Why Scott Speedman Almost Said No to Felicity — and How Scott Foley Almost Got His Part

FelicityThe central love triangle almost looked a lot different.

In the beloved series, which ran for four seasons between 1998 and 2002 on The WB, Keri Russell’s Felicity was constantly torn between Ben Scott Speedman and Noel Scott Foley. But, as he explained in the June 25 episode The bell ringerwatch the podcast again Dear FelicitySpeedman almost missed the chance to play a heartthrob whose life was ripped away by Russell’s character.

“I went to theater school in New York and I had a great time in New York, but it was hard for me at school,” explained the Canadian actor (48). “It just wasn’t for me, so I gave up and came back to Toronto.”

Speedman said he was living with his mother when a casting director called to audition Felicity.

Scott Speedman, Keri Russell and Scott Foley in ‘Felicity’ 1998.

Everett

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“I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do the WB stuff,'” Speedman recalled. “I was just at that stage in my life. And then the agent heard that I kind of said no. She got me the script, and I thought it was amazing. I really thought it was amazing, and I knew that the role was kind of— especially for me in life in a way, I immediately felt that kinship.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Speedman said of his initial reluctance. “I was just, you know, in a very tortured part of my life at that point. But honestly, when I read it, it all went away.”

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Also out the window: the show’s producers’ original plan to have Foley play Ben.

“I think they liked this guy better as Ben,” Foley told the crowd in 2018. Felicity reuniting the cast at the ATX festival, pointing towards Speedman. “Nobody could have played Ben Covington better than Scott Speedman.”

Keri Russell and Scott Speedman in ‘Felicity’ 1999.

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On Dear FelicitySpeedman told hosts Juliet Litman and Greg Grunberg — who played Sean Blumberg on the show — that he and Foley never discussed changing actors at the time.

“I don’t remember bringing up the subject,” he said. “I don’t know if I knew it right away, so it’s not something I ever mentioned.”

Speedman also noted that he had never seen the final episodes of the show’s second season before Dear FelicityThe hosts asked him to visit them again for a podcast. “They were crazy to watch for me,” he said. “It was emotional to watch.”

Scott Speedman at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

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“I am 48 years old now. I was 24 years old then. And it’s just fascinating to watch this kid go through all that stuff,” he continued. “My father died the year before … I’m watching this kid trying to figure it all out and going through it, and it’s impossible for me to separate those two things, especially in that season.”

“It was just an interesting time to be – you know, your life was changing in all these slightly crazy ways,” Speedman added. “All these things were really happening in my life, you know, vulnerability and tenderness and rawness and all these things that really come through.”

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Source: HIS Education