Scarpetta is a new dark, star-studded crime thriller many will be binge-watching in 2026. The first season of the show, based on a bestselling series of crime novels from “queen of crime” Patricia Cornwell, drops on Amazon in March, but it has already been greenlit for a second season. With 29 books in the series, it has the potential to run and run.
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Scarpetta is the story of Dr. Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman), a brilliant but troubled forensic pathologist investigating a serial killer while dealing with issues from her past. Told from two perspectives, the show follows her in the present day and back in the 1990s, when she was starting her career. Can the good doctor deal with her past while also finding the killer terrorising her hometown? In addition to Kidman, Scarpetta has a seriously great cast with Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, and Ariana DeBose all on the call sheet. Plus, the showrunner is Elizabeth Sarnoff, a powerhouse writer-producer with experience on hits such as Lost, Deadwood, The Leftovers, and Barry.
Scarpetta’s casting director is John Papsidera, whose credits also include The Odyssey (2026), Superman (2025), and Oppenheimer (2023). Clearly this is a guy you want to impress.
Talking to Backstage, he revealed what he looks for in an actor. “I think confidence is one of the biggest things,” he says. “It’s infectious if an actor walks in with confidence and belief in themselves – and not cockiness and not hubris, but belief in what they’re bringing into the room. It’s contagious to directors and producers.”
Making active choices and an ability to make a role uniquely their own are two other qualities Papsidera admires in auditioning actors. “You’ll see a lot of people come in and the readings are fine, but they’re not individualised,” he says. “They read the words on the page and it sounds right, but it’s the person [who] comes in and makes a choice that is incredibly specific to them that then you remember those things and go, I didn’t think of it being played that way, or I didn’t know that that was what it could be. And those are truly gifted people [who] take their craft into a different realm than just anybody [who] can read lines.”
It’s unlikely that Kidman, Curtis, and company were expected to self-tape for Scarpetta, but they will have faced their fair share of trial-by-audition back in the day, just like any jobbing actor. In a 2020 interview, Kidman told Backstage the advice she would give her younger self: “Do everything you can to get a role, and then if it doesn’t come your way, it wasn’t meant to be yours. As soon as you learn that, you just breathe and you’re along for the journey. And then rejection doesn’t hurt as much because it just wasn’t meant for you. Your path is your path. It’s going to be very individual. I would say, ‘Don’t ever try to conform,’ because conforming is not being true to who your artistic self is. Every time I’ve tried to conform, it’s been a disaster.”
Acting jobs rarely land in your lap – especially at the beginning of your journey as an actor. Instead of waiting for the dream opportunity, check out our below guides and get your materials in order.
- How to Write and Format Your Acting CV
- How to Make a Show Reel That Gets You Gigs
- Your Acting Headshot Checklist
- How to Audition: A Guide for Actors
- 11 Contemporary Monologues for Your Next Audition
- How to Introduce Yourself in an Audition