Walter Bishop (Fringe) - Development

Development

Australian actor John Noble was cast in January 2008 as "an institutionalized scientist whose work might be at the center of the coming storm". At the time, he was a relatively unknown actor best known to audiences as Denethor in the 2003 film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Noble became aware of the Fringe casting call from his daughter, actress Samantha Noble. He explained, "She was in L.A. She said, 'Dad'—she rang me—'Dad, there's a role that's made for you. I've heard it, everyone's talking about it. J.J. Abrams.' So I rang my manager, and I said, 'Well, this role.' And they said, 'No, no, no, it's not for you, you're too young for it.' I said, 'Oh, okay, glad I asked.' So I went back to Australia and we were back there over the Christmas break, and she was there as well. I got a phone call", asking him to tape his audition. He taped it with his daughter and sent it; Noble commented "And that was it, off that tape. This is so unusual. Off that tape, I was cast as Walter Bishop. Just unheard of."

"I think at my better moments, there is a lot of me in Walter -- I hope not including his mental illness -- but in the strange sense of humor and the general interest in things."

Noble has closely worked with the Fringe writers to develop his character's traits, in particular those that relate to Walter's madness. He explained, I did my own research into those rare breed, the geniuses, and it's not that they are anti-social — they simply have no social skills. It misses the point, in a way, to think any other way about it. I also studied the people who have been subjected to a lot of drug use — prescription and otherwise, the psychotropic drugs and so forth — and what happens in mental institutions. Walter would have been subjected to electroshock therapy, so that was something I looked into, what the short- and long-term effects might be. I made all of that part of Walter." For his character's accent, the Australian actor developed a Mid-Atlantic English dialect, which Noble described as "sort of a Boston accent, but tempered with a bit of fake English, from years of flying around to conferences and talking to other academics from all over the world." In his research, Noble noticed many prominent scientists had "complicated and interesting relationships" with music, causing him to create a similar bond between it and his character.

In a November 2008 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jeff Pinkner has called the character of Walter "incredibly fun to write for because he can say and do anything, which is a blast for a writer. He's incredibly brilliant and he's forgotten just how brilliant he is. He's scared of his own shadow, and he's scared of the things he's done in the past, and he's incredibly childlike." Pinkner continued that he, the other writers, and Noble himself have striven to focus on Walter's humanity, " plays it from a believable place and doesn't play him from a goofball, cuddly cute place. That's our prime directive: Keep it real and honest."