Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00It's past 8.
00:07Morning, Dr. Darien. It's Tuesday, September 24th. My name remains John Hamish Watson.
00:12It would be my pleasure to repeat any 10 words you'd like.
00:15You should let me ask the questions before you answer them.
00:17Morning, Shinwell.
00:18Morning, Dr. Watson. You young doctors need tending.
00:22Yes, I've noticed. You should let me ask the questions before you answer them.
00:31Mr. Chestnut, how you doing today, brother?
00:33I'm good. How you doing?
00:35I'm good. You know, we love you here, Essence, man. So I just appreciate you taking the call, man.
00:39Thank you. Thank you. I've appreciated the support Essence has given me throughout the years.
00:43So for my first question, brother, I wanted to ask you what initially drew you to the role of Dr. John Watson?
00:49What initially drew me was the opportunity to be in this iconic mythology of Sherlock Holmes.
00:58Of course, I've been aware of Sherlock Holmes for all my life.
01:02And to be able to have an opportunity to play a part in that mythology was really exciting to me.
01:09And then once I read the script, I read the script and it was something I was really, really excited about.
01:14I thought it was really strong. Talked to the showrunner, Craig Sweeney, and I just had to do it.
01:20So if you could kind of expound on that a little bit more, Watson in the Sherlock Holmes story is such an iconic story as well.
01:28So was there any pressure? Did you feel any pressure trying to reinterpret Watson for a modern audience at all?
01:35I did not because a couple of things. So all of the other iterations of Sherlock Holmes and Watson have been told from Sherlock's perspective.
01:48Not only is this story told from Watson's perspective, but it's also post-Sherlock.
01:54Sherlock in our pilot dies, you know, at the very beginning of the episode of the show.
02:03So it's it wasn't it.
02:07I wasn't really worried about comparing our show to any other Watsons or Holmes's out there because we have a different starting point.
02:16And I'm actually glad you said that, too, brother, because I was actually able to see the first episode in that first scene.
02:22It's like exciting isn't isn't, you know, attention grabbing.
02:26And it's not a lot of dialogue. It's just, you know, you, you know, shouting out to Sherlock Holmes.
02:31But I think it says a lot and it really sets the tone for the show to man.
02:34How do you feel about launching the series in such a high profile slot?
02:38I'm very excited about it. The network has shown that they're very much behind the show.
02:44And I'm truly appreciative of the opportunity. So I'm excited about that.
02:49What do you hope new audiences would take from, you know, that may be familiar with the Sherlock Holmes or the Watson story?
02:55What do you hope audiences would take in this iteration of it?
02:58Well, what I love about it is that we have the whole Sherlock Holmes universe to to draw from, from the stories, the characters is rich with just art.
03:11It's I hope the audience they sees that they hope the audience sees that we're very respectful to the mythology.
03:20And in addition to that, we have a really good show behind it.
03:25It's a it's a it's a combination of a medical drama and a detective show.
03:31We're not just doctors. We're not just detective. We're doc tech. We're doc tech.
03:37We don't just solve the mystery of the medical mystery inside the hospital.
03:40We go out to the field and we gather information to solve the medical mystery.
03:44So we combine the two, the doctors and detectives to be detectives.
03:48And you actually you read my mind. That was my next question, because like that's what I think is one of the best parts of the show.
03:54It's two shows in one year, the medical drama and the detective crime storytelling.
03:58How did you prepare for those aspects of the role?
04:02It's really it's one of those things. It's one of those things where the just reading the scripts, I played doctors before I played detectives before.
04:13So it's just something that's really is somewhat seamless, particularly the way Craig is crafting scripts.
04:22Now, in that going back to that first scene to the battle between Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes,
04:29Moriarty's possible return as an intriguing layer to the story.
04:34How do you think he handles being pulled back into his past while trying to move forward with his medical career?
04:40That's a great question. I think that's the challenging aspect of the character.
04:46He is trying to rebuild his life. He sacrificed a great deal.
04:51Actually, more than he really knew how much he was sacrificing when he went to go solve that one last mystery with Sherlock.
05:00And luckily, Sherlock has given him the opportunity to try to rebuild his his life.
05:08But he can't do so in an easy fashion because of the challenges of doing what he lost and dealing with a very formidable bill.
05:20So I've seen a lot of your movies and a lot of your television shows, but not all of them, though.
05:25But I wanted to ask you, do you think that this role is your most complex?
05:31I do. I do strictly from the not strictly, but primarily from the from the aspect that it is not just a medical drama.
05:40It's a it's also a detective drama. However, that is all.
05:46It's all involving of the Sherlock Holmes mythology as well.
05:50So there's so many different layers to not just the character, but the show itself, so many different layers and nuances.
05:57So it's very challenging. And this is my final question for you, my brother.
06:01What excites you the most about leading Watson? And how do you hope audiences?
06:07What do you think audience would draw from your performance?
06:09What excites me the most about leading Watson, again, is the opportunity to play in the iconic mythology.
06:16But to really have a show that I truly believe and feel is different.
06:21We're not just a traditional procedural where we're serialized procedural to where we do have the medical mystery.
06:31Each medical mystery will be solved in every single episode.
06:35They can be a standalone episode. However, we have very rich stories and very rich character development,
06:41story development that is going to unveil itself throughout the course of the season.
06:46It all leads to this epic kind of ending for the finality of the first season.
06:53That's what I'm excited for audiences to see.