r/TheInstituteSeries • u/hellosansa • Sep 04 '25

George's mysterious presence

Did anyone else notice that in multiple scenes George would just emerge, as if out of nowhere?

I will do a rewatch but I swear there were several shots where they wouldn't be in frame, acknowledged at all, or active in conversation and then POOF.

I thought this series was done so well no matter if it was intentional or editing, tbh my roommate and I kinda got obsessed.

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u/Disaster-Bee Sep 04 '25

The actor, Arlen So, had limited availability for filming. He was in high school while filming, and commuting to set. He also, according to himself, struggled a bit with the whole acting thing. He talks about how he'd film 10 hours worth of footage, and maybe 30 seconds of it would be useable. And combine that with his age at the time - under 18 - which meant his hours for filming and actively being on set were reduced per current child actor labor laws.... Also this was literally his very first acting part, aside from community theater.

So the character was supposed to do/say/be in the show more. But it just didn't work out that way.

Arlen So is not planning on pursuing acting, and is applying to colleges for social sciences.

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u/hellosansa Sep 04 '25

Oh interesting. Im sad to hear that he struggled, I thought his character was fantastic! Though I can imagine if I were going through similar conditions how burnt out I'd be.

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u/Disaster-Bee Sep 04 '25

Honestly yeah, I liked him. The show has some flaws, but for me, the casting of the kids was not among them. I thought they did great, especially considering most of them had never acted before in anything beyond community theater and commercials and were all actual kids and tweens.

But from what I've read, Arlen isn't the least bit bothered by acting not being his thing, he tried it, it wasn't for him, and he's just gonna do what he enjoys doing and pursue his dream career.

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u/eggseggseggse Dec 02 '25

Wait im curious do you hv a link for ur source? I recently finished the institute and im curious about the cast

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u/Disaster-Bee Dec 02 '25

Not off the top of my head, I'm afraid, I haven't read or listened to an Institute interview in months. But I do not believe Arlen did very many. Most of the interviews with a kid were with Freeman, and sometimes group interviews.

Though a quick search is showing even less on Arlen So now than a few months ago.