All My Children has launched a nationwide search for an Iraq war veteran who will partake in a newly created romantic storyline that promises to shed light into the challenges faced by a soldier after combat.

According to executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers, All My Children is inviting veterans to contact the program's New York casting director.  The show is also working with U.S.A. Cares, a nonprofit group that provides financial and other support to wounded soldiers and their families, and has sought help from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"It will make it such a heightened experience for the audience and for us ... to cast a real-life soldier, a veteran, and bring him into our created drama," Carruthers said.

The open casting call is looking to cast the role of Brot, an injured veteran and a significant character in a plot that's already under way.  When Army Lt. Taylor Thompson (Beth Ehlers) pays a visit to Pine Valley to deliver service medals to Dr. Frankie Hubbard (Cornelius Smith Jr.), she finds out Brot, the lover she believes died in combat, is alive and the couple reunites.  Along the way, they reveal their individual back stories.

Meanwhile, an ABC spokesman reveals that the casting call isn't limited to those who were wounded in the war.  On the other hand, the role will revolve around a veteran's experience, possibly including a war-caused disability.

"It's a very delicate subject to begin with.  There's so much about the individual person that's going to help us create the character, and whatever they bring and whatever their challenge is will be fit into the story," Carruthers explained.

"The audience embraces it because they relate to the people involved, who they care about," she added, allowing viewers to "surpass personal biases."


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Associated Press
(Image courtesy of ABC)