One of HBO’s Watchmen highlights was the performance of Jean Smart. With that being said, the actor has revealed that the role could have looked quite different. Jean Smart has revealed that she got the part of Laurie Blake, a.k.a. Silk Spectre, on the Watchmen HBO series after Sigourney Weaver passed on the project. Smart revealed the bombshell in an interview with Variety about her experience with HBO Max’s series Hacks. Smart stated,
They hired me two days before I started. I’ll be really honest: I had Sigourney Weaver to thank for turning down the role. So, thank you, Sigourney. I knew nothing about the graphic novel. I started reading the pilot, and I said, ‘Oh, my God, this is amazing.’ I’d never really done that science-fiction genre, and the fact that Damon was able to use that tragic part of our history that almost no one knew about — that was what was so shocking, that I had never heard of the Tulsa massacre. That’s why I think he said no when I asked him to do a second season because I think he put everything into that.”
Watchmen was created by Damon Lindelof and was acclaimed by both the public and critics, receiving 11 from the 26 Emmy Awards it was nominated for.
