe. I had just come off Executive Producing a movie and was excited to work in a new medium... The first challenge set forth was to find our lead, Robin Matthews.

Miles and Greg told me that they had someone in mind, an actress from their LonelyGirl15 series (which I hadn’t seen all the way through), but the network had suggested they find someone fresh, someone who hadn’t starred in their last series. I agreed with the network that we should start our search by looking for someone new, so I hired a casting director (Arlie Day—who was great) and we brought in a ton of young actresses. After going through all the auditions, there was one actress that stood out above all the rest. It wasn’t even close.

I asked Miles and Greg how they liked to work... do you want to see all the actresses, my top five or the only one I want to hire? They laughed and asked to look at my top choice. I put in the DVD and after a few seconds they paused it and this was our ensuing conversation:

“Is this a joke?”

”Um, no. Trust me she’s really good.”

“No, we know she’s really good. That’s Melanie.”

“Melanie...”

The actress from LonelyGirl15. The girl they wanted from the beginning. (Now, I should probably point out that I never looked at Melanie’s resume. In fact, I usually try to focus solely on the performances in auditions and ignore headshots and resumes if I can... So I really had no idea that “my Melanie” was actually “their Melanie”). To add to the crazy coincidence of casting, Melanie herself didn’t know this was an EQAL production; she had never met me before, and had no idea Miles and Greg were even involved. The whole thing ended up being very synchronistic, with everyone happily on the same page. We sent Melanie’s audition tape to CBS and the Harper’s Island producers and everyone immediately agreed, Melanie Merkosky was meant to play Robin Matthews.

I can’t thank Melanie enough, for her talent, her heart and her spirit. She’s a tremendous talent and we are so lucky to have her on the show.

- Matt