Creation and Development
According to series creator Aaron Sorkin, Schiff was cast in the role of Toby Ziegler over many other actors auditioning, including Eugene Levy. Schiff created his own backstory for the character by wearing his own wedding ring, something Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme did not notice until the show's eighth episode, while planning to give Toby an ex-wife. "I had always imagined that his first wife had died, which accounts for his sadness, and why someone would devote himself to public service and be so singular about it," says Schiff. "But then, Aaron and Tommy threw that right out the window." Richard Schiff claimed during an interview on Britain's BBC News 24 that the character had been heavily based upon the Scots-American political advisor Patrick Cohen who was prominent in Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign and is viewed as one of the key architects of New Labour.
Read more about this topic: Toby Ziegler
Famous quotes containing the words creation and/or development:
“Like witches they flew along rows
Keeping creation at ease;
With a tendril for needle
They sewed up the air with a stem;”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)
“There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.”
—John Emerich Edward Dalberg, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902)