Note: This story contains spoilers from “Doctor Odyssey” Episode 4.
“Doctor Odyssey” just got a hot new chef, one that will surely bring testy waters for the nurses aboard.
Episode 4, titled “Wellness Week,” followed as Dr. Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson) and his team dealt with shenanigans from the alternative medicine community, who boarded the ship for the week led by guest stars Amy Sedaris, Margaret Cho and Kate Berlant. The episode also introduced chef Vivian Montgomery (Laura Harrier), a reality TV show winner who was working for Sedaris’ character and quickly sparked a connection with nurse Tristan Silva (Sean Teale).
“Vivian is a wonderful character and she’s joined us for the foreseeable future — I don’t know how long. I’m not allowed to say — but it’s lovely,” Teale told TheWrap of his character’s new love interest. “There’s something for Tristan’s logical and loving mind to pursue. He has a connection with her and would like to explore it. And why shouldn’t he?”
The blossoming connection clearly struck a chord with nurse Avery (Phillipa Soo), who was clearly jealous of her colleague flirting with the new chef. Granted, Avery also got appendicitis and had to be saved with emergency surgery as the Odyssey went through a dangerous hurricane.
But Teale teased that the medical trio’s relationship will only get more complicated as the show moves forward with Season 1.
“We’re filming Episode 10 right now and it just gets messier,” Teale said. “There’s something wonderful about knowing what we have to do for the character, but then also what we have to do to make sense as a team. It’s really complicated but Phillipa is so smart and so brilliant and such an astonishing actress that she can dial in and tap into every minute change and shift, and give you something new every time. All of a sudden we’re exploring things that just didn’t appear on the page.”
The preposterous nature of “Doctor Odyssey” is just a fraction of what Teale loves about playing Tristan. At first glance, he appears to be the playboy aboard the Odyssey, but the first few episodes have shown more of what’s beyond his gorgeous facade — including a peek into the dysfunctional relationship with his mother and his longtime crush on Avery.
“Not judging a book by its cover is an important lesson for all of us. Even having met his mother (played by Constance Marie), there’s so much more to that situation and the rest of his upbringing that will come up later on,” Teale teased. “We don’t just come out of the womb the way that we are at 30, there’s a lot of stuff that we have to go through to be where we are.”
Below, Teale breaks down “Wellness Week,” previews what’s ahead on next week’s “zombie-esquee” Halloween episode and his hopes for Steve Martin to bring “Only Murders in the Building” aboard the Odyssey.
TheWrap: Congrats on “Doctor Odyssey” so far. The show is great and has been really resonating with viewers. How has it been to see the response to the show as episodes have started rolling out?
Teale: It’s been really fun to make, so it’s nice that people find it fun. To know that people tune in and enjoy it, that’s all that it was meant for. To depart for an hour every week and sail away with us to some silly, gorgeous location and have us solve some wild ailments, whilst navigating each other in the process.
How was the process of landing the role of Tristan Silva? What made this the right role for you to tackle next?
There was, as there is any time at work, a series of fortunate events. The show was being made and it had all these incredible people on board, and I was available to read for it — which is not always the case, sometimes opportunities just pass by timing alone. I read the scripts and they were so fun. And Jon Robin Baitz is amazing, Ryan (Murphy) is obviously one of the most prolific producers in this realm. I hadn’t worked with Joe Baken, but his work is astonishing.
And I just really liked Tristan. I knew that there was space for him to not just be more than what I read, but also different, that there was space to morph what I was reading in the first place. I don’t think Tristan was meant to be British, initially … but for some reason, they decided to call us back and then I got to meet Ryan, and we had a really great meeting, where we pushed and poked and probed and prodded around with the character and I got to hear some new stuff that was coming up later on in the series. So it was the dream.
We’ve gotten to know Tristan a little bit in these first four episodes, including meeting his mother and seeing some of his relationships on the ship. What do you hope people see about Tristan so far?
They’ve seen enough that there’s an understanding as to him not being what he seems, but also that they haven’t seen all of him yet. These people are enormous, because we all are. We have so much to us, and there are so many things that push us around and put us back, and there are so many things that make us tick and make us close up.
There’s sides to everyone that we don’t always display. And that’s something that you get to explore more intently in such a tight and confined space like a ship, working in such close proximity and while dealing with such distressing situations. I think that brings up all of that way more intensely, and there’s nowhere to really hide.
Tristan is actually choosing to be on that boat. But then what are they hiding from? So there’s so much more to him. I want the audience to build their own opinion. Not judging a book by its cover is an important lesson for all of us. Even having met his mother, there’s so much more to that situation and the rest of his upbringing that will come up later on. We don’t just come out of the womb the way that we are at 30, there’s a lot of stuff that we have to go through to be where we are.
Avery and Tristan’s relationship gets deeper, but also messier with every passing episode. What’s the best part of bringing that connection to life alongside Phillipa on the show?
Working with Phillipa is a complete gift. She’s just astonishing, as is Josh (Jackson) and Don (Johnson), they’re such a wonderful cast to play with.
I think what’s nice about [the relationship] is how complicated it is, because it’s only going to get messier … there’s something wonderful about knowing inherently what we have to do as characters and as performers, but then also what we have to do to make sense as a team. It’s not always set up that way and it’s not always as collaborative as that for a variety of reasons, but that space has been afforded to us here.
Phillipa is so smart and so brilliant and such an astonishing actress that she can dial in and tap into every single minute change and shift and give you something new every time, and all of a sudden we’re exploring things that just didn’t appear on the page. There’s so much to it and we go through so much as a group. We’re filming Episode 10 now and it just gets messier.
Episode 4 took us to Wellness Week, in which we see Avery feeling a little jealous about Tristan getting close to chef Vivian Montgomery. How will Vivian staying on the ship shake things up moving forward?
There’s part of the joy of working with Pippa, all of a sudden this person that doesn’t need Tristan, that actually keeps him in a certain space — it’s not that she recognizes all of a sudden, she kind of cares — and she has a wonderful poker face because she’s been rebutting this puppy dog for so long for a variety of reasonable and otherwise reasons. But that’s the point, right? You bring someone on and there’s a trigger. Now we’re going to start digging deeper into what’s really here, because we can feel two things at once. And the wonderful Laura Harrier joining us is great because Tristan gets to pursue something like he does. It’s sort of what happens in tight workspaces like this, you have relationships that have gone on for a while, that have their own sort of depth and unique cadence. And then other people come on board and shift them just by being there. Dr. Max (Jackson) comes in and shifts everything.
So it’s great that Laura’s here, and Vivian is a wonderful character. She’s joined us for the foreseeable future — I don’t know how long. I’m not allowed to say — but it’s lovely. There’s something for Tristan’s logical and loving mind to pursue. He has a connection with her and would like to explore it. And why shouldn’t he?
How do you keep the performance grounded with all the craziness happening around you?
A lot of collaboration and conversation. This is a medical drama, and those situations and emergencies are rooted in serious issues with people’s lives at risk. The thing that departs that the show also wants to provide is that it’s also a fantastical place. Joshua said this before but our goal is that we can see the ground, but we’re halfway just above it. There’s a lightness and sparkliness to the tone that we’re aiming for, which is the fun that we want with the show, whilst also retaining all of the important things that viewers want and that characters would need. You don’t get carried away in a fantasy. It doesn’t work that way. You play against that.
Some of the moments are larger than life and some of them are far more serious, and we’re trying to run the whole gamut.
Next week is a big Halloween episode, with the trailer promising great costumes and apparently zombies? What can you tease about Episode 5?
On the subject of zombies, it’s a zombie-esque disease. I’ll put it that way and it’s, as far as I can tell, a real thing. It affects some of the passengers and there’s a contamination concern on that front.
But “Halloween Week” is really, really fun. We have a wonderful director who came and directed it for us. And Tristan loves Halloween. There is a costume contest on the ship that Tristan, I think, really cares about and has done for a long time, and so he goes on his own journey during this episode, whilst zombies are plaguing the ship.
We had a really good time doing it, because it’s a fun holiday. More so here than in Britain, Halloween is something that’s really important here and Americans take it very seriously. And so we get to, like we do every week, we get to explore a different side to it. And it’s nice to get into these things, considering that we are making a Ryan Murphy TV show — a company that’s so good at doing the darkness and the scariness — that a show as light and sort of shimmery and glittery as ours gets to maybe play with that a little bit too.
The show has had some crazy good guest stars so far. Who would be your dream guest to board the Odyssey next?
It’d be great to have Steve Martin, Henry Winkler, those funny, funny guys that are busy doing their own shows. But we were talking about Steve Martin recently — maybe an “Only Murders in the Building” crossover.
We’ve had so many great performers join us already … but that would be great.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
“Doctor Odyssey” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
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