Checking in with MATT CZUCHRY
“The Resident” can’t ignore the current times health-wise, and it’s not about to.
When the Fox medical drama returns for its fourth season Tuesday, Jan. 12, it will resume in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. While the doctors suffer losses due to COVID-19, the series also advances its timeline relatively quickly, enabling hospital colleagues and longtime loves Conrad and Nic – played by Matt Czuchry and Emily VanCamp – to proceed with their wedding.
“I think the right word for it is ‘responsibility,’ ” says pleasant “Gilmore Girls” and “The Good Wife” alum Czuchry. “If we didn’t address the pandemic, we would be irresponsible, We do that in Episode One, but it’s equally important to note that at the end of that episode, we’re in a post-pandemic world, And that follows through in Episodes Two, Three and so forth.
“Everyone is overwhelmed with the pandemic in their personal lives, so if people are kind enough to spend their time with us, I hope it will be an escape,” Czuchry reasons, noting that having the wedding as the coda to a COVID-intensive story is “the balance we’ve tried to strike. Everyone’s struggling, but at the same time, we’re hopeful that we’re going to get through it and come out on the other side and find something better.”
Czuchry recalls his elevator ride to his “Resident” audition with series co-creator and executive producer Amy Holden Jones, and telling her the pilot script reminded him of doing “The Good Wife.” He reflects that both have “a moral ambiguity. Not everything is all good nor all bad, and I love how we address that through the medical genre.”
Birthdate: May 20, 1977
Birthplace: Manchester, N.H.
Current residence: Los Angeles
Marital status: Single
Other television work includes: “The Good Wife,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Veronica Mars,” “Justice League Unlimited” (voice only), “Hack,” “Jake 2.0,” “7th Heaven,” “The Practice,” “Young Americans,” “Freaks and Geeks”
Movie work includes: “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” “Swimming Upstream,” “A Midsummer Night’s Rave,” “Eight Legged Freaks”
On working in Atlanta while living in Los Angeles: “When I’m in Atlanta, it’s all about ‘The Resident’ ... but when I go back to L.A., it’s a different feeling, because I’m not working there. I like that idea of taking a plane to go somewhere and fully invest myself in the work, because that’s the reason I’m there. To do the job.”
Favorite movie: “I had a director who told me to watch leading men, and William Holden in ‘Network’ was someone who really, really stood out for me.”
Favorite TV show you’re not on: “‘Normal People’ kind of blew me away. And I also loved ‘Watchmen’ and ‘After Life.’ ”
Favorite music act: “Dave Matthews Band. I’ve probably seen them in concert 22 times.”