This is a headgum original.

Okay, I'm going to start out by telling you the ending first.

In 2021, I was cast in a by telling you the ending first.

In 2021, I was cast in a small speaking role

on NBC's The Blacklist.

At the time, I had never seen a single episode of the show.

All I knew about it was that it stars James

Spader and that he wears a hat. So to prepare for my episode I decided to watch

all of it and if you've ever binge watched nearly eight full seasons of a network TV drama, it's an intense experience.

In this case, it's a pretty dark show, with an almost disorienting number of twists and turns along the way.

But I think my watch-through was probably a little different from anyone else's, because as I watched it, every now and then I'd recognize snippets of

dialogue or a senior character would seem a little too familiar and then it would

dawn on me it was a role I'd been up for.

Eventually I went back and searched through my old emails for blacklist auditions

and confirmed that I had auditioned for the show six times for six different characters and I was

rejected six times. The blacklist is at its core a show about a list. Criminal mastermind, ruthless

killer, and Jolly Rockontor Raymond Reddington has a roladex of international criminals who are so good

at what they do.

The FBI has no idea that they even exist.

He cuts a secret deal to deliver them all to justice for reasons that are so complicated

they are still unpacking them after over 150 hours of television. And now watching the show for the first time, I began making a

list of my own, six actors who were so good at what they do that they had been cast in roles instead of me.

...