NBC’s successful medical drama New Amsterdam returns Tuesday following the fall finale’s major cliff-hanger.
Star Ryan Eggold sat down with The Hollywood Reporter In Studio to explain how the series is handling cancer in a “realistic” way.
“It’s hard because you want to tackle cancer in a realistic way, as realistic as you can be on a network television show but it can’t be depressing week after week because it is such an oppressive, overwhelming disease, but it would be nice to show some of the reality of what that treatment looks like and how debilitating it is,” Eggold said.
He added: “There’s a lot of people who don’t want to go through with treatments simply because it is dehumanizing in many ways. It just takes you out of yourself and zaps your energy, and, obviously, it affects the way you look. It’s so demanding on the body.”
The character of Dr. Max Goodwin, and the concept of the show, was based on the true story of Dr. Eric Manheimer, who was the chief medical director at New York’s Bellevue Hospital for 15 years and was also diagnosed with throat cancer during his tenure.
Eggold had the chance to speak with Dr. Manheimer about his experience with the disease, as well as with other patients undergoing cancer treatment.
“Cancer is something that I think affects everybody,” the actor said. “Everybody has somebody in their family, or friend, who’s dealing with it — or themselves — so it’ll be interesting to see how we examine it, and how you have a protagonist of a show deal with this disease.”
Watch the video above to hear Eggold discuss what he learned from meeting Dr. Manheimer, New Amsterdamn’s comparisons to This Is Us, his role in BlackKklansman and more.
