Creation and casting turned down the role. After
Naomi (
Marsha Thomason) parachuted onto the island in
season three, the producers began to plan who else would be on the freighter she came from. They wanted these new characters to be scientists, who would be interested in finding the island for their own personal reasons. The role was originally offered to
Kristen Bell, however she chose to join
Heroes as
Elle Bishop instead. The producers cast English actress
Rebecca Mader because "she won [them] over with her charm and presence and charisma". The
Lost producers described her as a female version of
Indiana Jones. During auditions, the producers provide fake scenes, to keep new characters' identities a secret. Whilst recording her audition, a producer who was with her noticed that the shows on her résumé were from the
British Broadcasting Corporation, so asked her to redo the audition again with a British accent. Mader subsequently began to watch the first three seasons of
Lost on DVD and was watching the
fourth episode when she received the news that she had been chosen for the role. She watched all the previous episodes of
Lost in the few weeks before she started working on the show. She found it "a really amazing moment" and felt like she had just stepped into the show. When she was cast, Mader was unaware of whether she would be a guest star, or would develop into a regular, and was planned to feature in eight episodes of season four. This was a welcome change to her usual roles which required "full-on hair, makeup and heels".
Storyline progression Charlotte's discovery of a polar bear with a Dharma Initiative collar caused fan speculation about her connection with the island. Mader herself was unaware of Charlotte's backstory beyond the flashback in "
Confirmed Dead"—she noted "I feel like I'm almost in the same seat as the audience, like 'What the hell is going on?' and 'What the hell is going to happen next?', it's really exciting actually". She found it freeing to not know her character's history, and felt it made her give a natural performance. Mader felt Charlotte's relationship with Faraday allowed her character to develop and show a softer, more human side, Eight episodes of season four were written before production stopped due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Once the strike was resolved, a further six episodes were written, two less than originally planned for the season, and as a result Charlotte's role continued into
season five. and hoped to have scenes with
Nestor Carbonell who plays
Richard Alpert, as his character also has a history on the island. Charlotte's death scene was written by
Eddy Kitsis and
Adam Horowitz and was amongst their favourite scenes they wrote during season five. Mader called it "the best thing [she] ha[d] ever done in [her] entire career" and enjoyed playing a significant role within the episode. This created a continuity error as her date of birth was given in "Confirmed Dead" as July 2, 1979. Mader returned to the show for two guest appearances in season six to show Charlotte in the afterlife. Mader described Charlotte as "the role of a lifetime", and cited it as a reason that she was cast in better roles following the series' conclusion. ==Reception==