Charge nurse Maggie Lockwood almost lost her job this season on NBC’s “Chicago Med,” but luckily for viewers of the show she remains firmly in place. As played by Marlyne Barrett, she is unflappable and the show’s moral bedrock.
The medical profession is not unfamiliar to Barrett: Her mother is a neonatal intensive care unit nurse, her father a medical engineer and one of her sisters is a doctor.
“It’s a gift that comes with pressure,” she said. “When you’re on a show like this, your accountability for what’s going on right now in society deepens because so many people are struggling with health care. I was raised in Canada, so I was fortunate to never have to think about it. But when I came to the U.S. and the first time I got a bill for $2,000 for seeing the doctor, I was blown away.”
Hospital shows tend to focus on the case (or cases) of the week. That’s where the emphasis lies. “I’ll be very honest, I know my character is not the most developed — and you can put that in the article! — but there are some sacrifices that you must make to work with great people. And that’s a choice that I’m making because that’s how much I want to work with Dick Wolf.”
Even early on in her career, “I had a plethora of actors who taught me you better be doing this for the right reasons,” she said. One of those was Gene Hackman.
My worst moment …
“After college, I did my master’s training at the Stella Adler School of Acting in New York. I was perky-eyed and ‘let’s do the theater thing.’ I was in my early 20s at the time and you’re doing 40 hours a week in school and then there’s about 20 hours of rehearsal — and then most of us had jobs at the same time, because you have to pay for school.
“Over the summer I was in Montreal and David Mamet was going to be shooting a film there with Sam Rockwell, DelRoy Lindo, Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito called ‘Heist.’ DelRoy Lindo played this criminal type with this pin-up girlfriend and I auditioned for the role.
“Well, the movie got pushed back and they didn’t shoot it over the summer. So I go back to school and guess what, we’re studying David Mamet that semester. And one day I’m called to the administration office because there was a phone call from my (talent) representation in Canada telling me I booked the job!
“Now remember, you’re not supposed to do that while you’re in drama school because they’ve basically put an ensemble together and it’s like a theater company for the time you’re in school. You need to be focused on that and available.
“But I have a chance to do two days on this movie. My agent says, ‘This is the problem, they want you to do two days — but the two scenes they want to shoot with you are rain scenes.’ So the contract is: You come to Canada, wait for it to rain, and that’s when we shoot your scenes.
“The reason they do it that way is because most scenes in the script you can’t shoot when it’s raining. So you have to have something else to shoot — that’s what these scenes were. They build them into the schedule and that way they don’t lose any money not filming because of weather.
“So I said to the head of my department: ‘I’m sorry, I booked a job with David Mamet, I really gotta go.’ And he said, ‘What? No! You’re not allowed!’ Needless to say, I couldn’t see the logic in that and I bounced. I figured I would face the consequences when I got back.
“So I go to Montreal and I ended up spending 21 days there waiting for it to rain. I mean, it was a bimbo role. My big line was, ‘Where we going, babe?’ and then something to the effect of, ‘Come on, big daddy.’
“But I was there waiting for 21 days. And part of my negotiation was, since I was studying David Mamet in school, could I at least watch him work? And they said, ‘Sure! Come to set and watch David work!’ I was a deer in headlights!
“First day I arrive, I park my car and I’m walking toward the set and I see somebody sitting in a chair and he gets up and he walks towards me. You have to understand, I’m the epitome of boldness at this moment and all of that collapsed as I realize it’s Gene Hackman. I can’t gather my thoughts! I look behind me, I look to my left, I look to my right. I’m so nervous, my palms are sweating. Every instinct was flight. The anxiety. I felt like I was going to have diarrhea. It was really bad. I was so uncomfortable.
“He comes up and he’s an absolute gentleman — ‘My name is Gene’ — and I grabbed his hand and shook it so hard, I thought I was going to rip it off and I kept repeating his last name to him: ‘Hackman, Hackman, Hackman.’
“I mean, if there was anyone I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of, it was Gene Hackman. I felt so stupid! I wanted to play it cool and it wasn’t happening. I was sweating bullets and my hair, which was blow-dried beautifully, was turning into an afro. I couldn’t behave like a normal human being!
“The following day I come back and I decide I’m going to go to the makeup trailer and collect my thoughts before going to set, and I open the door and Gene Hackman’s sitting in the makeup chair and I’m like, ‘This nightmare will never end!’ He says, ‘Hey, Marlyne!’ And I’m like, ‘Aw, flip.’ He introduces me to his wife and I felt like an idiot. And he goes, ‘Ask me anything you want.’ And I said, ‘If you had any advice to give me right now, what would you say?’ and he said, ‘Stay just the way you are, and never be impressed by the stardom around you.’
“I felt like he was passing on knowledge. Actors of his generation understand the legacy of acting in a way that I’m not sure we understand today. The study of it, the responsibility of it. I learned so much just being able to talk to him during that movie.”
Where there repercussions when she returned to school?
“There were. I had been cast as a lead in one of the plays and it was a blessing and a punishment because I wasn’t prepared to support my fellow actors. And because of that, production stunk. It was bad. And it was my fault. It was a tough lesson and I remember it very clearly: I couldn’t learn the lines. It forced me to face my irresponsibility — an unprepared actor, no matter how cute you are, can have an effect on everyone’s career.
“Looking back, I probably would do it again and the simple reason is that the mistakes I’ve made have made me who I am today. But I also wish I would have had the maturity back then to let the opportunity go and trust that I was a strong enough actor to not have to take that job. I wish I had taken my responsibilities at school more seriously. Today, my word is my word. My word is bond.”
The takeaway ...
“I allowed my vanity to get the best of me. I had a lot of confidence and you have to balance that with humility. I came back a different person after working on that film. I think the slap across the face for me was letting my fellow acting students down. That probably had a bigger effect on me than it would have before I had that experience with Gene Hackman, who really showed me what professional integrity looked like.”
nmetz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @Nina_Metz
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