
Evan Roe was a Life Scout when Madam Secretary tapped him to join the family. Producers of the CBS drama wanted to cast Evan as Jason McCord, son of the title character played by Téa Leoni.
Slight problem, though. The show films in New York, so accepting the job would require Evan to leave San Diego and Troop 750 behind.
Rather than making a choice between Scouting and stardom, Evan chose option C: all of the above.
Lacking only his Eagle Scout service project, Evan planned it from afar. He identified a project site, recruited volunteers and crafted a plan — all three time zones away. When he needed materials from the hardware store near his project site, he sent his dad, Chris, who was still out west.
Evan flew to San Diego to complete the actual project: constructing a shade structure at Batiquitos Lagoon. All that planning paid off; Evan and his volunteers finished in half the time budgeted.
Back in New York at board of review time, Evan completed this final step by Skype — which is a BSA-approved practice as long as the council gives the OK.
“I think Scouting is a more flexible program than a lot of people realize,” Evan says. “I was a Life Scout, and I’d worked on it for seven years. I was so close to the finish line; it seemed pointless to give up.”
Watch: Evan Roe talks Scouting, showbiz
Eagles’ Call magazine traveled to New York City in November to meet Evan Roe. He gave us a tour of the set, let us watch a scene being filmed and spent a morning chatting with us at Central Park.
He told us that being a member of a patrol is a lot like being a member of a TV cast.
“You can’t survive in Scouting without cooperation, and you can’t survive in acting without cooperation,” he says.
Watch the video below.
Read: Evan Roe in Eagles’ Call
Read the rest of our story about Evan Roe in the Spring 2017 issue of Eagles’ Call, the official magazine of the National Eagle Scout Association.
Each quarterly issue spotlights Eagle Scouts using skills they learned in Scouting to do interesting things in life.
The magazine is available to anyone — not just Eagles. Use promo code EGCBLG17 to save 50 percent on your subscription.
See: Behind-the-scenes photos
Here, some scenes from our visit to the set of Madam Secretary, the CBS drama that airs Sundays at 9/8c.









Photos by W. Garth Dowling.