Paradise’s twists and turns aren’t just in front of the camera. There have been surprises behind the camera too. Enter, Jon Beavers, the actor who plays Billy Pace, on the Hulu original series. He “shocked” the TV show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, during his Paradise audition.
Jon Beavers ‘nailed’ his audition for Agent Billy Pace
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fogelman reflected on casting Beavers as Billy. The character’s best friends with Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), has a mysterious past, and is secretly dating a co-worker.
“Jon auditioned on tape,” Fogelman, who also created This Is Us, said. “And I also knew that because the character was going to die four episodes in there might be some desire to put maybe a big name in the role as it was a short little arc. But Jon came in and did a chemistry read on tape for me and I really wanted him to get it.” Spoiler: “He nailed it.”
In one of the show’s most shocking moments, Billy died at the end of the Feb. 4, 2025, episode of Paradise titled “Agent Billy Pace,” which took a look at his past.
‘Paradise’ creator Dan Fogelman asked him to act out a big scene of Billy’s
Fogelman “wanted to make it undeniable” that Beavers should play Billy so he asked him to run through the character’s “confrontation” with Sinatra. The one where Billy told Paradise’s overlord if she wanted him dead she’d have to send her “biggest motherf***er” to kill him.
“I said, ‘Take a look at these pages. If you’re not comfortable or it doesn’t go well, I’ll never show anybody this. But I just want to have it in my back pocket just in case,’” Fogelman recalled telling Beavers. “And within five minutes, he knocked on the door. He said, ‘I’m ready.’”
“I was shocked because it was so much material,” the Paradise creator explained, before sharing that Beavers aced it yet again. “He came in and it was unbelievable. I just knew he had the part there. And then I was very sad that we were going to be killing him two scenes later.”
Fogelman didn’t know early in the ‘Paradise’ writing process that Billy would die
Saying goodbye to Billy might’ve been unexpected for viewers but it was also something of a surprise for Fogelman even though he penned the scripts. “When I wrote the pilot, I just sat down and wrote it and didn’t really know exactly what the twists and turns of it were going to be,” the Paradise creator explained.
Soon Fogelman grew fond of Billy and Beavers. “I actually found myself really quickly falling in love with both the character and the actor,” he said. Eventually, though, he realized “that the most unexpected thing would be to kill him in the way we were going to.”
Billy died when his girlfriend and fellow Secret Service agent Jane, played by Nicole Brydon, poisoned his drink. As he took his final breaths Jane told Billy that she’s Sinatra’s “biggest motherf***er.”
“It would be a real shock because if I can make the audience fall in love with him in that episode,” Fogelman added, “they wouldn’t feel it coming. But I really fell in love with the actor.”
Watch Paradise on Hulu. A new episode begins streaming every Tuesday.
