Ben Savage recently appeared on two major television shows and it wasn’t a coincidence.
Savage first played a young Mandy Patinkin on “Criminal Minds” before two months later filling in for the actor again on “Homeland”.
“Homeland” co-creator/executive producer Alex Gansa told TVLine that they went through different methods to portray Patinkin in the flashbacks.
“There was some talk of trying to make Mandy (who is 67 in real life) look like he was in his late 20s,” Gansa said. “But we did some tests and it just wasn’t believable.”
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They looked at using Patinkin’s sons, both who are not actors, to step in when someone on the team remembered Savage on “Criminal Minds”.
“I think it was Judy Henderson, our casting director, who was aware of that,” Gansa continued. “And when Ben came in to read, the resemblance is so strong it felt like the smart thing to do. He just bears such an uncanny resemblance to Mandy.”
Yet as Patinkin has a very distinguished voice, his voice was dubbed over Savage for the final effect.
The series finale of “Homeland” airs this Sunday, April 26 at 9 p.m ET.
