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The first How to Get Away With Murder table read came with ominous warning for one star

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Published on May 16, 2020 09:00AM EDT

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How to Get Away With Murder has enough intrigue, murder, and manipulation for any human, but it turns out the first table read had some anxiety-inducing plot twists of its own.

For Jack Falahee, who rose to fame playing Connor Walsh, How to Get Away With Murder was his first big TV job. When he got to the first table read for the pilot in Philadelphia, his co-star Aja Naomi King had some advice for him that in retrospect was a bit terrifying.

"This show was my first rodeo," Falahee said while appearing on PeopleTV's Couch Surfing. "There's a table read in Philadelphia before you start filming and this is after everyone's been cast, but it's the first time as a cast, you're going to sit down and read the pilot together. And Shonda [Rhimes] was conference calling in from LA., and there were all these producers on the line."

No pressure, right? Leave it to King to inadvertently make matters worse for the then-newbie. "Aja pulled me aside and she's like, 'Just so you know, you can still get fired,'" he continued. "She's like, 'I know you haven't done this, but you have to deliver in this table read.'"

King defended her honor, jumping in to add, "People get recast after table reads all the time. I was preparing him," while Falahee's onscreen love interest Conrad Ricamora rebutted, "Even if that's true why would you say that?!"

But Falahee confessed he was glad she reminded him to step it up, and King concluded that they all brought their "A-game" to the first table read.

Watch the video above for more, and enjoy more with the cast at PeopleTV.

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