The Reason Clay Morrow Was Recast In Sons Of Anarchy

For the record, there's no ill-will between Scott Glenn and either Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, or the actor who replaced him. In fact, during a 2015 interview with The A.V. Club, Glenn praised Sutter's work before admitting he was relieved SOA didn't work out.

"I think he's a really good writer [Sutter], so this is no reflection on him. It was ultimately probably one of the better things that could've happened to me. Because of how long the series ran, and because, you know, if you're going to be in a series and it has commercial breaks...people say, 'Oh, there's a difference between cable and network,' and my response to that is, 'No, there's a difference between sponsored and not sponsored.' Non-sponsored is a degree of free air that you're breathing that sponsored doesn't give you. They don't take a break every 15 minutes to try and sell you Tylenol."

Perlman addressed the SOA cast shakeup to NPR's Terry Gross the same year, throwing some love towards Glenn, while admitting he might've had an inside read on how Sutter wanted the role of Morrow to be played.

"The original actor is a brilliant actor. I'm a huge fan of his. But he's a very subtle guy. And he has a very kind of a quiet, understated presence about him, which, in terms of this particular guy, Clay Morrow, they were looking for way more dynamic. They were looking for higher highs and lower lows [...] So I understood going into it that, you know — that they were looking for a more operatic version of this guy."

Thankfully, this is one of those rare Hollywood scenarios where everyone involved more or less got what they wanted. And yes, that even includes Sons of Anarchy fandom.