#ThrowbackThursday: lunch with ER's Noah Wyle

Way back when working as an agent for actors at the mayer & eden agency, an American agent with whom we already shared an academy award winning client sent us a fax recommending we tune into the new series that was about to launch in the UK called ER… she had a young client in it, Noah Wylie and as well as wanting us to see his work, she rather thought we might also enjoy the latest medical series that had swept across the USA. That was way back in 1994… at that point Dr John Carter, along with Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Doug Ross (George Clooney) became the new heartthrobs for a generation.

Then a fax came saying that in the season hiatus Noah Wyle would be coming over to the UK for a press junket and would we be able to make time to look out for him; maybe take him out, introduce him to a few casting directors…. it was his first trip to England, and his first big break… We must have struggled with this answer for at least a millisecond and that round of casting director calls was the easiest we have ever made. Once we’d started phoning and setting up appointments for him we started actually receiving calls from casting directors who’d heard we were doing so and asking to be included…

.. And then a very pleasant lunch - we decided to take him to the Criterion at Piccadilly, near our Soho offices and a good mix of lovely environment but relaxed… Normally we’d leave our assistant minding the office but as she started doing her Cinderella impression we took pity and for once closed it, bringing her with us. She said very, very little during the meal but as she’s on my timeline now I hope she’s reading this and enjoying the memory as much as I am. He was an absolute delight; young, fresh, wide eyed, grounded, utterly charming and still on the initial wave of shock that this pilot script had come his way at a point he openly admitted he was down to his last few hundred dollars… #throwbackthursday