NEW AMSTERDAM Post-Mortem: Ryan Eggold on Max’s Win and Directing a ‘Beautiful’ Fantasy Sequence

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, February 22 episode of NEW AMSTERDAM.]

“Turns out, the revolution will be televised,” NEW AMSTERDAM star Ryan Eggold says with a laugh.

On the Tuesday, February 22 episode, “Two Doors,” Max (Eggold) begged his now-former colleagues to help him fight against Veronica (Michelle Forbes) for the soul of New Amsterdam, explaining that a job at an Urgent Care clinic would put a board seat in play. Though initially hesitant, a call from Reynolds (Jocko Sims)—whose confession to Veronica put the kibosh on the Resistance 1.0—helped rally the troops, and Max got a full team, including Bloom (Janet Montgomery), on his side, working at the clinic.

Of course, it’s just a first step in the quest to reclaim the hospital—and how long they can remain under the radar, since the clinic is farmed out through a third-party, is still TBD.

“Sandra Mae Frank[‘s Dr. Wilder], who is so wonderful, has been carrying that [resistance] torch largely in Max’s absence,” Eggold acknowledges. “Veronica is pretty tenacious, and strong, and hard to oust. I know it’s an uphill battle;  they’re fighting. I don’t think Max ever envisioned things getting to this place when he left the hospital. But I think he’s gonna do whatever it takes. I don’t know if he knows entirely what he’s in for, because [Veronica] is so formidable. But he’ll do whatever it takes.”

For Eggold, the hour was also a big win off-screen, as he stepped behind the camera for the second time to direct. But in addition to the norm for the show, the actor-director also had to helm a (gorgeous) fantasy sequence where a dying patient imagined he was able to attend his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

“When I read what Aaron [Ginsburg] wrote, I had a pretty specific idea of what I wanted to do with it and we talked about it,” Eggold recalls. “Thomas [Silcott, who played Lewis] is absolutely fantastic, and we were so lucky to have found him; it wouldn’t have been the same with another actor, because he brought a lot of humanity and empathy and vulnerability and honesty to that part.”

In crafting the bittersweet sequence, “for me, it was really about finding the joy,” Eggold says. “If we played the tragedy of this guy wanting to make it to his daughter’s wedding and him being on death’s door and not making it, it’s just so sad. But Thomas had this great joy about him and this beautiful smile, and warmth and humanity to him. So finding the joy in [the notion] while in life he doesn’t get to make it, experiencing it in his mind and in his heart—just playing through all of that.”

To get the look right, “I wanted candles, and warmth, humanity, life, dancing, joy, fun, and smiling,” Eggold says. “[I wanted us] to just enter this sort of imaginative space coming through that black hallway and then stepping out into this beautiful experience. So, yes, it was really fun to shoot that.”

The hour also ended with a different kind of fantasy sequence, as Max and long-distance love Helen (Freema Agyeman) finally found time to talk—and connect—over the phone, after a day of just missing each other.

“We talked with Aaron, he wrote it beautifully,” Eggold says of working out the sequence with Agyeman. “And [showrunner] David [Schulner], I think he collaborated on that as well. For me, it wasn’t about sex or physical connection or phone sex or anything like that: It was really about two people desperate to connect, emotionally, missing each other all day, and just trying to be somewhere they’re not, trying to be near the person. Trying to reach through the phone and get there.”

“So that’s what we were after: that sense of connection and emotional intimacy,” he continues. “And it was really fun to play it. I do my side with a phone, and I had Freema for a few takes. And then, of course, I’m in the room [directing and, briefly, physically via the fantasy] when Freema’s doing her [scenes] and we get to play a little bit. That was the goal. That was good stuff, too. I was excited that I got to shoot that.”

NEW AMSTERDAM, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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