Natasha Calis Talks ‘Nurses’ Season 1 [Interview]

The latest medical drama to hit our television screens is one with an awful lot of heart. Filmed and set in Toronto, Nurses follows five young nurses working at a busy hospital. The series first aired on Global TV, and recently began airing on NBC.

I had the chance to chat with Natasha Calis, who plays Ashley Collins on Nurses, about her role on the series and what makes it unique.

Calis has been able to enjoy seeing two separate audiences react to the show. It first premiered in Canada, where the cast was able to engage in the moment. Now, amidst a pandemic, the series is airing in the United States.

“It’s very surreal. But seeing all of the positive responses — and people seem to be enjoying it — and engaging with people via Twitter, and Instagram, and social media, it’s been pretty cool,” Calis said.

As for how Calis landed the role of Ashley on Nurses, there’s a lesson to be learned in her story. 

“My agent sent me the script and the audition for Nurses. And it was followed by a phone call with him saying, ‘Hey, I think you’re a little young for this role, but put yourself on tape, and give it your best shot.’ So immediately there was this kind of fire within me, where I’m like, ‘No. I’m going to prove him wrong. I’m not too young. This role is meant for me. I’m perfect for this,'” Calis recalled.

“So I piled on a bunch of makeup because I thought that was going to make me look older. I put on some glasses. I wear glasses — which I usually, obviously, just wear my contacts. But I put on my glasses for this role. And I was like, ‘I’m going to come across as old and mature, and I’m going to do this.'”

Calis put herself on tape for the audition and sent it to her agent. The response she got was not quite what she expected.

“Immediately after I sent it to him, he goes, ‘Great. Casting loves you. Lose the makeup. Lose the glasses. Retape.'”

She did exactly that, and the rest is history.

“It was kind of funny because, for some reason, I guess, just the little seed that had been planted in my mind, with my agent saying that, “You’re too young.” I immediately thought that just me acting wasn’t good enough. I have to pile on the makeup and sell myself as older. But then it turned out that I didn’t need to do that.”

Calis said Ashley is quite different from her, but that makes her even more fun to play.

“I love playing people opposite from me, and I really get to dive deep and internally find other connections with them. There’s so much more to Ashley than meets the eye. You first meet her, and she might not be the most likable character, and she has a tough face and a hard shell. But then, as the season goes on, you discover that there is such a depth to her and such an emotional vulnerability to her. And she’s so caring and compassionate, empathetic, and protects the people that she loves at any cost. So I loved that I was able to experiment with all the different layers of her,” Calis said.

“And by the end, quite honestly, I discovered so many similarities between us that I wasn’t aware of when we were first filming the first few episodes,” she continued. “So that was a really interesting process.”

Calis said those similarities came down to empathy, compassion, and vulnerability. “That was really fun, to be able to portray, and to tap into my own emotions when doing certain scenes or connecting with certain patients.”

It’s true that on Nurses, Calis’s character Ashley has that tough exterior. That affects her relationships with the other characters on the show, though those dynamics will evolve a bit throughout the season.

“Right off the bat, Ashley and Grace get off on the wrong foot. And I think Ashley, like I say, has a hard time opening up to people and letting people in, so immediately she’s not the most liked nurse out of the group. But as the season progresses, and as relationships develop, they all become close, and they all become a family. Ashley lets everyone in and has everyone’s back. I think that’s also really important.”

In a sea of medical TV shows, there’s one key thing that sets Nurses apart — and it’s a good reason to tune in to the show. What is it? It’s right there in the title itself.

“There’s so many medical shows out there that really just center around the doctors. And in a lot of cases, the doctors, just as part of the storyline, they’re actually doing a lot of what the nurses would be doing. They’re doing a lot of the nurse’s job. So I think we wanted to accurately portray and showcase just how much nurses do in a hospital,” Calis said. 

“Their role is so important in the hospital. It’s so much more than just medicine. There’s so much, as I keep saying, empathy and compassion involved, and they’re their patients’ emotional support system. I think now, more than ever, we really wanted to showcase that.” 

“There was definitely a newfound respect that I developed for nurses,” she said. “I keep saying this, but it’s so much more about human connection and being emotional support for your patients. And really caring for them and making them feel comfortable in any situation.”

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Be sure to catch Natasha Calis on Nurses, airing Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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