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.
Blue Bloods was Marlene Lawston’s Final Screen Appearance
Not Much is Known About Her
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.
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
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.
When it comes down to Marlene Lawston, it could be as simple as she was available when they needed her for the pilot, but she wasn’t a long-term fit or she was no longer available once Blue Bloods was picked up by CBS. This is the most likely explanation as to what happened to her. Conflicting schedules are the most common reason an actor might be replaced or utilized less often, especially in the world of television. For example, Game of Thrones was forced to recast the Night King because of scheduling issues. Since the Blue Bloods pilot was the final project Lawston worked on, it’s entirely plausible that in the time it took CBS to pick up the show, Lawston and/or her parents already decided to walk away from her acting career.
It’s also possible that CBS wasn’t impressed with Lawston’s portrayal of the character, so decided to go forward with a recasting after the pilot episode. This happens often enough to be a trend in television, which often contributes to why pilots so often feel disconnected from the rest of the series. Again, none of this has ever been confirmed, but these are some of the most likely scenarios for why Sami Gayle took over the role after the pilot.
Some Fans Have Speculated CBS Wanted to Change Nicky’s Storyline
Sami Gayle Does Look Slightly Older Than Marlene Lawston
While most fans can ignore how drastically different Nicky is in the pilot episode, some fans are hung up on how different the two actors’ appearances are. It’s hard to pass Sami Gayle’s portrayal of the character off as the same character because they look so shockingly different. Some fans have even pointed out that when Gayle joined the series, she looked slightly older than Marlene Lawston’s version of the character. It’s hard to say whether that was deliberate or not, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it was.
Sometimes, after a show is picked up by a network, the creative team realizes that they want to go in a different direction with a specific character. If the original actor doesn’t fit the shift in characterization, they might be recast. Certain storylines might mean aging a character up or down slightly, which might call for the character to be recast. Some fans speculate that might be a contributing factor to why Sami Gayle replaced Marlene Lawston. As Nicky, Gayle’s introduction in Season 1 made Nicky look slightly older than Lawston’s portrayal. This could be a coincidence, but it’s also possible that this was a deliberate choice so Nicky’s character development could swing into a bit more mature storytelling at a faster rate. Game of Thrones recast Tommen Baratheon for this very reason.
Unfortunately, with such little information available to the public about Marlene Lawston and her decision to quit acting, it’s impossible to say for certain. Aside from Lawston’s IMDb page, there really isn’t much else to go on. Mix that with the fact that CBS and the Blue Bloods team have never publically acknowledged the casting change or why it happened and any potential answer reads the same. Everything is speculation at best. Since Blue Bloods finally concluded in 2024, it’s not likely that the Nicky Reagan recasting will ever be confirmed one way or another.