FX’s ‘The Patient’ Creators on Why Non-Jewish Actor Steve Carell Plays a Jewish Character
Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterFor “The Americans” masterminds Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg’s latest series at FX, the duo decided to make one of the main characters Jewish — but have him played by Steve Carell, who is not Jewish.Amid an increase in scrutiny of casting choices like this made for film and TV projects, the producers explained their personal reasoning for the move to reporters during a virtual panel for “The Patient” at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Tuesday.“When we came up with the original idea, the character wasn’t originally Jewish,” Weisberg said. “And then you start, as you always do, looking for ways to add specificity and depth. And we came up with that idea pretty quickly.