Filling pint-size role of Baby Aaron meant vast searches, stockpiling kids

He was the youngest character on "Lost," a blue-eyed, towheaded baby boy who was often played by a girl.

The cast found him (and her) irresistible. Forget gender. Being Baby Aaron was a good gig.

During the ABC show’s six-year run, more than 100 children were cast as Aaron. They frequently delighted the "Lost" cast even as they vexed directors who got upset when their little stars outgrew their part.

"They treated the babies not like extras, but like actors and actresses," said Courtney Heimowitz, whose round-faced daughter Jade was dubbed "The Baby That Never Cries."

Before Jade got too big and her eyes turned green, she was such a familiar face on "Lost" that she was featured in promos for the show that aired during the 2006 Super Bowl halftime and on the cover of People magazine.

"She was treated like royalty," said Heimowitz, who lives in Ko Olina. "She had her own trailer."

A decade after the series launched, those babies are schoolchildren who mostly remember "Lost" because their families have shared the memories or kept memorabilia. Like Jade, a 9-year-old who is into golf and student government activities, they might not have watched an entire episode.

"She doesn’t watch the whole thing because it’s not really for kids," her mother said.

But the story of being a baby on "Lost" makes Jade smile.

On "Lost," Aaron’s mother was a pregnant passenger named Claire who survives the plane crash on the show’s mysterious island. When the plot called for Claire to give birth late in the first season, the show’s casting staff members began a hunt for babies that would keep them frantic for several seasons.

"It was a sideshow circus getting these babies," said Rachel Sutton, who served as extras casting director during the first season. "That’s why we were always scrounging. You could never have enough."

Sutton, whose daughter Ava was cast as Baby Aaron in Season 3, said the birth scene used twins who were small for their age because they were born prematurely. They were perfect: 3 months old, well adjusted and, best of all, tiny. They were covered with a warmed mixture of strawberry jelly and cream cheese, and the cameras rolled.

Every episode presented a scheduling challenge. Labor laws limit the time on set to two hours and only 20 minutes under the lights, Sutton said. That meant a lot of babies on set.

"You always had to have two there at all times, and if the scenes were going to last more than a few hours, you needed four babies and sometimes six babies," Sutton said. "The irony is when you want them to be crying and upset, they are sleeping peacefully. And when you want them peaceful they are crying."

The search for Baby Aarons kept the extras casting staff on the lookout everywhere it went, said Julie Carlson, who took over as extras casting director in the second season.

Carlson called doctor’s offices. She tracked down the mothers whose newborns were featured in newspaper birth announcements. She called twins clubs and mother-and-child classes. One of her staff kept finding babies at the Hawaii Kai Costco.

Whenever Carlson saw a mother and baby in public, she wasn’t shy — but she would hold her business card at arm’s length when approaching parents.

"People were wary," she said.

After a few military moms got involved, the word really spread, Carlson said.

"It was a panic," she said. "I had to provide. I can’t say, ‘I don’t have any babies.’ They are filming."

The oldest Aaron showed up in Season 4: William Blan­chette, a Kahala infant initially cast in some of the early episodes who eventually grew into the role of Aaron as a 3-year-old.

When the script called for him to say, "Where is mommy going?" he went from extra to actor, complete with his face on a "Lost" trading card, union wages and residuals in the mail every time that episode airs.

But he wasn’t working for dollars or even fame — none of his preschool buddies were impressed.

"It’s hard work but afterward it was worth it," said William, now a 9-year-old into baseball and computer games. "I got mac and cheese. It’s still my favorite food now."