Casting News - March 19, 2018
ABC's Designated Survivor; The CW's Legends of Tomorrow; and HBO's Camping & Chernobyl.
HBO's CHERNOBYL
- Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson have been cast on the upcoming miniseries starring Jared Harris. The casting reunites the duo after they starred in the 1996 film Breaking the Waves, which earned Watson an Academy Award nomination.
- Skarsgård will play Boris Shcherbina, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and head of the Bureau for Fuel and Energy of the USSR. A relatively minor figure in the Kremlin, he is assigned to lead the government commission on Chernobyl in the early hours following the accident, when the government was still unaware the reactor had exploded. As the ranking official in charge of the effort to confront an unprecedented disaster, he finds himself trapped between the realities of the political system he serves and the brutal human costs of battling an escalating nuclear nightmare.
- Watson will play Ulana Khomyuk, a Soviet nuclear physicist committed to solving the scientific mystery of what led to the disaster at Chernobyl, so that it can be prevented from ever happening again. Her efforts put her on a collision course with those who have buried a terrible secret, and she must risk her freedom - and her life - to see that the truth is told, and justice is done.
THE CW's LEGENDS OF TOMORROW
- The drama has yet to be renewed officially for a fourth season. However, it's been announced today that Matt Ryan will return as a series regular for the season, reprising his role as John Constantine.
- Ryan debuted as the DC Comics character for one season in the failed NBC drama Constantine. He then appeared in one Season 4 episode of The CW's Arrow. He is currently recurring on the third season of Legends of Tomorrow and will voice the character in the CW Seed animated series Constantine, which premieres on March 24.
HBO's CAMPING
- Juliette Lewis, Janicza Bravo, Arturo Del Puerto, Brett Gelman and Bridget Everett have joined the cast of the upcoming comedy starring Jennifer Garner and David Tennant.
- Lewis will play Jandice, a woman of many talents. She's a DJ of sick beats, a reiki healer and a certified public accountant. Her life may seem ideal - bouncing from man to man to woman to man - but the reality is far less ideal.
- Bravo will play Nina-Joy, the friend you go to for everything: best massage, best jeans, best oatmeal. She is a lifestyle queen and chicer than all get out. But her tension with Kathryn (Garner) over a breach of confidence threatens to topple the weekend and put tooth marks in her marriage to the husband she adores almost as much as she likes a nice clog boot.
- Del Puerto will play Miguel, who is smack dab in the middle of a midlife crisis and recently separated. He is now expressing his instability through Topshop clothing and very strange life choices.
- Gelman will play George, a guy who is loyal, goofy and infinitely game. He's as obsessed with his best friend Walt (Tennant) as he is with his wife, Nina-Joy, but just under the surface of this affable boom operator simmers some barely repressed rage that can stop any singalong.
- Everett will play Harry, the tough-talking, nature-loving queen of the campsite. She came out as a lesbian at age 3. Her passion for her wife Nan is only beaten by her passion for all other women and an assortment of guns.
ABC's DESIGNATED SURVIVOR
- Nora Zehetner has booked a recurring role on the drama's second season. She's previously had recurring roles on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, NBC's Heroes and IFC's Maron.
- She will play Valeria Poriskova. Intelligent, attractive and formidable, she is officially a cultural attaché at the Russian embassy. However, her real job is spycraft: running Russian intelligence agents on U.S. soil.
