Several people were interviewed for the part, including Tom Jones, Robert Goulet, and Jerry Vale. Meanwhile, Behr and a friend attended a memorabilia show at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood, where James Darren was signing autographs. Darren had not wanted to attend the event, but had been convinced otherwise. Behr thought he was so charming that he wanted to talk to him about the role on the spot, but his friend talked him out of it as he was worried that Darren would think he was insane. Surma got in touch with Darren at Behr's prompting. Darren initially rejected the role three times, thinking that a real singer playing a role as a singer, is too "on the nose". Darren's agent eventually convinced him to actually read the script. He loved playing the character while reading it ten times to absorb the personality enough to avoid having to memorize lines. He later called it a "dream come true".