Geena Davis has exited her starring role in an CBS legal drama pilot in the middle of filming. Making her theatrical debut as a young soap opera actress in the iconic 1982 film, Tootsi, Davis quickly kicked off an incredible career, scoring two Academy Award nominations for acting, and winning for her ing role in The Accidental Tourist. The actress' previous television appearance was in 2019, starring as a recurring character in the third season of GLOW, a fictionalized Netflix comedy-drama series about the syndicated women's professional wrestling circuit of the 1980s.
Davis was set to star as Joan in the CBS series, a successful attorney who is working through the emotional turmoil of a recent divorce. She employs her son Todd, played by Skylar Astin of the Pitch Perfect film series fame, to work as an in-house investigator. The two clash at work and home due to their opposing personalities.
Now, Deadline reports that Davis has left the untitled CBS legal drama while in mid-production. After a table read and a few days of shooting, Davis departed the pilot, leaving the series in limbo until a replacement can be secured. Early reports indicate that Academy Award-winner, Marcia Gay Harden, is in talks to replace Davis. This would mark Harden's return to the network after playing Dr. Leanne Rorish in the emergency room medical drama series, Code Black. No specifics have been given as to why Davis decided to leave the show.
Although rapid cast changes can seem abrupt, figuring out if an actor is right for a certain role is paramount for the success of the project. A television pilot is a standalone episode that serves as both a test and marketing tool to sell a project to a network. Although auditions and chemistry tests occur before actors are cast, showrunners and producers will get their first clear picture of their show in the pilot episode. Sometimes shows are greenlit on premise, but changes are made before a season is bought, as was the case when John Posey was replaced by Bob Saget after the pilot episode of Full House.
Throughout television history, pilots have been used to iron out the kinks in a show's cast to perfect the series going forward. The Game of Thrones pilot was famously rewritten and reshot with multiple actors before nailing the first episode of the smash hit HBO series. It's hard to imagine anyone but Emilia Clarke as the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen, but The Tudors' Tamzin Merchant first starred as the silver-haired queen in the series' pilot. Rebecca Gayheart was actually cast as companion Inara Serra in the pilot of the short-lived cult classic Firefly, but was fired after only one day of filming to be subsequently replaced by the incomparable Morena Baccarin. Even changes to feature films happen quickly, as was the case with Eric Stoltz's Marty McFly in Back to the Future, who was replaced by Michael J. Fox early in production. Although Geena Davis is an enormous talent who has treated audiences to amazing performances on both the big and small screen, some roles may not be a good fit for certain actors. Marcia Gay Harden would be a more than welcomed replacement, a venerable actress who has proven her merit time and time again.
Source: Deadline