How ‘The Paper’ Landed a Surprising Guest-Star Cameo

[This story contains spoilers for episode five of The Paper, “Scam Alert.”]

The fifth episode of The Paper features an out-of-left-field guest appearance by a very well-known actor playing himself — more or less.

Josh Holloway (Lost, Yellowstone, Duster) appears in the episode, titled “Scam Alert.” The Toledo Truth-Teller digs into a catfishing scam that’s been targeting residents of the city, and it turns out the scammer is using Holloway’s likeness — and even paying him to make videos through Cameo — to bilk the victims. The catfisher poses as a soldier stationed in Germany who needs money to help buy a ticket home for Thanksgiving, escalating things from there.

As Truth-Teller editor Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) is laying out the details of the scam in a meeting, Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore) silently leaves the room and closes her office door. The staff quickly realizes she’s a victim too — much to the delight of Nicole (Ramona Young), whom Esmeralda has repeatedly insulted. When Ned confronts her (hoping to get her first-person perspective into a story), though, she doubles down and insists that the person she’s communicating with, “Jarson,” is real and really loves her.

To prove it, Esmeralda shows the office a picture of Jarson, whom everyone else immediately recognizes as Holloway — “Sawyer from Lost, Roarke from Yellowstone,” Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) notes. Holloway-as-Jarson then sends her a video message, referring to himself in the third person and other sketchy business that reads “scam” to everyone but her.

So — why Josh Holloway? The Paper creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman and casting director Leslie Woo told The Hollywood Reporter that in writing the episode, they discussed several possibilities for the catfisher’s avatar. “We tried to figure out, ‘Well, if it’s this person, this is the story. If it’s that person, we could use that as their background,’” Daniels recalled.

Woo said Holloway’s name rose to the top of the list fairly quickly. “We had to cast an extremely attractive actor who is so well-known globally that it would be shocking for one of our other characters to not know who he was,” she said. “Almost immediately after we sent over the pages for his consideration, he enthusiastically responded. He was on set a few days later.”

Holloway (as himself, this time) also records a Cameo video for Nicole in the episode, explaining to Esmeralda that he is not, in fact, Jarson. “I don’t know how our wires got crossed,” he says. “I just say what they tell me to say on here. We’re not in love. I’m in love with my wife, Yessica. Mahalo!” The story closes with Esmeralda watching a Lost episode where Sawyer takes a beating.

“It worked really well for a variety of reasons,” said Koman. “Part of it is just the way he looks, and he has a very nice, friendly quality that I could see him talking on a Cameo very sincerely. And he had this show where there’s footage of him having the shit kicked out of him that Esmeralda would enjoy watching at the end of the episode.”