 Joel Silver approached Dohring " out of the blue and said , ' There 's a role , and I 'm making it younger ' " . Dohring read two pages of script featuring Josef , and was interested by the character 's " dark " and " sharp " personality . Dohring had to go through the normal audition process and was not sure if he would have gotten the role without Silver , who had " pushed it all the way through to the end " . Munson explained that the goal of the casting changes was " to lighten the show up a bit " . He believed the changes granted the studio 's and network 's wish to " make it a little younger and hipper " . O 'Laughlin felt that the whole cast 's becoming " a little bit younger " especially effected the character Josef , as the originally chosen actor , Šerbedžija , was twice Jason Dohring 's age . The creators and the network were concerned that Josef , whose relationship with Mick was important , would appear as more of a " father figure " rather than as a friend . O 'Laughlin supported the recasting of Josef with a younger actor due to the resulting " level of ease in that age difference " . 
