The Resident

Season 1 FOX (*125) 21:00 Drama

Melina Kanakaredes is back in a white coat for medical drama The Resident (2018-current), but there’s a world of difference between her new character – ambitious oncologist Dr Lane Hunter – and sweet-natured plastic surgeon Dr Sydney Hansen from Melina’s previous medical drama Providence (1999-2002). We chatted to the 50-year-old on a call to Los Angeles to find out how Dr Lane operates at home and in surgery.

“She came alive for me when I spoke to the show’s creator Amy Holden Jones before I even started and she told me that Lane’s story was based on real-life events,” says Melina. “It is a challenge because we are different. I have played wonderful roles of smart and virtuous women, showing how they hold their values against the system. But with Lane, the majority of people watching her would say that she has been skewed by being hooked on power and money.”

Money is driving Lane to the point where Melina says it’s consuming her career. “Slowly we see her greed unfold, while she has an explanation for everything she does.” The actress adds that “due to Lane’s success, she has become more and more lost in her understanding – and this is Melina talking; Lane would never say that she’s lost! Lane believes that she is doing what is the best for her patients and making great money. She looks at it like, ‘If you’re at the end of your life and especially in stage- 4 cancer, why not try everything? Why not go to the 11th degree and go through as many clinical trials as possible? You have nothing to lose.’ So sometimes she goes overboard. And then there’s the financial gain and that fatal flaw, that hubris. It’s so much fun to play because Lane feels justified in what she does while Melina is rolling her eyes, going , ‘She is impossible!’”