The Night Shift Brendan Fehr - The Backlot

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Brendan Fehr Clears The Air, Proud of His Work on “The Night Shift”

by Jim Halterman | July 15, 2014

Actor Brendan Fehr (R) as Dr. Drew Alister on NBC’s The Night Shift
Photos: NBC

First, TheBacklot posted a story about an interview actor Brendan Fehr gave with TooFab where he talked about some of his uncomfortable feelings with acting out some of the scenes with on-screen love interest Luke Macfarlane. on the NBC series, The Night Shift.

That story created a whole lot of buzz from our readers, so Fehr responded via Twitter, which we posted in a follow-up story.

So, what did the actor have to say when we caught up with him at the NBC Universal party during the current Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour? Plenty.

The actor owned up to not being too eloquent in his previous statements, talked about how he’s still learning about a community he is not a part of but is portraying on the show and he also joked about working with a good looking guy like Macfarlane.

Series co-creator Jeff Judah was also present to answer questions about the shaping of Fehr’s character and what we’ll see in season 2– including more of Luke Macfarlane!

TheBacklot: Talk to me about your preconceptions about the show and the role.

Brendan Fehr: I don’t think there were any preconceived notions, per se. I mean, I knew what the first script was and I knew how I was going to play him, and I knew the kind of character they wanted me to play. That I was excited about. I think it’s a character that really hasn’t…not that it’s necessarily groundbreaking, but I’m not sure that there’s a character like this on television. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a gay guy played this particular way, you know what I mean?

In terms of a fighter and…there’s nothing really feminine about him. He’s sensitive and we’ve seen him cry. It’s not like he’s some closed off robot, but I don’t recall ever seeing it. So that was something I was excited about. But I was just trying to be realistic in the fact that we live in America and being gay still isn’t accepted by all people for all the things.

So I think I got in a lot of trouble about the risks and the rewards. It was always going to be a reward for me in terms of what I was able to accomplish with it and what I wanted to do. But the risks were obviously in terms of other fans out there. I’ve got a big female [fan] base to a certain degree. Would some people not really want to see me in that role? With the Midwest where people watch TV, would they kind of reject me as an actor in that role? I think those were the risks I was talking about.

And it kind of played itself out and me being straight and not knowing that world entirely and then asked to represent that world. There’s a risk there because there’s going to be miscommunication. I don’t know that world as a gay guy or gay woman who’s grown up in that. You recognize the passion and what these people have gone through and what they’re fighting for, but it’s still not second nature to me. It’s still something that I have to put myself in someone else’s shoes for.

Everything I said in that interview I could have made it clearer and more eloquent. I’m not the most eloquent person in the world. I’m kind of a meat and potatoes type of guy. I hope people have enough common sense to figure out what kind of person I am and to give me the benefit of the doubt when it could go either way.

I do stand by everything [and] I was just being realistic about all the possible things. I was having conversations with people and I took the role and I love the role. I’m proud of what I’ve done with it. I just want to focus on the positive stuff too because it’s fun to kind of go tit for tat with people. I’m that kind of person where I like confrontation. This isn’t the place for it and I think this is one where I want people to like him, you know what I mean?

I had some critics and they said something about playing gay. I said I don’t play him gay, I play him human. Do I get to do some gay stuff? Yes, of course. But it’s like he’s a human being. I play the emotions. I play what he feels. I think that’s the most important part and that’s why I love him because he’s a really specific character. He stands out for me on this show. There are still risks because he is such a great character. Because I am representing something, which is a little bit foreign to me, which makes it exciting. But I don’t want to cater to just the LGBT community. I want people who don’t like homosexuals to begrudgingly go ‘you know, I guess the gay kid’s all right.’ You know what I mean? I want them to be sitting there in Nebraska on their couch going ‘I like the gay one.’

Fehr (l) in a scene with Luke Macfarlane

[Executive Producer/co-creator Jeff Judah joins us]

TBL: The finale is coming up. What can we expect with Drew?

Jeff Judah: His story in the finale is he’s stepping up from being a second year resident to sort of running things more…he’s got to step up and [he’s] got to go out with TC (Eoin Macken]. Suddenly, to us, it’s the Drew character witnessing his surrogate big brother starting to lose his s**t. The person that he’s like ‘this is my guy, this is who I want to be, oh shit.’

BF: Jill [Flint’s] character, Jordan, she gives me the responsibility. She’s like ‘you’ve got to watch TC.’ So, the tables turn a little bit where we’ve got to go to this factory fire and I kind of see him, like Jeff said, unraveling. It’s certainly not a changing of the guard.

JJ: It’s like this slow destruction of everyone’s big brother and hero going to a place of ‘what do we do now?’ For Brendan’s character, Drew, that was a lot of the main thing of this guy like I want to be him. Then suddenly there’s a cost to this…there are elements of PTSD but it’s really about the thing that happens.

(l to r) Eoin Macken, Macfarlane and Fehr

TBL: What would your hope be for Drew in season two? Hopefully Luke will come back.

BF: I mean, I love Luke. He was a great guy. I think it’s just a matter of seeing Drew just grow as a surgeon. I kind of bridge that gap between Eoin, Jill and Ken [Leung’s] characters. They’re kind of the surgeons and then you have the residents. I’m right in between there. But I think in terms of what we see at the end of this [season], I think he’s got to step up a little bit and I think we’re going to see that in season two where he’s going to grow as a surgeon and then he’s going to be a part of helping out that hospital. I think there’s going to be a little bit more of the presence of the veterans and the military. I think we’re going to try and fit that into Drew’s storyline within the hospital setting.

TBL: Well, if you had to get broken in to playing a gay role, doing it with Luke Macfarlane is not a bad thing.

BF: [laughs] No, it’s not. I got pissed when they hired someone who was better looking than I was! I was like ‘I want to be the good looking one in this relationship, assholes.’

JJ: We used to joke about when we were editing it because they look so much alike, we’re like ‘is he gay or is he just into himself?’

TBL: I’m guessing the sexuality part is not going to be as big of an issue because a lot of it’s been dealt with, right?

JJ: I can tell you more about it. My brother-in-law is gay and lives in Baltimore. I’ve been with my wife 21 years, so I’ve known him for 23 years. I’ve seen this is in the bear world.

TBL: [to Brendan] Do you know about the bears?

BF: [laughs] I do know about the bears.

JJ: My brother-in-law’s world has never been reflective. The guys he knows are FedEx drivers and UPS guys and it’s Baltimore, blue collar guys. When we first pitched the show, when I first talked to Bob [Greenblatt, NBC Chairman] about it, it’s like every gay guy you see in television wears green checked suits and sings show tunes. It annoys the shit out of me because it’s not the experience that I’ve had through my brother-in-law, who I’m very close to. So I’ve been with him and he’s married now. It’s like, the guys aren’t like that. They’re just not like it. It’s a different world and you’re seeing that with all the athletes coming out. I mean we were really dogmatic in trying to nail it of just saying it’s a different world.

TBL: So, assuming you get Luke back for season two…

JJ: He’ll be back.

TBL: Good! Do you have an idea where the story will go for that relationship?

JJ: A lot of it is we’re going to get into the VA of it all. Luke is a wounded warrior now. There’s a place called The Intrepid Center that I’ve been telling Brendan about in San Antonio, which is just mind blowing. They have these apartments setup so if someone loses a leg [or] an arm, they go there and they learn how to be self-sufficient. They have this three dimensional video machine thing. If someone lost their legs, they’ll put them on this table and it kind of vibrates. It gives the feeling of running. Their body is projected on legs and it shows what it’s going to look like for them. They actually see themselves running.

The season finale of The Night Shift airs tonight at 10pm on NBC.