Actors Zachary Quinto and Tamberla Perry talk to The Inside Reel about approach, tone, perspective, empathy and energy in regards to their new drama series on NBC: “Brilliant Minds”.
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00:00And it's interesting to see the dynamic of perspective and perception.
00:25Could you talk about that element of both for Dr. Pierce looking at Dr. Wolfe,
00:31but as Dr. Wolfe, looking at the idea of his perspective and perception
00:36because of his issues, but also his strengths?
00:41Right. Yeah, good question. I mean, look, the mind is the last unknown frontier. Consciousness
00:49and the subjective human experience, I think, is something that there are endless revelations and
00:57surprises that unfold in the human mind and in the human experience. And so our show is really
01:05dealing with that, right? We're dramatizing neurological disorders, diseases, conditions,
01:10and injuries for which oftentimes there is no cure, there is no fix. So the patients that we
01:15meet on our show are never going to return to a sense of normal as they might have known it before.
01:22But Oliver Wolfe is motivated in just the same way that Oliver Sacks was by understanding how we can
01:28evolve and adapt beyond those adversities and beyond challenges that many people might consider
01:34insurmountable. Oliver Sacks never considered these challenges insurmountable. He always was
01:42driven by an insatiable desire to understand the human mind, to understand his patients, and to
01:49always find for them and with them a sense of dignity and a sense of purpose and ideally a
01:55sense of joy in life. And one of his favorite quotes was, ask not what disease a patient has,
02:00ask what patient the disease has. Who is the person, where is the person, and how can I as a doctor
02:07find them and help them find themselves again? And so that's really what we're exploring on
02:13Brilliant Minds. And my hope is that as entertaining as the show might be, that it
02:19also has some substance and some meaning and that audiences can come to these stories and see
02:26themselves in them and feel maybe motivated and inspired in a way that they didn't necessarily
02:33expect when they stay tuned after The Voice on Monday nights at 10 p.m. on NBC.
03:04It's another coping mechanism? Well, it's not the worst thing we'll smell today.
03:09And here is your office. I'm right down the hall. Just like in med school. Except now we're
03:16prescribing drugs instead of taking them. Speak for yourself. It's about the details.
03:22Tamara, could you talk about that? Because the thing is, it's about how everybody else also
03:27interacts with this character of Dr. Wolfe. And, you know, the aspect of what understanding
03:33versus acceptance means. Because you don't have to understand to accept. Could you talk about
03:38that notion of her approach? Because she has such a history with him all the way back into,
03:43obviously, med school. That's right. Carol is the chief of psychology based off of a real-life
03:51person as well, Carol E. Burnett, who was a longtime friend, loyalist, and colleague of
03:57Oliver Wolfe. So when Carol Pierce, my character, recruits him to this hospital, she knows that,
04:05you know, he's a bit of a work in progress and that people may not accept his methods of medicine.
04:12But she also knows that he is literally going to do whatever he can, including stepping into the
04:18shoes of his patients to figure out what's going on with them. And that was her goal,
04:26to create this team, this dream team of neuropsychology, even though she knew
04:31going into this relationship, bringing him in, that it might be problematic for some.
04:37But I think that's one of the things that she loves about him, is that he is not going to,
04:41he is vigilant in finding out what is going on with his patients, where other people may have
04:46deemed them hopeless or helpless. He's not going to stop until he figures it out.
05:16But it's also about placing, you know, your people in it, both you as characters,
05:45but also the people around you in that world. That's why, you know, obviously, whether you're
05:49talking about the first episode, second episode, third episode, it's about meeting people where
05:53they are, which is sort of interesting, plus the idea of teaching, because as you're being mentored,
05:59you're mentoring other people. That's why sort of the intern structure really works both for humor
06:04and for irony, but also for dramatic content. Could you sort of talk about that and finding
06:10that balance of energy? And I know Zach, we've talked about this before with other projects,
06:13but can you talk about that?
06:14Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, the interns, this collection of younger actors who are just so
06:22talented and wonderful, Ashley Lathrop, Alex McNichols, Spence Moore II, and Ari Krebs,
06:29who play the young doctors on the show. I have never in my career met four actors who more
06:36easily and organically embody the quality of the characters that they're playing, the qualities of
06:40the characters that they're playing. It's uncanny, actually. And so there is this immediate
06:47authenticity to who those characters are in the world of the show, because they're so similar to
06:51the people that they are in real life. And also, the ways in which what the patients that we
06:58encounter experiencing reflect back on the doctors who are treating them. So the cases and the
07:04stories that the doctors on the show encounter with their patients also have reverberations for
07:10the way that the doctors interact with one another, and all of the personal stories that
07:14are the overarching narratives that we explore through the course of the season. So that, to me,
07:20is also something that Michael Grassi, our incredible, talented, and amazing showrunner,
07:26was able to capture and very kind of subtly thread through the narrative of the whole
07:34first season arc. So I think that's something that is unique about the show, and something
07:39that makes it all the more fun to play, because we do meet these patients pretty much on a weekly
07:44basis and get to learn. I mean, I can't tell you how many scripts I read early in the season where
07:49I was like, okay, well, that's made up. You know, that didn't really happen, and that isn't really
07:52possible. But as we discussed a minute ago, the brain and the mind are so endlessly fascinating,
07:59and there's no depth to the abyss of what that part of our body is capable of. And so all of
08:07it is real. All of the cases, all of the disorders and diseases and injuries and conditions are real.
08:14And so the way that those are catalysts for conversations and deepening dynamics in the
08:23relationship of the doctors, I think, is also a really interesting aspect of Brilliant Minds.
08:28Pierce, why is my patient getting an MRI? Nichols, this is Dr. Wolfe, our new neuro
08:33attending. Of course, I've heard a lot about you. I haven't heard about you. Nichols is our chair of
08:41neurosurgery. He performed a procedure on Hannah. Who hasn't had a single seizure since I operated,
08:46so why are you... Yes, but you did turn her into the woman who snubs her kids. It's expected post-op
08:52brain edema. She'll be back to normal in a week. That's unlikely. She has severe selective emotional
08:56detachment. It wasn't my job to make her a good mother. It was my job to cure epilepsy, and I
09:00succeeded. But by all means, keep wasting your time and hospital resources. Do I ever have to
09:09talk to him again? Yes. Unfortunately, your new job requires working with people who won't always
09:14recognize your genius. And my last question to you guys, thank you very much. It's about the
09:19power of the human spirit. The thing is, it's great to see something positive, people
09:25adversity, but you also still have the empathy and the compassion. That's why seeing,
09:30Zachary, your character reflect on childhood, because everything comes from childhood.
09:36Everything's reflected. Can you both talk about that? Because that's what made these people
09:42who they are and who they continue to be and continue to evolve to.
09:47Yeah, I'll just say, and then I'll shut up because I've done too much of the talking here,
09:50but I've definitely played a lot of darker characters in my career. And I think people
09:57know me for some of the more indelible villains that I've played in my journey as an actor. And
10:03so at this moment, both in my personal evolution and my own life, but also in this moment,
10:10culturally, socially and politically in our world, I feel so deeply grateful to be a part of a story
10:17that is actually putting positivity, optimism and hope into the world and something that is
10:24coming from a place of compassion and sensitivity. It's deeply personal for me and it's deeply
10:32gratifying for me. And I hope it's something that people are excited about seeing from me
10:38because I think it's new and probably a little bit unexpected.
10:43The one thing I wanted to add, Tim, is that I think Zach may have been touched on it,
10:46is that you're not going to come week to week and see cases where people are coming in
10:52the beginning of the episode with a thing wrong with them and then walking out at the end of the
10:56episode fixed or dead because the fix didn't work. Our patients, there are several of them
11:05that are recurs. So we see them week to week because we are working on adaptability into
11:12the real world, into finding out the root of what is going on with you is what our show is about,
11:20which is just so important because mental health is such a hot topic right now in conversation.
11:26People are more transparent than ever about what's going on with them.
11:29So our show, I like to say that our show is out here saving lives. People are seeing themselves
11:36in our characters, in our patients, as well as their doctors. And we want this to be a place
11:42where people can come and watch and see themselves, feel seen and know that there is,
11:48it's a hopeful show. You don't have to stay in whatever state. There is
11:53someone who is as dedicated to you as Oliver Sacks was to his patients.