Actors fall into jobs in a slew of different ways. Back in the days before fax machines and well before social media, Beverly Hills, 90210 actor Ian Ziering landed the gig thanks to some luck and some brazen behavior. In fact, he recently revealed he actually stole a bunch of 90210 scripts in order to give himself an edge and secure a role. Here's the funny story:
This was before fax machines or anything like that. I had to go into New York City to pick up the script. I needed to prepare for my audition the following day. And when I got up to the casting office there was a pile of scripts, but no one there. Just a sign that said, 'Take a script and sign in.' And I wrote the name 'Ben Dover' and took all the scripts.
I'm sure Ian Ziering isn't the first or last actor to take advantage of a time when a bunch of scripts for a TV show were lying around. However, it's sort of amazing that the trick actually helped him to prepare to play Steve Sanders and probably even gave him a leg up on the competition. Somewhere out there, there is probably a casting director who was pretty annoyed the day that a whole bunch of scripts for auditions went missing, but considering how well Ziering fit into that particular role, we hope he or she is not mad upon hearing this story. It all worked out!
Ian Ziering is not above defending his Hollywood thievery, however. He told Us Weekly that it was all in a days work, and that any of his fellow acting buddies would have done the same thing in his position:
Also I needed a job! It's a very competitive industry and I think they hired the right Steve Sanders.
In terms of TV gigs, Beverly Hills, 90210 was really the right show to steal a script from. The drama lasted for 10 seasons on network TV---which was and is still a really long time to air. It's still a cultural phenomenon, and Lifetime even made a TV movie about the casts. If he was trying for any other drama or sitcom it probably wouldn't have worked out so fortuitously. It was an especially good gig for Ian Ziering, as he became one of the few actors to stick with the drama for its entire run, along with Jennie Garth, Brian Austin Green and Tori Spelling. The actor had an impressive arc that featured him as a young rich teen and saw him grow into an adult with a family and priorities. Not a bad TV gig, at all.
In fact, it's the job that Ian Ziering is most known for. He's also more recently been known for appearing in all of the Sharknado films on Syfy. (If you haven't seen the actor recently, he looks totally different.) Some actors never get their big breaks on TV shows, and considering how popular the show was, TV audiences are probably better off thanks to the actor stealing the scripts.
