‘Lethal Weapon’: Johnathan Fernandez On How He Got The Role Of Scorsese

Johnathan Fernandez landed the role of Scorsese on Fox’s “Lethal Weapon” just two days after submitting his first audition tape.

In a recent interview with Monsters and Critics, Fernandez revealed that he sent a self-tape to the show’s casting director on a Tuesday and ultimately booked the role on Thursday.

“I did … a self-tape [on Tuesday], and at that time I didn’t know what the [show’s] status was,” Fernandez recalled of the first step he did for his audition for the buddy cop series. “I didn’t read the script, I didn’t know what it was really about or what they were doing in terms of the movie. All I knew was [Scorsese] is … a medical examiner within Los Angeles. There were a couple good gags in the pilot and I had some fun with it. What I do for every approach to any scene of any kind of character, is to just have fun.”

The casting director liked Fernandez’s first tape and asked him to submit a second tape. “She didn’t say it in so many words, but was insinuating that it was already down to the wire and it was between me and one other dude,” Fernandez said of what the casting director told him over the phone. “And it just happened … it wasn’t even fully 24 hours yet. I ended up giving them like 10 tapes. It was two scenes. I did five takes for each scene doing like… ‘Hey, this is if Scorsese loves his job, this is if he hates his job, so this is just like a run-of-the-mill procedural, this is if he’s a goofball, this is if,’ whatever the other difference was and I was improvising various things at the end.”

Fernandez sent the second set of tapes on Wednesday, and then on Thursday night, he got a phone call from the producers, telling that he got the job. “They really like me and they wanted to book me,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez told TheCelebrityCafe.com last February that he thinks that he “serendipitously” ended up getting the gig because of his comedic strengths. “When I auditioned for the part I think I showed them that I could make the role funnier than they intended it to be,” he told the website.

In Season 2, episode 8, Scorsese’s real name was finally revealed to be Bernard. While that’s a huge development for the character, Fernandez said that there’s more to uncover about Scorsese. “I think people just thoughtfully want to know, ‘How did he become a medical examiner?” Fernandez told Monsters and Critics of what else fans would like to know about Scorsese. “If film is such a passion of him and he went to film school, how did he take another 90 degree turn into a completely different direction?”

Would you like to know more about Scorsese’s backstory on “Lethal Weapon”? Sound off in the comments section below!

“Lethal Weapon” Season 2 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.