I'm interested in how small the world really is, and this notion that what happens in one place affects someone else.

The depth of talent in Israel is just spectacular. I was very excited by it because when you cast in LA, you tend to see a lot of the same faces on lists for various parts.

The ability to be writing towards something that was actually going to be a whole series was a really big lure.

All you have to do is do a little bit of research and a floodgate of material comes your way.

Now, the relationship the storyteller has with the audience is a much higher quality relationship. You treat them with a lot more intelligence because the truth is that it's not my fault if you don't know what's going on. There are plenty of ways for you to find out. You can talk to all kinds of people, and you've got access to all this information. The onus is no longer on us, as a storyteller, to tell you. You can go out and find out yourself.

That's the fun thing of casting a show. I'm a pretty strong believer that TV makes stars, not the other way around. I love the idea of having a cast where people don't associate them with too much baggage, so there's a certain amount of transparency between the character they're playing and the audience.

With the casting in Israel, sometimes there were four or five people, that you could just flip a coin and choose from, that would have been all terrific. And seeing all of these fabulous faces that the American audiences are just not used to seeing is really exciting.