How does one follow up an act that led to the creation of a classic television character? For Edie Falco, most recently seen in her challenging, Emmy-winning turn as Carmela Soprano, another TV project was just what the doctor — or, in this case, nurse — ordered.
“After The Sopranos, I read a whole lot of stuff,” Falco tells me. “I read some interesting movies. Nothing really grabbed me. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, I guess you do movies now.’ And then at some point I realized how much I really did love doing a series. I went back into it with some trepidation, because it is a big commitment. And certainly in a conservatory school, [like] where I went at Purchase [College], you don’t talk about doing television. That’s like the big no-no, you know? Big sellout or whatever. It just so happened that the scripts that I responded to mostly as an actor have been on television.”
The script that drew Falco’s attention most was for Showtime’s new Monday night series Nurse Jackie, premiering June 8. It’s doubtful that the folks at Purchase can fault her for accepting such a gripping and unique script. Although Falco plays ER nurse Jackie Peyton, it becomes obvious right away that this is no mere medical drama, or “disease of the week” series. In fact, it’s kind of hard to pigeonhole exactly what it is. It’s part M*A*S*H, part Scrubs, with a little of Nip/Tuck and ER thrown in. That, and the fact that Jackie herself cannot be nailed down as a typical TV nurse, was part of its appeal to the actress.
“We’re both sort of low-maintenance individuals,” Falco says, comparing herself with Jackie. “Certainly [different] coming from where I just came from [playing Carmela]. [Jackie’s] not about that stuff. And I’m not either, actually. I try to be nice when I’m able to, and I don’t think she cares as much as I do about that, which is one of the things that intrigued me about her. It must be nice to just get that out of the way and get what you need. But there’s a price to pay for that as well.
“As we were making [the series],” she continues, “I did find myself wondering, like, ‘What the hell is this? [laughs] I don’t really know what we’re making!’ I’ve been saying to my friends, ‘I guess I’m not sure what kind of show this is.’ And they said, ‘Is it all right if it’s not necessarily any one kind of show, or can it be all of these things?'”
It’s definitely all right. The show is dramatic, yet also features dark (very dark) humor. The strength of Jackie, as channeled through Falco’s performance — which should net her another Emmy nomination — permeates the ER right from the start. But while she is a caring nurse, she is also very flawed. “Quiet and mean — those are my people,” she tells a student nurse. “I don’t do chatty.” A lapsed Catholic, Jackie still manages to do unto others, but sometimes by using perhaps morally questionable methods: She forges a deceased bicycle messenger’s ID to make him into an organ donor. She happens to “lose” the severed ear of a smug, “untouchable” diplomat brought in after raping and cutting up a woman. She regularly helps herself to the hospital’s painkillers.
When Jackie repeats a quote from St. Augustine — “Lord, make me good. But not yet.” — it perfectly reflects the battle between her desire to work good, and her personal demons, indiscretions and earthly desires. That conflict briefly comes to the surface during the quieter scenes when we see Jackie alone and we manage to glimpse a few of the chinks in her armor.
“I’m sure that’s a big part of what keeps her going, is to reconcile the various battles she has going,” says Falco. “[But] she knows what she wants and she goes about getting it. She crosses a lot of lines to get what she needs, and I always find that sort of intriguing.”
Watching the pilot, it seems that in expending so much energy on others, Jackie often doesn’t get what she needs for herself, or perhaps ignores those needs. But Falco has a somewhat different take.
“I would say [she doesn’t take care of herself] off the top of my head. But I think by doing all these things for all these people, she is attending to her own self. That’s obviously something she needs in her life, is to feel like she’s doing a lot for a lot of people. So in that way she is taking care of herself. I think what I get is she’s dedicated to everything that she’s doing when it’s in front of her. She’s 100% committed to what she’s doing at the moment. And if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be doing it. It seems to me she’s the kind of person who doesn’t waste a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t really empassion her in some ways.”
Being so strong-willed and a “little on the edgy side,” as Falco explains it, Jackie is also first in line to confront arrogant, incompetent doctors and hospital red tape.
“She doesn’t have a lot of energy for bullshit,” Falco says. “I think they do activate something in her, all of the bureaucracy and crap that stands between her and helping somebody. Anybody who’s been in a hospital, even just visiting someone, knows about all the stuff that goes on to make it a difficult experience. I don’t think there’s anybody who’s not going to relate to it on some level. There isn’t anybody who hasn’t had to deal with a hospital or health care professional in their life and has some feeling about it, either being one themselves and realizing just how hard it is to get stuff done, or having been in a hospital and whatever their experience might have been. Somebody’s got something to say about it.”
In studying for the role, Falco encountered the difficult experiences of being an ER nurse, even though she normally doesn’t go through that process for a role. But she felt it was less important to learn the medical aspects of the ER than how the nurses interact with each other. Still, being in such tense surroundings was “not a lot of fun,” according to the actress. It’s lucky for her that she isn’t squeamish about such things. “For years and years I had been watching this show called Trauma: Life in the ER. I just absolutely love it. The fact that I end up playing an ER nurse all these years later is unbelievably serendipitous, really. My friends can’t watch [that] show, but I am completely obsessed with these crazy injuries people have and how they’re fixed.”