Early success of new TV show comes amid devastating Los Angeles wildfires that destroyed most of thestar’s neighbourhood
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“Every week there’s a new case, and it’s actually really difficult. I’m not good at it. Everyone else in the cast is amazing at it,” said Parker, whose co-stars include Omar Metwally, Amirah Vann, Jon Ecker and Anya Banerjee, Scott Wolf and Patrick Walker. “We shoot five to six scenes a day, so we’re just moving through very quickly.
“I’m very lucky to have an excellent consultant on my side.”
The consultant, a former medic who has worked in war zones and emergency rooms, helps Parker to work through the language and understand the procedures.
“I can’t play a scene if I don’t understand what I’m talking about. I mean, I just can’t do it. So that’s the bit on the most basic level I have to understand. … What are we dealing with? What am I saying? He goes through and learns the procedures and teaches them to me,” said Parker, adding that she spent a bunch of time researching amnesia to prepare for the role.
Doc came out of the box strong, notching Fox’s best opening for a series in five years, proving once again the draw of a medical drama.
“We all have been patients. We all know people who work in health care,” said Parker when asked about the enduring popularity of doctor shows. “There’s something about it. It’s the site where we have to confront our mortality … the hospital is the site where we are forced to deal with the fact that we are at some point going to die, and is this the time? So the stakes are always really high. And it also sort of has its own engine, a hospital, because patients are changing all the time. So stories can change.”
Shot in Toronto, the series was something that Parker wasn’t sure she wanted to take on, but it seemed the stars were aligning, and she couldn’t ignore that fact.
“I was not sure that I wanted to do this much work. It’s really hard. It’s a tremendous amount of work to be the lead on a TV show like this,” said Parker. “So, I wasn’t sure. But the role was so fantastic, and it just kind of just stuck with me.”
While Parker was thrilled that Doc has been embraced by viewers, that good news came while the Los Angeles wildfires raged. Parker, speaking via Zoom, was home in L.A., but in a neighbourhood she didn’t recognize anymore.
“We actually live in Altadena, which is one of the communities that burned down, so we have been affected. That said, our house is still standing, which is a miracle,” said Parker, adding that, except for one house next door, pretty much all the homes around hers were lost. “I don’t really even have the words for it. It’s really, truly unbelievable.”