Q&A with Executive Producer Clyde Phllips
How is this season different from previous seasons?
This season on Nurse Jackie, we're going to more deeply explore the consequences of Jackie's behavior: the shrapnel that affected everyone in her life because she was a drug addict. We're also introducing three new characters:
Dr. Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut), a veteran doctor with several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt. He's a no bullshit, get-it-done medical professional...not unlike Jackie in many ways. Dr. Carrie Roman (Betty Gilpin), a first-year resident. She's a beautiful young woman who has had the road smoothed for her whole life. Now she's in the thick of a life and death world and is put to the test. Oh, and she's as funny and quirky as she is beautiful. Sergeant Frank Verelli (Adam Ferrara), an NYPD patrol cop, confident and warm. He becomes Jackie's love interest. Also, Grace, Jackie's daughter, will be acting out like any teenager would. Well, not just any teenager. She is, after all, the child of a drug addict.
What is the biggest change in Jackie’s life and how will she deal with it now that she is clean?
Her daughter will be acting out and her divorce will be finalized. Her daily life will be filled with the battle that any newly clean addict endures: wanting to back-slide. And she's going to meet a man,a healthy non-danger guy. This will be the first time in her life that she's dated a man while completely sober. We'll be rooting for her to make the right choice.
How is running a comedy different than running a drama?
Interestingly, running Nurse Jackie is similar to running Dexter. Each character has a deep, dark secret that she/he has to keep from her family and colleagues. Only the audience gets to know what Jackie (or Dexter) is really thinking and feeling. Also, in each of these shows, there are real and surprising moments of inner realization and growth. Mining the comedy out of the heavy drama is always a challenge, but when it works, it's just so satisfying. Really, it's all about storytelling; the trick is to make it authentic and original and entertaining.
What attracted you to working on Nurse Jackie?
Nurse Jackie was at a crossroads when I came aboard, poised to move to the next level. This was a show that had been on the air for four years and SHOWTIME was looking to push it further than before. So, coming to this show was attractive because I wasn't being asked to babysit an established show, but to help re-imagine it and to stretch its boundaries.
BIOS
EDIE FALCO
(Jackie Peyton)
EDIE FALCO has broken many awards records. For her role as Jackie Peyton in Nurse Jackie, she has won the Emmy® for “Best Actress in a Comedy,” thus making her the only actress to have won an Emmy® in both the comedy and drama categories. This year, she broke the Screen Actors Guild record by earning her 19th nomination; 11 for individual achievement and 8 for her ensemble work. Other credits include winner in AFI’s Top Ten TV Programs of 2009, as well as a 2009 Golden Globe®. She became the only actress to ever receive the Emmy®Award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Series,’ the Golden Globe®Award for ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic Television Series,’ and the SAG Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama,’ all in the same year for her performance as ‘Carmela Soprano’ in the groundbreaking seriesThe Sopranos’debut season. She has subsequently been nominated for each award for every eligible television season, winning two additional Emmy®Awards, another Golden Globe®Award and SAG Award, as well as the American Film Institute’s Award for ‘Female Television Actor of the Year.’ Most recently, she appeared onBroadway with Ben Stiller in House of Blue Leaves in which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress.
When she received the Television Critics Association Award (TCA) for ‘Individual Achievement in Drama,’ it was the first time in the history of the TCA that this Award was presented to a woman. She is also known to television audiences for her recurring roles in the dramatic seriesOzand the acclaimed NBC seriesLaw & OrderandHomicide. Falco made her Broadway debut in the Tony®Award-winning playSideman, which she originated in its off-Broadway production. For her performance, she received a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination for ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.’ She went on to make her London stage debut in the West End premiere of Sideman, and thereafter opened the London production of the highly successful playThe Vagina Monologues.When Falco starred opposite Stanley Tucci in the lauded revival ofFrankie And Johnny In The Claire De Lune,the play broke four house box-office records at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre, making it the most successful play on Broadway all season. More recently she appeared off-Broadway in the highly-acclaimed “This Wide Night.” Falco can currently be seen on Broadway starring in The Madrid, a play written by Nurse Jackie writer Liz Flahive.
For the feature filmCost Of Living, Falco received the American Film Institute’s ‘Best Actress’ Award. Her performance in the filmLaws Of Gravityearned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for ‘Best Female Lead Actor.’ Her other film credits includeA Price Above Rubies, Copland, Trouble Corner, Private Parts, Hurricane, Layin’ Low, Breathing Room, The Funeral, The Addiction, Bullets Over Broadway, Trust, The Unbelievable Truth, Random Heartsand the title character in the award-winning filmJudy Berlin.For her performance in John Sayles’Sunshine State, Falco received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Online Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress.’ She also starred in the feature filmsThe Quiet, The Great New WonderfulandFreedomland.
EVE BEST
(Dr. Eleanor O’Hara)
EVE BEST is an award-winning classically trained British actress. She has twice been nominated for a Tony Award: in 2008 for her portrayal of ‘Ruth’ in The Homecoming, and in 2007 for the role of ’Josie,’ in Moon for the Misbegotten (in which she starred opposite Kevin Spacey). In addition to the Tony nomination for Moon, she won both the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress.
After reading English at Oxford, Best trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She made her professional London stage debut starring opposite Jude Law in Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and won both the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer and the London Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Newcomer 1999. In 2003, she won the London Critics Circle award for Best Actress in Mourning Becomes Electra, and in 2005, she won both the Olivier Award for Best Actress and the London Critics Circle Award for Hedda Gabler.
Her additional theater credits include The Duchess of Malfi, Much Ado About Nothing,Three Sisters, The Coast of Utopia, The Heiress, and The Cherry Orchard As You Like It, The Misanthrope and Macbeth.
She starred as the title role in Dolley Madison for PBS in addition to such British television credits as Final Flight,The Shadow Line, Prime Suspect VII, Lie With Meand Shackleton.
Her feature film debut was in the Academy® Award nominated The King’s Speech, directed by Tom Hooper, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, in which she plays Wallis Simpson, opposite Guy Pearce and she has just started shooting on thefeature Someone You Love.
MERRITT WEVER
(Zoey Barkow)
MERRITT WEVER graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts.
Wever has appeared in such feature films as Righteous Kill, Into The Wild, Michael Clayton, Neal Cassady, Twelve & Holding, A Hole In One, Season Of Youth, Bringing Rain, Signs, Series 7: The Contenders, The Adventures Of Sebastian Cole, Arresting Gena, Tough (‘Best Actor’ award, First Run Film Festival), Greenberg, The Missing Person and Tiny Furniture.
Her television credits include Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Conviction, ¼ Life, NCIS, The Wire, Blue River, Something The Lord Made, The Good Wife. She was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Nurse Jackie.
Her theater appearances include Sam & Lucy, Bad Girls, Smashing, Cave Dweller, Roulette, Cape Cod Souvenirs, To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, Running On Earth, Here We Are, Children Of The Flames, Female of the Species, Touch(ed), The Illusion and Uncle Vanya (2012 Joe A. Callaway Award).
PAUL SCHULZE
(Eddie Walzer)
PAUL SCHULZE is a true New Yorker: he was raised on the East Side and attended S.U.N.Y. Purchase in Westchester County where he was exposed to theater. Not long after graduating, he landed his first feature film role in the critically acclaimed, independent filmLaws of Gravity, which co-starred fellow S.U.N.Y. Purchase alum Edie Falco. Schulze went on to star in numerous films and television series, most notably inThe Sopranoswhere he played ‘Father Phil Intintola,’ a priest with an arguably inappropriate fondness for ‘Carmela Soprano’ (played by Falco). He also appeared for three seasons in the hugely successful series24as CTU director ‘Ryan Chappelle’ before his character’s unexpected and controversial demise.
Schulze’s other film credits includePanic Room, where he played the rookie cop opposite Jodie Foster in one of the film’s most memorable and intense scenes, andRambo, the latest installment in the franchise, where he played missionary ‘Michael Burnett’ who continually butts heads with Sylvester Stallone’s character.
Schulze turned in an emotional performance on the crime-dramaLaw & Order: SVU, playing ‘Patrick Holbart,’ a father who has unknowingly sold his children into a human trafficking ring. He also recently guest starred on various TV series such asFairly Legal, Person of Interest, Franklin & Bash, and The Mentalist. Paul will next appear in the road trip comedy You Are Here alongside Zack Galifianakis, Amy Poehler, and Owen Wilson.
DOMINIC FUMUSA
(Kevin Peyton)
DOMINIC FUMUSA recently starred in Sarah Ruhl's critically-acclaimed Passion Play in New York. Other recent stage work includes Stephen Belber’s hit play Fault Lines, directed by David Schwimmer at the Cherry Lane Theater. In New York and in London, Fumusa originated the role of ‘Toddy Koovitz’ in Richard Greenberg’s Tony® Award-winning Take Me Out, directed by Joe Mantello. In New York, London and Los Angeles, he created the character of ‘Vince’ (a role that was specifically written for him) in Stephen Belber’s Tape. He also starred in the New York premiere of Melissa James Gibson's Obie Award-winning Sic at SoHo Repertory. Fumusa made his Broadway debut opposite Marisa Tomei and Quentin Tarantino in Wait Until Dark. Other Broadway credits include A Flea In Her Ear at the Roundabout Theater Company. In addition, he portrayed Mitch Albom in a six-month, twelve-city national tour of Tuesdays With Morrie, opposite Harold Gould. Regional credits include plays at the Guthrie, Huntington, Kennedy Center, Actors Theater of Louisville, Williamstown, NY Stage & Film, The Stratford Festival of Canada and Chicago Shakespeare.
Fumusa’s television credits include Damages,Sex and the City, The Sopranos, SHOWTIME’s Brotherhood, Person of Interest, Bones,Kings, NYPD Blue, Hack, Numb3rs, Threshold, and numerous appearances on Law & Order and CSI.
His feature film work includes the recently released independentfilms Allegiance (with Aidan Quinn),Staten Island/ aka Little New York(opposite Ethan Hawke) and Helena FromThe Wedding. Other features include Management (with Jennifer Anistonand Woody Harrelson), This Is A Story About Ted And Alice (opposite Melissa Leo), Dealbreaker (directed and written by Gwyneth Paltrow), Grilled (opposite Burt Reynolds), andThe Guru(opposite Heather Graham).
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH
(Mrs. Gloria Akalitus)
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH has performed in film, television and on stage. She has received numerous awards for her work including the prestigious 2013 Gish Prize for achievement in the arts and the 1996 MacArthur Award.
Smith has been featured in several films, including Rachel Getting Married, The American President, The Human Stain, Dave and Rent. She was a regular on the CBS series Presidio Med and she played the National Security advisor on the West Wing.
Smith has been said to have created a new form of theater which combines journalism, dramatic writing and keen acting skills. She creates one-person shows, based on interviews, in which she portrays several characters – as many as 46 in one show.She has toured the US and abroad, to critical acclaim with herplays Fires in the Mirror, Twilight Los Angleles and Let Me Down Easy. Those plays were also broadcast on PBS.
She has received honorary degrees from Juilliard, The University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern among many other schools. She is a professor at New York University and is the author of the books Talk To Me: Travels in Media and Letter to a Young Artist: Straight Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts. She is founding director of Anna Deavere Smith Works an organization that convenes artists from around the world who use art to enhance the betterment of humankind.
RUBY JERINS
(Grace)
RUBY JERINS played Robert Pattinson’s sister in the Summit feature, Remember Me.In 2010, Jerins starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsesefeature, Shutter Island.
The daughter of artist Edgar Jerins and actress AlanaJerins, and sister of child actress Sterling Jerins, she made her début in the film The Wedding in 2001,alongside Jaid Barrymore and Stephen C. Bradbury, playing the flower girl.Jerins has also guest-starred or recurred in television series such as Kidnapped, Law & Order, The Guding Light, As The World Turns, Six Degrees and SNL.