Alex can hold the whole emergency room together even on its toughest days. But taking care of herself is a completely different story, as Allison Tolman says that’s precisely the nature of the character she is playing.
In an exclusive interview with Where Is The Buzz, I sat down with Tolman and her castmate Kaliko Kauahi to talk about the upcoming third season of St. Denis Medical, which airs Monday, November 2, at 8 p.m. EST/PST, with a stream on Peacock the following day.
This mockumentary comedy series is about the hardworking employees of an underfunded hospital in Oregon. In this third season, Tolman once again plays Alex, the hospital’s supervising nurse, while Kauahi plays Val, a seasoned nurse administrator. The series opens its third season with a special guest actor, Damon Wayans, who plays a new doctor.
Since I have seen screeners for this season, I decided to talk about several recurring themes throughout the episodes, such as the difficulty of being the one person others rely on. Alex tends to be that kind of character, and I asked Tolman if that is her greatest asset and the very reason she doesn’t take care of herself.
“Oh, absolutely. I think it’s the thing that’s preventing her from taking care of herself,” Tolman said. “I think Alex is a great nurse. I think she’s a good friend. I think she’s got a lot going for her. I think she’s got terrible boundaries. She just has really awful boundaries.”
“I would love to see her get some better boundaries, but I mean, it’s just not really her personality, you know?” she continued. “She’s also kind of controlling, and so it’s hard to have boundaries when you’re like, ‘Well, I would just do it different and I’m just going to do it myself.’ You know, that’s how she is. She brings it on herself.”
When I mentioned that it is difficult to be a perfectionist and that I could relate to this issue, Tolman agreed with me and said:
“Yeah. Absolutely.”
Unlike the rest of the staff, Val sees all the chaos in the hospital from a different angle. So I asked Kauahi how his character shows something about people whose jobs are crucial to keeping a hospital running, but whose contributions are often underestimated.
“I think that she’s just been around a long time, so she sees things, like you said, from a different perspective. A larger perspective, a wider, you know, glance,” Kauahi said. “And so what they do is important every day, and she respects everyone and their job, but she also is trying to keep people in check when they get out of hand.”
“There’s a way that she likes to do things, and it’s like whatever’s easiest, whatever’s the smoothest,” she added. “Also, she gets bored, and so sometimes she needs to mix things up just to brighten her own day. So that’s her goal, I think.”
I completely agree with this philosophy since sometimes the main idea is simply to survive the whole shift with everyone in a good mood.
These two characters have to keep the hospital running, solve issues, and bring order to chaos. Therefore, I asked if this TV series makes any kind of statement about how women carry an emotional load at work without receiving any appreciation.
“Yeah, I mean, I think that’s certainly the case, and I think it’s no secret that we have a nursing shortage in this country. We need more nurses,” Tolman said. “Nurses are the ones who are doing the day-to-day maintenance in all of these hospitals and in all these medical facilities. They’re the ones who really keep things moving and keep things running.”
According to the history of the profession, Tolman mentioned:
“And I mean, it certainly is changing. This is not the case anymore, but historically it has been a female profession,” she said. “Like, you know, ‘You’re going to be a nurse, you can’t be a doctor, you’re a girl.’ You know what I mean? That’s the messaging that we got when we were younger.”
“So I don’t even know if they’re consciously making a statement,” she added. “I just think that that’s the truth of this world. That’s the truth of the culture, I think, in hospitals. So it’s nice to be able to portray that and to kind of bring that to light a little bit.”
Kauahi agreed that the TV series just reflects real life.
“Yeah, I think we’re just reflecting what it’s like out there, you know, for a lot of people in the workplace and in hospitals and health care,” Kauahi said. “And yeah, I mean, we all know women are very strong and capable and sometimes need to be the ones running the show. So that’s what they’re doing. They’re just trying to get through, help as many people as they can.”
This strength shows up everywhere in the TV series, even in the moments the characters share. I asked what their fans might find interesting to learn about their lives outside the show, and Tolman gave Kauahi a chance to answer.
“I mean, I think you can tell. I don’t know if they would be surprised that we actually really get along and we all really enjoy the work itself,” Kauahi said. “It’s so great to be on a show. You happen to be working, but to be working on a show that’s actually good, that’s funny, that’s smart, that has heart, and then to be with a cast and a crew that you just all gel and get along with, is the dream.”
“And I think that all of that translates to the screen,” he continued, “Every episode you can see how much we are really like a family in a way.”
For Tolman, the most surprising thing on the TV show’s sets is how many people it takes to create it.
“I think the most surprising thing for anybody coming to a set for the first time, and certainly I wish our fans could see it, I wish we could turn the camera around so they could see the unbelievable number of people that it takes to make our show,” Tolman said. “Not just us on camera, not just the writers and the directors, but every single crew member, the people who are making sure that we’re fed, the people who are making sure that we are in a van to get where we’re supposed to be going. It’s like hundreds and hundreds of people.”
“Anytime I’ve had someone come visit, they’re like, ‘Whoa, this is a big operation,'” she said. “And I’m like, ‘I know. It takes a lot of people to make a TV show.’ It really does.”
