The Affair: Bunheads Alum Julia Goldani Telles Joins the Cast

According to TV Guide, Showtime drama pilot The Affair has added Bunheads alum Julia Goldani Telles to its cast. She’s set to play Whitney, the 16-year-old daughter of Noah (Dominic West) and Helen (Maura Tierney).

From In Treatment‘s Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi, The Affair tells the story of the effect that a marital indiscretion can have on two different relationships, as the series will follow both the male and female perspective of those involved in the affair. History teacher Noah has a chance encounter with waitress Alison (Ruth Wilson), still recovering from suffering a recent personal tragedy, and begins an affair that threatens to rip both of their marriages apart. Noah has been married to high school sweetheart Helen, who goes through a range of emotions after finding out about the tryst, for nearly two decades, while Alice is married to Cole (Joshua Jackson), a cowboy who manages the ranch he inherited from his family.

Should The Affair go to series, it will be the second television role for Goldani Telles, who spent one season playing feisty dancer Sasha on the ABC Family critical darling.

The Affair is one of two pilots currently in contention at the network, joining contemporary political thriller The Vatican, which stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) as the Archbishop of New York. Production on the pilot will get underway sometime later this year, with a pickup decision not likely until sometime in early 2014. While there’s a chance that each could be picked up to series a’la Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex, both will be behind psychosexual thriller Penny Dreadful, which was greenlit to series this past January and begins production in October.

Does The Affair sound like something you would watch? How do you think a show like that could sustain its premise throughout multiple seasons? Who else would you like to see join the cast?