Doctor Odyssey Actor Sean Teale has genuine affection for his character Tristan on the ABC medical drama.
“I'm very defensive of him. I like it a lot,” says the British actor The Hollywood journalist. “You have to love the person you play, in a way. I have always found this to be a helpful thing for me.
In Doctor OdysseyTeale's character, Tristan, is one third of the medical team on the luxury cruise ship The Odyssey, with Joshua Jackson's Max and Philippa Soo's Avery acting as doctor and nurse respectively. While Tristan may seem annoying and immediately objects to Max's arrival, Teale is discovering and showing his character's “golden retriever nature.”
“There's a very obvious way it could be played, and then there's a way that's funnier,” he says of the character's evolution after four episodes aired. “I like this idea. I like the challenge.
Tristan, Avery and Max quickly develop a love triangle of sorts. The three all spoke about their positive working relationship with each other. “I think people tend to say that whether it's true or not, but it was really simple,” Teale explains.
“It felt right very early on,” he says, adding that he and cast members, including Don Johnson, who plays the ship's captain, spend all day together on set laughing and working hard.
“I think we all have ideas and beliefs about who we should play and how we should play it, but it's always in a way that fits together. If there's an argument, it's an argument. It's never a one-sided thing,” adds the actor. Teale says he especially enjoys his scenes with Jackson because “there's so much there.”
“There's a big brother, a little brother. Father, son. There is a rival, there is an equal. There is a compatriot, there is a kind of collaborator. There's a team member, but there's also an enemy,” Teale says. “There's just a lot of stuff in there, and Josh and I probably exchanged a lot of times off set.”
Much like his fellow cast members, Murphy, the series' creator and executive producer, was a big draw for Teale's project. “He's so prolific it's hard to understand,” Teale says of the producer who has launched six series this fall. “The point is, no one even knows what's going on in his head, which is fascinating.”
Since then Doctor Odyssey was first teased, people began to speculate whether Murphy's fantastical series — which he says is a tribute to the ABC shows of his youth — was really what it appeared to be. And once the series premiered, questions continued to swirl Doctor Odyssey it may all be a fever dream, particularly after finding out that Jackson's Max was one of the first people to contract COVID-19 in the United States. If he never recovered, The Odyssey and everything viewers watched could be his state of limbo.
This week, however, a similar twist was revealed in another of Murphy's shows, FX horror Grotesque. Murphy spoke THR all thanks to the shocking revelation, in which he explained that, at this point in his career, he just wants the challenge. When asked if this meant the Doctor Odyssey might have some weight to them, the creator simply responded, “No comment.”
Tells Teale THR that he likes that there is online speculation about the show. “I know it's meant to be a kind of fun escapism, but also any theory is a gift because it means people are trying to analyze something in a real way.”
The actor reiterates that no one knows what Murphy is planning other than Murphy himself. “I love that these theories exist,” Teale says. “Me and Don [Johnson] we were talking yesterday. We are not surprised that this theory exists. The show seems to reveal itself to us, the further down we go, like this fantasy.
“It's an amazing place, and the way we portray it, the way we film it, the sheen we give it, it's understandable that people have these ideas,” he says.
“Maybe there's a reason for all this,” he continues. “I will not divulge anymore.”
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Doctor Odyssey airs new episodes Thursdays at 9pm on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu. Light THRwith interviews from Jackson and Soo.