Zach Braff quit job after landing Scrubs role
Zach Braff quit his job as soon as he was cast in Scrubs because even though it was only for the pilot episode, he knew he could afford to live off one pay cheque for a year.
Zach Braff quit his job as soon as he was cast in Scrubs.
The 50-year-old actor shot to fame playing Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian in the medical sitcom - which ran from 2001 to 2010 - and although he was initially only hired for the pilot episode, he was happy to quit his steady work as a waiter because after living "frugally" for so long, he knew he could survive on just that one paycheque.
Speaking at the ATX TV Festival, People magazine reports he said: “I got Scrubs after six auditions. I was driving home and I put the Motorola StarTAC on the passenger seat, my phone rang and it was Bill [Lawrence, creator] and he said ‘you got it’ and I was so thrilled and my life was going to change.
“Even if it was just the pilot, my life was changed forever because I was living so frugally."
Zach called him mom, dad, and the manager of the restaurant to tell them he had secured the job - but he was told he still needed to work that evening.
He said: “The manager said 'I am so happy for you, but you have to work tonight.' And I got hammered, and I was the worst waiter ever. I quit the job, and my Mom said, ‘Why did you quit? What if it's just the pilot?'
"I had been living so frugally and said, 'Do you know how long I could live off of the money of this pilot?' Like I had it dialled to live off like $12,000 a year, so from the pilot I was like, 'I'm rich!' "
Zach recently confirmed he will be returning to the role in a Scrubs reboot, with creator Bill Lawrence previously explaining old faces will be joined by new cast members.
He told Deadline: "We've been talking about a lot, and I think the only real reason to do it is a combo.
"A: people wanting to see what the world of medicine was like for the people they love, which is part of any successful reboot. But B: I think that show always worked because you get to see young people dropped into the world of medicine, knowing young people that go there are super idealistic and are doing it because it’s a calling.
"There's no cliché 'rich doctors playing golf' — that's not what it is anymore. So I think that, no matter what it is, it would be a giant mistake not to do as a combo of those two things."
