After making one-off appearances on many other popular television shows over the years like "White Collar," "The Office," and "Psych," Michael Weston got the chance to star as the iconic magician and historical figure Harry Houdini. It happened during the 2016 show "Houdini and Doyle," a historical fiction series following Weston's Houdini and Stephen Mangan's Arthur Conan Doyle as they assist the police in helping solve very obscure cases. Although critics didn't seem to love the show, viewers responded well, giving it an overall fresh audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Weston also revealed to Collider in 2016 that he had very little knowledge of the actual history of the character he was playing, although others around him came out of the woodwork as Houdini fans. "I had a very light working knowledge of Houdini, so I didn't really understand who he was, in terms of the place he held in our history and in our culture. I knew that people say, 'Hey, he pulled a Houdini,' but he held this place in people's hearts. My wife said, 'Oh, my god, I love Houdini!' I've been with her for 10 years, and I had no idea," he said.
He continued that the casting process was also very fast, as he got the part only one week before they started shooting. So, there was a lot to learn.
