- With "The Red Bracelets", "Good Doctor", "New Amsterdam", the medical series is experiencing a new golden age, ten years after the end of "Emergencies"
- Broadcast from this Wednesday on TF1, "The Resident" offers a unique look at the American medical system, and the dynamics of medicine versus business.
- Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood plays Doctor Bell, chief of surgery, ready to do anything to hide his mistakes and manipulations
EDIT: On the occasion of the arrival this Wednesday on TF1 of the series The Resident, we invite you to re-read this interview published on February 19, 2019 during its broadcast on Warner TV
From the Red Bracelets , soon back on TF1, to the Grey's Anatomy longevity record and the success of Good Doctor , the medical series is currently experiencing a new golden age, ten years after the end of Emergencies . Among the new features, The Resident , broadcast from this Wednesday on TF1, is perhaps the most original, almost revolutionary. It offers a new perspective on the American hospital system, both service and business, and the two do not always mix.
To the vocation and the sacrifice of the interns responds the cynicism and the greed of the ovipositions, embodied in the series by doctor Bell, chief of surgery, who, from the first scene, kills a patient by mistake and asks his staff to cover. It is brilliantly interpreted by Bruce Greenwood, fetish actor of the Canadian scenario writer Atom Egoyan ( Exotica , Of beautiful tomorrows ), three times president of the United States on the screen, and star of the short but cult series Man of nowhere and John from Cincinnati . Despite a rich career spanning four decades, Bruce Greenwood remains unknown to the general public, and his talent largely underestimated, an error that The Resident could repair and which is well worth an interview with 20 Minutes .
"The Resident" is not the first time you wear a white coat, you have been Dr. Seth Griffin in the series "Hôpital St Elsewhere".
It was thirty years ago already, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. I don't know if you remember, but I was wearing what's called… a mule! I didn't think I was credible as a doctor with this cut, let alone a career, but I managed to get out of it. (laughs) My hair is shorter and grayer today, and if I was an intern in St Elsewhere, I am now chief of surgery. It is as if Seth Griffin had become Randolph Bell, as if his narcissism and his ego had been nourished for several decades and that they were at the maximum of their harmful power.
There are already several medical series, what attracted you to "The Resident"?
You should also know that a network series is a big commitment, we are talking about twenty-two episodes per season. It was a difficult, delicate choice. But I liked the dynamics of money versus medicine, of care versus costs. And playing a character whose hour of glory has passed, so sure of himself that he doesn't realize his own downfall, I thought it would be interesting, stimulating.
At the beginning of the series, you are presented as the big boss, the big bad guy, but it is ultimately more complicated than that…
The reason why Dr. Bell entered the “business” of medicine was not business but medicine. He has a scientific spirit, a desire to help people, but with the years, the decades, the business made him lose sight of his ethics. Just as his love for operating has diminished with his abilities, he does not accept it. He is ready to do anything to hide it.
Still difficult to know if its trajectory will be the story of a fall or a redemption. I would compare the character to an out of control plane. He sometimes stabilizes, then loses control again, most often because of his huge ego. I hope he realizes that he has to learn to master it before it is too late.
How many times have I said to myself, ok, Dr. Bell is cooked, Bruce Greenwood is going to leave the series…
Ah ah! That's what's great about the playoffs. They manage to put their characters on rails while a train is rushing on them, and make them jump at the last moment. But, to keep this image, Dr. Bell will eventually be hit. It remains to be seen whether he will survive or not, it will depend on the authors and the story they want to tell. He has done many condemnable, immoral things, is redemption possible, and should it be granted?
"The Resident" shows behind the scenes, not very shining of hospitals, that it is not only a question of saving lives but also of politics, of money…
I do not know what the situation is in France, but in North America, whether in Canada and its public health care system or in the United States with the pharmaceutical lobby, everyone has already faced problems of money in the hospital. Or how by wanting to avoid spending a dollar, we endanger the lives of patients. In Canada, there is not enough money and people have to wait, sometimes too long, while in the United States, doctors are rewarded by big companies for charging patients. The system is broken.
Season 2, for example, tackles defective medical implants [before the “Implant Files” scandal broke out]. There is a strange law from the 70s that when you create a device, future versions or updates do not need to be tested. Because the first was. Imagine, an implant designed decades ago but never retested. Of course, the idea is to improve it, but nothing says that it will work. These new implants will never have seen the inside of a body, until I, you or a member of your family is used as a guinea pig. This is also the subject of the documentary The Wounds of Medicine on Netflix.
With "The Resident", "Good Doctor", "New Amsterdam" and always "Grey's Anatomy", isn't the hospital the most political place on TV today?
It may be, but I think we should also take a look at the universities. A friend told me about the political bullshit he has to swallow every day, it's impressive. The scientific community is also not immune to lies, manipulation, etc. But if it is said that the hospital can be a hostile, toxic place, it is worth remembering that those who work there are most often very attentive and overworked. I surveyed their corridors last year for family reasons, I can testify.
The series is not very well received by medical authorities or students, it is accused of not being "realistic".
Because it's a TV series. (laughs) I don't think any medical series is as realistic as it would like to be.
You have played not once, not twice, but three times the President of the United States!
I don't know if it's a record, but after JFK in Thirteen Days , the president of Benjamin Gates , I really wanted, for the third, to be a parody. Otherwise, I would have declined. But playing a caricature in Kingsman was very funny. It is often said that I embody a certain figure of authority, which is why I have been offered the role so many times. I am officially announcing my candidacy for 2020, it could not be worse than the current president.
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