Actress Diane Farr Weighs in on 'The Night Agent' Character Having Her Name

The Night Agent introduced viewers to fictional White House Chief of Staff Diane Farr, played by Hong Chau. The character's name should sound familiar, as the real-life Diane Farr is a star on CBS' hit Fire Country. Farr believes author Matthew Quirk may have been inspired to use her name because she worked on another CBS hit procedural, Numb3rs. Showrunner Shawn Ryan even said Farr auditioned to play her fictional counterpart!

The Night Agent is Netflix's latest hit drama, and stars Gabriel Basso as FBI agent Peter Sutherland, who works at the White House as a night telephone operator. It is based on Quirk's novel, which was published in 2019, about 10 years after Farr finished her four-season run on Numb3rs as FBI behavioral specialist Megan Reeves. In an interview with TVLine, Farr endorsed her name appearing in The Night Agent.

"The name 'Diane Farr' does not tell you anything about a character. It's not a regional name. It has no nationality. It has no culture," Farr explained. "The only thing it said to me was that I played an FBI agent for three years, and then [Quirk] wrote a story about FBI agents and didn't use my character name (Megan Reeves) but used my real name."

However, Quirk told TVLine it was a complete coincidence, adding that the character's last name was originally Carruthers in the first draft. "I believe I changed the last name later to have something that was shorter and sounded cooler, and to avoid it being similar to some other characters' surnames," Quirk said. He also did not know Farr by name, but he recognized her when people told him about her.

When the casting call went out for The Night Agent, Farr's colleagues told her she needed to audition for the part. "I heard about it from every person in the business," she told TVLine. "First when they were auditioning, everyone called me like, 'I'm so sorry, I just got an audition for a part that was clearly written for you.' And I was like, 'It was not written for me. They just took my name. Go, have a good time!'"

In March, Ryan, who also created The Shield and works on CBS' S.W.A.T., told Deadline that Farr really did audition for the part. "I was like, it's tough to tell Diane Farr she can't play Diane Farr. I felt really bad because she's a really great actress and gave a really good audition," Ryna explained. "Ultimately, we settled on Hong to play it but I did a double take when I saw the audition thing, it was a double Diane Farr."

Farr isn't too upset to have an Oscar nominee playing a character who shares her name. "Hong Chau is amazing," Farr said of The Whale star. "She's the saving grace in all of this!"

Farr now stars as Sharone Leone, the onscreen wife of Billy Burke's Vince on CBS' Fire Country. That series was renewed for a second season, as was The Night Agent. Fire Country is streaming on Paramount+, while The Night Agent can be found on Netflix.