After years of misery in the prestige-TV trenches, Doctor Odyssey himself just wants to have fun.
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He knows its ridiculous.
Thats why he loves it.
For us, the bellwether of a good scene is,Did you enjoy that?
Now well just get into this new normal while I rebuild.
Realistically, Im at least two years away from moving back into my house.
Why is it significant to you thatDoctor Odysseyis an L.A.-based production?L.A.
is the spiritual home of the entertainment industry.
Ive never worked on a more production-run show from day one.
Nobodys figuring it out on the fly.
I want to make a show where everybody can exhale.
Make it sparkle a little bit!
That used to be the basis of the entertainment industry all through the golden era.
Im not pooh-poohing some of these other shows because amazing stories were told.
But a lot of shows lost the fun and are just grindingly heavy all the time.
Thats the mission statement: Just play.
To tell a truly morose story is not that hard.
To be witty and playful and joyful is an intentional choice.
Neither for actors; were not the most together group of people.
Max Bankman is a dashing leading man to an almost cartoonish degree.
What is your take on the character?Hes extremely Marlboro Man in the modern era.
How do you build a character out of that?How to make a human out of the character?
Yeah.Do you think I did?
Because Im not sure I did.
And Im not being self-deprecating.
I feel like Max is more iconographic than anything.
What iconography specifically are you playing on?Theres a lot of Cary Grant in there.
In the modern era, it would be Clooney.
Max always has the answer; hes never thrown by anything that happens.
Even in his moments of self-reflection, hes not really thrown.
Were lifting from that era of man where the pose is important.
Even the posture, the stiffness and rigidity, is very much a part of it.
Cary Grant: famous possible bisexual.Yeah, and those movies were bawdy.
I think were even more conservative now than when I was shootingDawsons Creek.Like, way more conservative.
Even before I was a parent, I recognized that thats the best-case scenario for what could possibly happen.
Two horny teenagers, fully clothed, discussing what would happen if they crossed that bridge together.
At the same time, my teenage character is having sex with his adult teacher, andthatdidnt come up.
Theyre not making love, its not sweet and gauzy thats a different kind of sex.
This sex is notaboutthe sex, its about power.
And theres a transgression to that that is interesting.
You mentioned precode Hollywood, andDoctor Odysseybeing on connection TV seems to echo that.
Everybodys seen that 10,000 times.
Ive weirdly become something of a sex-scene expert over the course of my years of acting.
I had the weirdest conversation with the intimacy coordinator about that.
I had watched this sex scene where theres a certain position that is usually just shot terribly.
Can you specify?Yes.
So in the show, theyre having sex doggy style.
On TV, it never looks like real life.
This is always my problem in these scenes.
I go,Oh man, this is not my experience of sex at all.It never looks vigorous.
I was like,Thats fucking brilliant!Im so disappointed in myself that I never thought of this.
But it has revolutionized the sex-scene game.
I thought that was so much more interesting than just three bodies jumbled on top of each other.
And it really spoke to the storys reason for that to exist.
It has really limited that portion of storytelling.
You have gone through all the phases of sex symbol.
Its not really part of my self-conception.
Ive been doing this for 36 years.
Im very happy to still get to do it and still have people tune in.
Do you feel objectified?Yeah, thats part of it, 1,000 percent.
Not for nothing, we are in those whites 90 percent of the time.
Ryan is extremely disciplined in the length of his scripts.
You really have to focus on doing the edit on the page before it gets to the floor.
I dont actually think thats the plot equipment that drives it.
Thats kind of what the show is.
Were not working onThe Pitt.
Youre working with a gold-accented MRI machine on a cruise ship.The infirmary is like an Art Deco Apple store.
Its not supposed to be camp.
If we were trying to break the fourth wall, it would all fall apart.
But also, youre not going to learn much about medicine watchingDoctor Odyssey,and thats okay.
There are other shows for that.
You have Rachel Dratch or Amy Sedaris doing their thing, playing these characters to the point of absurdity.
Letting these guys cook is amazing.
And then you have the main cast to ground the circus.
She is fabulous in every way.
Don Johnson is giving such a twinkle-in-his-eyes performance.
I heard Sean Teale actually giggle behind me.
Its hard to wring yourself out like that emotionally.
For us, the bellwether of a good scene is Did you enjoy that?
Has a script ever made your jaw drop?The Quackers episode.
I was like, First off, is this a real thing?
The answer was yes.
And then the whole duck in the necrotic bowel.
I was like, This is fucking gross.
But I was wrong.
We did some truly foul shit in that one that did not make it into the episode.
Im not usually squeamish while were shooting, but that was nasty.
Is this leading up to a Broadway Week episode?I hope so.
We have Phillipa Soo, one of the leading-light voices of Broadway.
I am not a very good singer, but I will be game.
We can do anything!
Does your daughter understand what you do?At the highest level?
Yes, she knows I do make-believe for a living, and she has come on set twice now.
She basically stayed in the trailer.
But flash forward nine months, I brought her to work after school and she was more engaged.
As much as possible, Ill just remain Dad.
I am totally for it, 1,000 percent.
Im legitimately all for it.
I think it would be hysterical because then you could do crazy things.
Are we in DantesInferno?
Do we go through the seven circles?
Are we in purgatory one season, then its hell, then were in heaven?
