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Scrubs and Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence has defended casting his daughter Charlotte Lawrence in his new crime comedy series Bad Monkey, saying she acknowledges the advantages she’s had and that she won the part after auditioning against other actors.
Charlotte, 24, is the daughter of Lawrence and Cougar Town actor Christa Miller.
Speaking to The Independent, Lawrence pointed out that his daughter has built a career as a singer-songwriter despite the fact that “my wife and I have no connections in the music industry. Neither one of us can carry a tune.”
He continued: “My daughter made her way in that business on her own. She was so adept at doing ‘nepo baby’ interviews. I would give it to other young actors and actresses to follow the blueprint because she was like: ‘Oh, I get in rooms that other people wouldn’t have gotten in. I get mentors they wouldn’t, and I’m so grateful.’ I’ve watched her acknowledge it, and then I got to be selfish and say: ‘I’ve got to be in Florida. It’d be nice to have my daughter there for three weeks.’”
Bad Monkey is an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s cult bestseller, and stars Vince Vaughn as a former detective turned food inspector investigating the mysterious appearance of a severed arm. Charlotte makes her television debut as Caitlin Stripling, who believes her stepmother Eve (Search Party’s Meredith Hagner) is acting suspiciously after the death of her father.
Lawrence says she won the part through a traditional audition process. “I didn’t consider her for it,” he says. “All of her friends, because of where she lives and who she is, were auditioning for it. One after another, they’d come in and say: ‘Charlotte says hi!’ Then the team said: ‘Oh, this audition came in. It’s pretty good.’ I watched it and it was her. At first, I was annoyed, but then I was super excited about it.”
He added: “I’ll tell you, the amount of times that I’m on a show and people are like: ‘Hey, Bill, your show could use somebody under the age of 25, who has a million Instagram followers and can reach a different audience than your shows generally do.’ And the straight, selfish business person in me is going: ‘My daughter, my daughter, my daughter.’
“I’m really proud of her, man. As long as people acknowledge this, I would think it would be criminal for me not to want to spend time with and work with her. She’s a rock star. She’s awesome.”
Lawrence recalled going to see his daughter perform in concert earlier this year: “I took the whole family to see her play Radio City Music Hall two months ago. I wear her merch, a Charlotte Lawrence sweatshirt, and I cry when she sings… It took me a while to realize that not everyone knows I’m her dad. They just think I’m a weird 55-year-old that knows all the words to her songs! A huge space would form around me and people were getting nervous, and I was, nah it’s cool!”
Bad Monkey is on Apple TV+ from August 14.
