28. June 2026

Hollywood Heartbreak

In 1992 someone at Seattle Children’s Theatre, where I was taking acting classes, told me they mentioned me to a casting director who called them looking for a kid to fill the role of Jonah (the son) in Sleepless in Seattle.

The casting director was going to give me a call the next morning at 7am. I remember going downstairs to tell my mom all about it and her saying how it was all happening so fast. I’d only auditioned for one thing in my life at that point, SCT’s Young Actor Training Program. I got in.

The next morning I got up at 6:45am to take a shower and just after putting shampoo in my hair my mom knocks on the door.

“It’s the casting director.”

I rinsed for what must have .5 seconds, shut off the shower and wrapped myself in a towel, sudsy, I made my way to the phone. My nerves were kicking in, I was going to nail this call!

I picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I said.

“Is this Jeremy?” The casting director asked.

“Yes!”

“Oh, I’m afraid your voice is just too low for the role.”

And that was it. My first shot at the movies and I lost it with one word. They ended up casting a kid half my age for the role.

I don’t remember if I was heart broken or not but to this day I love telling people about it.