Brandon Micheal Hall went through a thorough audition process before getting the role of Courtney Rose on ABC’s “The Mayor.”

In a recent interview with Town and Country magazine, Hall shared that he was actually in New Jersey when he first heard about the Jeremy Bronson-created series. “I was working on a project called ‘Lez Bomb’ at the time in New Jersey, and so I came to New York to make an [audition] tape for it,” Hall said. “I taped that first time, and then my agents got a message saying they really liked my tape but they had a few notes for me. I was thinking, ‘Oh, just a couple of notes.’ Well, it wound up being a page and a half worth of notes like, ‘Change everything you did for the audition.’ I went back and re-taped, then I did a Skype test, and finally I went to Los Angeles and landed the pilot the week after that.”

As for how he reacted after finding out that he was cast in the lead role, Hall revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he literally ran across New York because of too much joy.

“I’m down on 14th and 8th Avenue, down at the MatchaBar [working on a script with my writing partner when I learned the great news],” Hall recalled. “I tell you, I ran from 8th Avenue all the way down to Union Square and back. [My writing partner] just remembered watching me taking off, me just flying down the street. Everyone in New York was like, ‘Who is this crazy little black kid running down the street? What is happening in his life?’ I was just so exuberant.”

On “The Mayor,” Hall’s aspiring rapper Courtney unexpectedly becomes the new mayor of Fort Grey after deciding to join the election for the sole purpose of promoting his mixtape.

“What makes the part special is that we’re not only talking about political ideas, but also talking about what we can do to uplift and bring our community together,” Hall said of why he auditioned for the role. “Courtney is an aspiring rapper, and since rap is rooted in politics and in change, when I saw that I got to rap for this show, I knew this was something that was up my alley. It also means a lot that I can influence people not only through the story but also through the music created for the show.”

The role of music on the show is also one of the things that made “Hamilton” alum Daveed Diggs sign on as executive producer on the series. Being a hip-hop artist himself, Diggs told Entertainment Weekly last June that the show’s premise appealed to his “rap nerd instincts.” Diggs composes original raps for each episode of the show and Hall performs all the songs himself.

“The Mayor” airs every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. EDT on ABC.

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