Brilliant Minds Interview: Tamberla Perry on NBC Medical Drama With Zachary Quinto

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Brilliant Minds star Tamberla Perry about the medical drama. Perry discussed her character, what makes the show special, and more. Starring Zachary Quinto, the series premieres Monday, September 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

“Inspired by the extraordinary life and work of world-famous author and physician Oliver Sacks, Brilliant Minds follows a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier – the human mind – while grappling with their own relationships and mental health,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: You’re great in Brilliant Minds, and so is Zachary Quinto in this. I’ve never seen something where he’s not on as an actor, but he seems just extremely on in this role. How is he as a scene partner? Because he’s just firing on all cylinders here.

Tamberla Perry: I wanna start off by saying for the audience who haven’t seen the show, Brilliant Minds is inspired by the life and works of a renowned neurologist, Dr. Oliver Sacks of whom Zachary bases his character, Dr. Oliver Wolf, off of. We follow Dr. Wolf and his team of interns as they navigate the last great frontier, which is the human mind.

With that being said, Zachary is amazing. I had so many friends ask me, “Is he as intense as he looks?” Like you would not believe the amount of text messages that specifically said, “Is he intense?” And to that, I responded, “Not at all.” He is a fool, and he’s so fun. We have this really great rapport off camera, and I know it translates on camera because my character Carol Pierce is actually based off of Carol Burnett, who was a real-life friend and colleague of Dr. Oliver Sacks. So this isn’t something that we had to create from scratch, so to speak. We had a template, even though we aren’t tethered to the time constraints of that period, the 1960s, but Carol Burnett and Dr. Oliver Sacks were actually really, really good friends in real life.

It definitely does translate to the screen because your two characters have such fun interactions because you’re able to give him a hard time. But you still obviously have his best interest in mind. What do you like most about that dynamic? It’s very fun to watch.

No, that’s exactly it. You answered your own question. I do give him a hard time. Because I know where he came from and I know that a lot of people see him as a challenging physician to work with. People don’t wanna work with him because of those things. So it’s my job as his colleague, as his friend who brings him over to sort to my hospital to sort of ground him and say, “Hey, if you do X, Y, and Z here, you’re not gonna have another chance.” Where the other places people just aren’t having that conversation with him. They’re just not giving him another chance.

But Carol knows that her friend is a genius. She knows that he is going to literally step into the shoes of his patients in order to figure out what it is that’s going wrong with them. That’s the type of energy, that’s the type of doctor she needs on her team. She recruits him to this hospital so that they can create this neuropsychology dream team and help these patients that other people have discarded.

I think you’ve phrased it perfectly about him putting himself in the shoes of his patients. Because when watching the show, what really struck me was just the empathy that the show has for all of the patients. It’s not something you always see in a medical drama. There’s always a care, but this is just a next level of just really trying to understand and help these people. I thought that was a really beautiful aspect of the show. Could you speak to that element?

Yeah, absolutely. Again, that’s one of the things that struck me about the show. Tyler, when you watch our show week to week, you’re not gonna get cases where people are coming in at the beginning with a thing, and then they’re leaving at the end of the episode with that thing fixed. That’s not where you’re gonna get with this show. This show is about the brain. The show is about mental health, and just like how you wouldn’t go into your therapy session expecting to be fixed in an hour. That’s not what we’re doing here. We are giving people adaptability tools, things that they can go out into the world and function with.

How do I live in this new normal? We’re gonna get to the bottom of whatever is causing it in the brain, but we’re gonna give you the tools to adapt when you get out in the world. That takes more than a day. That takes more than an episode. That takes more than years, sometimes decades. That’s one of the exciting things you’ll get to see with a lot of our cases and a lot of our patients. They keep coming in and out. Nobody’s fixed in this show.

How was it working with Michael Grassi, the creator of the Brilliant Minds? There’s been so many medical dramas, but this really does feel unique and, and a fresh take.

Michael Grassi, that man, listen, if he writes things for me specifically, he doesn’t even have to ask. He can just go ahead and call my agent and tell them I’m gonna do the show. I will work with that man until the day I die. He’s been from the moment I auditioned, my second or third, third audition was with him and maybe the director or so. From the moment I got on screen with him, he was just so encouraging. He made me feel like I had the job when I know it was probably 10 other girls going up for this role at the same time.

As a showrunner and creator, he has been so collaborative and given me the opportunity to speak up and speak out about any challenges, any issues that I’ve had with the character. I can get on the phone with him at 10-11 PM and say, “Hey, we’re shooting the scene tomorrow, and I know it’s last minute, and I know you don’t have time for my stuff, but this is what’s rubbing up against…” And he always [had an] open door policy about whatever I had and would work with me to get to the point of comfortability for me. So, he is a dream showrunner, and I’m not just saying that, I really, really mean it.