00:00Hi, Zachary. It's so wonderful to see you. I really have enjoyed watching the show. So congratulations.
00:06Oh, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
00:09Yeah, absolutely. So just diving right in. I mean, Michael Grassi shared that he had this
00:15passion project inspired by Oliver Sacks, and he thought of you first for bringing it to life. So,
00:20I mean, what was it like being approached with that?
00:23I feel so grateful for that, especially now that I've had the experience of working with
00:27Michael Grassi, who is one of the most delightful and collaborative and positive
00:33bosses I've ever had. And so, yeah, it's a real honor. And then everything I've gotten
00:39to learn about Oliver Sacks and the depth of his contribution to the field of neurology
00:44and to the art form of literature and, you know, just his endless curiosity.
00:49I knew a little bit about him. I knew who he was and was a big fan of Awakenings,
00:52the movie with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, directed by Penny Marshall,
00:56which is inspired by Oliver Sacks' life and work. But I didn't know a fraction of what I know now.
01:01So that opportunity has been such a gift as well. So, you know, I'm deeply grateful to
01:06Michael for thinking of me for the role. And I'm so glad to have been able to play him.
01:13Yeah. And I mean, I am a huge fan of medical dramas. They're definitely a soft spot for me.
01:18But this one, you know, is so important because it has this gay lead. It's inspired by, you know,
01:23a real person. So what does that kind of representation mean to you personally?
01:30I mean, it is interesting to be playing the first openly gay doctor on a primetime
01:35medical drama, you know, primetime network medical drama.
01:40But I think part of the reason that it's significant is because it's just one aspect
01:43of who this character is. And it really reflects the progress that we've made,
01:48certainly in the time since Oliver Sacks was at the height of his career.
01:51You know, he was celibate for 35 years of his life. And when I first found that out,
01:56I thought to myself, how is that even possible that someone would divest themselves of such
02:02an essential part of the human experience? And then the more I examined it and really
02:08leaned into what could have motivated a decision like that, I realized that perhaps and I
02:14unfortunately never had the chance to meet Oliver Sacks or to talk to him about this. But,
02:18you know, the idea of being a gay man in particular, at that time in the middle 20th
02:23century, was a singularly defining issue. And if you were a gay man, then then you were a gay,
02:29whatever it else it was that you did, you know, a gay doctor, in this case, you were a gay doctor.
02:35And also, it had the unfortunate impact of really diminishing people's opportunities and the
02:40contributions that they could make to a given field because of discrimination and rejection
02:44and alienation of people based on who they were. So it became more evident to me that it was
02:51possible, if not likely, that Oliver Sacks made that choice so that he could continue to make the
02:57contributions to the field of neurology and in the field of literature that he knew he was
03:01singularly designed to make. And so me being an openly gay actor, playing an openly gay doctor
03:07on a network primetime medical drama is a real hallmark for how we've evolved from that time
03:14to now. And you know, that it's only one aspect of who I am as a person and an actor. And it's
03:18only one aspect of the character I play is at odds with the truth of what Oliver Sacks experienced.
03:24And I think that's the the miracle of our human experience.
03:29Yeah, I love that you brought that up. I definitely wanted to talk about, you know,
03:32that we really round him out as a person and dive into, you know, so many different aspects of who
03:38he is. And the show also does a really great job of diving into neurological disorders and mental
03:44health, which is something that is still often stigmatized today. So I mean, what do you hope
03:49audiences will take away in terms of destigmatizing mental illness?
03:54Well, I think, you know, with neurological disorders and mental illness, oftentimes,
03:58there is no fix, there is no cure, there is no return to maybe the sense of normal that
04:05people grew accustomed to before they were confronted with these very difficult challenges
04:12in their lives. So I feel like that in and of itself is reflective of real life in a way that
04:21hopefully audiences will come to these stories and see themselves in them. And, you know, see
04:27their own experiences in the characters and in the cases and the patients. And maybe it could even
04:33generate conversations that might be difficult to have or might not be being had otherwise.
04:40I think obviously, any television should be entertaining, right? People want to come and
04:45laugh and cry and romance and drama and intrigue and all of that stuff. But you know, if it can
04:50also be somehow substantive or generate conversations, then, you know, I've always said,
04:55Michael Grassi, and I've always said that if people see themselves in the show, then that
05:00means we're doing our jobs. And, and so I think the complexity of it, you know, the brain, the mind,
05:07consciousness is the last frontier of the human experience, isn't it? So we can all relate,
05:12you know, everybody has their own experience with, with the mind and with the brain. And
05:20I think we've all been touched by neurological diseases and disorders and mental health issues
05:24in our own ways in our lives. And so I think it's ripe for storytelling. And part of the reason
05:30that it's ripe for storytelling is that it's right for identifiability. And, and people,
05:36I think, will hopefully see that when they watch it. Oh, yes, I definitely, definitely agree. And
05:41I know that because of the the subject matter of the show, you had to learn a lot about the human
05:47brain. So is there a like, favorite fact that you had during your studying and processing and
05:53throughout this whole project about the human brain? I mean, I can't tell you how many times
05:58I would read scripts early in the season, and it'd be like, well, this is made up, you know,
06:03and it's not ever made up. Everything that we explore in the show is real. For me, personally,
06:08I think the most interesting thing that I got to learn more about is a condition called prosopagnosia,
06:14which is face blindness. So Oliver Sacks in real life suffered from this condition, Oliver Wolfe,
06:20my character on the show suffers from this condition. And it's it's one of the portals of
06:26understanding different perspectives that we're able to utilize in the storytelling
06:33structure of the show. So the fact that Oliver Wolfe suffers from prosopagnosia
06:39necessitates him looking at things from different points of view, right? So someone with face
06:45blindness can't recognize someone by their facial facial features alone. So if you met me,
06:50for example, and then you saw me again, two days later, you wouldn't recognize this. Now,
06:56you might be able to say, I remember those glasses, or I remember that mustache,
06:59but the face itself, you would not recognize. So if I didn't have the glasses and the mustache,
07:03you know, so how how does somebody with this condition navigate their experience in the world
07:09without seeming rude or without seeming disconnected somehow. And there are many
07:15other ways that they can do that practically. But then it also unlocks other parts of people's
07:20brains and consciousness that someone without the condition wouldn't benefit from. So it's
07:25the idea of a brilliant mind being somebody that may be hindered in ways a lot of our patients
07:30deal with adversities that many people would consider insurmountable. But Oliver Sacks,
07:35and therefore Oliver Wolfe, they're doctors who are driven by the belief that it's possible to
07:42still find dignity, to still find joy and meaning and purpose in life, even in the face of great
07:50adversity. And I think that that's an uplifting message that especially in this day and age,
07:57people want to hear. Yeah, no, and I agree. And I love the passion that you're really bringing to
08:04this character, you can tell how much they they really mean to you. Is there a specific part of
08:09the show that you are most proud of and excited for audiences to see? Um, it's hard for me to
08:17kind of the interesting thing and the exciting thing about this moment that we're in right now,
08:21you know, we got to make the first season of the show in a vacuum, we got to tell these stories
08:25with each other for each other, and inspired by the creative collaboration that Michael Grassi
08:30really fosters on all of his projects. And now we get to invite the audience into that experience.
08:38So it's so difficult to anticipate what audiences are going to respond to,
08:43for me, the most enjoyable parts of the of the process have been getting to know my co stars,
08:51getting to work with all of these people and, you know, feel inspired by their personal
08:56connections to the characters and the stories. And I think that for me has been the most
09:01fulfilling and I anticipate when the audience comes to the table will continue to be,
09:05but hearing everybody's relationship to this realm of the human experience,
09:12the mind and consciousness and neurological diseases and disorders and mental health. And
09:17I think the more we can talk about all of that, the better off we'll all be. And, and that I
09:24think is a message worth amplifying. And I'm grateful to be a part of a project
09:30that is endeavoring to amplify it. And you did tease, you know, working with your co stars. So
09:37I did want to ask what kind of relationships can we expect to see Oliver Wolf go through
09:42throughout the season? Well, we explore a lot of different aspects of his life, his work
09:48relationships, his friendship with Carol Pierce, who is the head of psychiatry at Bronx General,
09:55and who recruits Oliver Wolf to come and work there. They have a long history as friends,
10:00and we get to explore that dynamic. We get to explore Oliver Wolf's relationship with his
10:05family of origin, his parents and the impact that they had on his life and who he has become
10:12and who he is becoming. There are definitely some romantic explorations on the show. And
10:18Oliver Wolf is required to explore and dismantle some of the walls that he's put up around himself
10:28and regarding intimacy and romantic connection. And then you get to experience all of the
10:35relationships between the other doctors. There are four young interns at the hospital.
10:41You know, we meet a wide ranging cast of characters and how they all impact one another's
10:48lives and what the ripples of those interactions are throughout all of these characters lives
10:55is really at the heart of Brilliant Minds. And I think it's also at the heart of life.
11:00And so that's really the parallel that we're looking to draw.
11:04And hopefully the parallel that audiences will pick up on when they watch the show.
Comments