Regarding television, it’s never really a surprise when a character gets recast. Plenty of shows, even some of the biggest and most successful series on TV, face this struggle. Sometimes an actor’s personal schedule conflicts with filming and sometimes controversy pushes certain actors out of the limelight. There are plenty of reasons a character, even a long-established and popular character, may be recast mid-series. Blue Bloods is no different and still fell prey to having to recast a character after only a single appearance.
Blue Bloods, a beloved police procedural drama series, is not a stranger to replacing actors or actors departing from the series. Marlene Lawston originally portrayed Nicky Reagan in the Blue Bloods pilot. Lawston only appeared in Season 1, Episode 1, though. After the pilot, the character was taken over by Sami Gayle, who portrayed Nicky for the rest of the show’s impressive 14 seasons.
Since Sami Gayle has portrayed Nicky Reagan since Season 1, Episode 4 – “Officer Down,” plenty of fans may not remember that she wasn’t Nicky’s original face. In Nicky’s very first appearance in the Blue Bloods pilot, Marlene Lawston played assistant district attorney Erin Reagan’s daughter. Lawston and Gayle look nothing alike, which is the one glaring difference between the two actresses, but it’s easy to overlook if viewers haven’t seen the pilot in a while.
Blue Bloods’ pilot episode was the final on-screen appearance for Marlene Lawstone. Before Blue Bloods, she appeared in a couple of television shows and films, including Blue’s Clues (1996-2007) and Flightplan (2005). In total, the young actress appeared in five projects before she vanished from the big and small screen.
CBS chose to cancel Blue Bloods after 14 seasons, but the decision is even more confusing after it announced Donnie Wahlberg’s new show.
Marlene Lawston’s career as a child actor granted her a few notable jobs, but nothing seemed to stick. After appearing as Nicky in the Blue Bloods pilot, she never starred in another television show or movie again. Since Lawston was so young when she stopped acting, the public doesn’t have a lot of information about her. There isn’t really an official reason on record as to why she stopped acting. Maybe Lawston didn’t enjoy the stress of child acting or perhaps her parents pulled her out? It’s hard to say.
CBS Has Never Offered a Concrete Reason for Nicky’s Recast
Nor Has Anyone Working On Blue Bloods
Blue Bloods’ Nicky Reagan smiles in a red coat sitting down
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to the question, “Why was Nicky Reagan replaced?” CBS has never commented on the reason they replaced Nicky Reagan’s actress. Likewise, everyone else close to the situation also never reported a reason, so the truth behind Lawston leaving the show and being recast has never been confirmed. All fans have is speculation and, unfortunately, that’s not likely to change. After so many years have passed, it’s unlikely we’ll ever have a solid answer to the question.
The most likely reason boils down to standard casting procedures. Lawston played Nicky in the pilot episode and TV pilots, more or less, act like a proof of concept. A pilot is basically a sales pitch to prove the premise of a show has enough meat on the bones to intrigue an audience. Pilot episodes are usually filmed long before the rest of the first season because they’re used as part of the initial pitch. Once a series is picked up by a network, the rest of the season will be filmed with a higher budget and potential changes.
Because of that, pilots are often lower budget than the rest of the series and are more prone to mistakes, temporary solutions, or actors they could easily pick up on short notice. Most pilots cast actors intending to keep them, but it doesn’t always work out that way. This is often the moment when the network interjects to change things as well. While they may love the show overall, there might be things they disagree with and want to have changed during the Season 1 filming. This could include anything from creative decisions to script changes to swapping out pilot actors for someone else.
