Call it nepotism, but for Wyle it’s just family fun on ‘Leverage’ reboot
“Leverage: Redemption” has become a family affair for star Noah Wyle.
The IMDb TV reboot, which returns Oct. 8 for the back half of its first season, has cast Wyle’s 15-year-old Auden as his on-screen daughter and his wife, actress Sara Wells, as a golf club employee. The pair will apppear in two separate episodes, just as Wyle’s Harry Wilson is thrust back into the life of his daughter and ex-wife out of desperation.
“(Auden’s) been wanting to do it for years and she’s been in community theater and she’s done school plays. I just thought in the back of my head that if there was ever a part that was manageable and would set her up for success, I would keep an eye out,” Wyle, 50, told the Daily News.
“But I told her I can’t give you the job; it’s not my episode; I’m not even directing. All I can do is get them to take your audition seriously. And she auditioned and to her credit she got it, and even more to her credit, she did a great job.”
In the season’s penultimate episode, “The Muddy Waters Job,” Auden plays Becky Wilson, Harry’s daughter who comes to her father for help after an attempted kidnapping.
One of three offspring to appear in the show (Gina Bellman’s daughter, Romy Sethna, appears in episode 11 and executive producer Dean Devlin’s daughter, Hannah, plays a victim in the sixth episode), Auden’s arc spurs a season-ending con that nearly threatens to tear the “Leverage” team apart. But for Wyle, whose Season 1 arc includes a cheeky “ER” nod, Auden’s role was more of a learning lesson.
“Can you imagine a better life lesson for embarking on this business than not getting the part of your own father’s daughter?” he joked to The News.
“If it goes that way, that will be a wonderful lesson to start her off on the career, because that’s basically what you’re getting yourself ready for.”
While most of Harry’s cases with the Leverage team — a group of former criminals using their skills to take down bigger bad guys — are personal, this one hits closest to home. It’s an attack that involves his entire family.
“It made the storyline extremely emotionally affecting to me,” he said.