Michelle Trachtenberg

Mercy is the new NBC drama about the nurses at Mercy Hospital. The show will follow Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling), just back from a tour in Iraq, Sonia Jimenez (Jaime Lee Kirchner) and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg), as they navigate the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love, both inside the hospital and out in the real world.

Playing the naive newcomer, Michelle Trachtenberg will also be seen reprising the role of Georgina Sparks on the CW television series Gossip Girl. She recently spoke to IESB about dividing her time between the two roles, which film on opposite coasts.

Q: What’s the importance of having a serious show about nurses?

Michelle: I, myself, was in the hospital recently. As I was walking down the streets of New York, I got a bee sting in my neck, and the very first person to hold my hand was this male nurse, and he was so extraordinary. He had this awesome tattoo of a unicorn, and he was just like, "Honey, you’re going to be okay." The unicorn was very distracting from the bee sting. It was kind of fantastic, I’m not going to lie. But, he was so lovely and so nice, and the doctor was really cool, too. I said, "I’m going to be a nurse," and he got so excited that there was someone that was following their dream. I was like, "Well, I’m going to be a fake nurse, but I’m still going to be a nurse." He did the IV and made sure I was okay, and handed me my ice pack and said that it wasn’t cold enough anymore.

The best thing, for me, about Mercy, is that it’s real people. We’re not sugar-coating things. We’re not glossing over the lives of these people. People will die. We will make mistakes. It’s an honor to be these women. That’s the simplest way to say it. There’s a lot of nurse stuff going on. These women are great. They are the backbone and heart of the medical field, and I think that audiences are interested in real-life people. They don’t want to sugar-coat things.

Q: Did you stay in touch with the cool unicorn guy?

Michelle: I asked for his number and he was like, "Honey, I’m taken," so that was a little bit of a disappointment, but my boyfriend was real happy. No, I didn’t stay in touch, but I hope that he reads this and is like, "I’m the dude with the unicorn," because he made an impression.

Q: How do you like filming in New York for Gossip Girl and L.A. for Mercy?

Michelle: I’m from New York. I get to live in both places, so that’s nice.

Q: How will you deal with juggling two shows?

Michelle: I can’t even begin to guess what the writers have in store. Mercy is definitely something that will take a lot of time and will be spear-headed, so there will be a little bit of a combination of everything.

Q: You’re not leaving Gossip Girl then?

Michelle: Well, we’re filming Gossip Girl right now.

Q: Did Mercy moving to the Fall change anything about the timeline of your roles?

Michelle: We definitely had a set schedule for Gossip Girl. The great news is that, even if Georgina isn’t in as many episodes as one would think, you can’t kill her. She kinda can’t die, ever. So, she’ll always be in and out.

Q: What’s the difference of working on that set, compared to this set?

Michelle: It’s definitely the shoes. We go from Christian Louboutin’s to nurse clogs, which are technically more comfortable. I guess the biggest difference is that there aren’t as many young kids. I can’t imagine that with Mercy we’re going to have hundreds and hundreds of screaming girls lined up, running after all the boys. But, there might be a few older ladies running after James Tupper, which is still fantastic.

They’re two completely different experiences. I love my Gossip Girl family. We are all good friends and love each other. But, I’m excited to start a new family. Family is family. You never leave them.

Q: What can you say about what will happen with Georgina this next season?

Michelle: Well, in the season finale, you did see that Georgina does request Blair Waldorf for her roommate, and Georgina always gets what she wants, so there you go. As far as a love interest goes, she is making out with all the boys. No. You’ll have to see.

Q: With your two shows, one character is very sweet and the other is a schemer. Do you have a preference?

Michelle: Not necessarily. I think it’s very important, as an actress, to never peg yourself in a particular hole. You look at Meryl Streep and the woman is just so extraordinary and such a chameleon. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and all of these women are constantly changing themselves. Halle Berry always talked about how they didn’t want her for Monster’s Ball, and how she was like, "Screw you guys. I’m gonna show you."

I think it’s very important for an actress to switch it up. Whereas Georgina is very malicious, Chloe isn’t. And, for me, as an actress, it’s fun to go back and forth. It’s a little bit of a split personality.

Q: What would Georgina Sparks, think of the girls on Mercy?

Michelle: Georgina is probably going to need these ladies in her life, eventually, when she’s rushed to the emergency room, so she had better like them a whole lot. I play Chloe Payne on Mercy and, much like her last name, pain is in her job, but she hopes that it’s not a big part of her job. She is the new person in the hospital. She’s fresh out of school. Her whole goal in life is to help and save people, and that’s how she approaches every patient that she gets. She looks to her fellow nurses to support her and accept her, in a hospital that very much needs as much help as it can get.

Q: Nine years ago, you were the naive little kid on Buffy, and now you’re playing the naive kid again. Is that a blessing or a curse?

Michelle: I’ve been drinking from the fountain of youth, so my face remains the same. Actually, one of our very first days of shooting, Gail Berman, who I have known for almost 10 years now, from Buffy, said that if we put a split screen of my face from the first episode of Buffy up next to the Mercy pilot, it’s the same. I might have just gotten paler. I don’t go out in the sun.

I think there’s a huge difference between the two characters, in the sense that Chloe is an adult. She’s not a child, by any means. She went through nursing school. She has her master’s degree. She has all of the credentials. She is a nurse and an adult, in every sense of those words. For me, I’m not shy or quiet. It’s interesting for me to play someone who is such the opposite from myself because it’s more challenging to keep that realistic.

I also think that so many young women in the world are scared of the circumstances that they’re in and are very insecure about different experiences that they may have, and I love being that character for women to say, "Yes, Chloe is scared." She’s worried that she is literally going to kill someone, but there’s optimism there. She can do it. So, I don’t think of her as a child, or as annoying or whiney. I think she’s just open to the world and looking to her colleagues to steer her. She has such great respect and admiration because they know what they’re doing. So, between the three of us and the different personalities that we have, we’re going to cater to every single woman watching the show, or that’s what we hope.

Q: What is A Couple of Dicks, and who do you play in that?

Michelle: A Couple of Dicks is pretty awesome. I just enjoy saying the title. It’s got Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and I play Bruce Willis’ daughter. It was very interesting because I play a bride, for the first time, which was a little bit intimidating. It’s not so much the dress, as standing at the altar and putting on the veil. The very first scene that I had to film, I was in this amazing Monique Lhuillier gown that was spectacular. We were standing on the altar, we called action, and the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. So, I don’t know if I should take that as a sign to hold off on getting married for many years.

Q: What about Young Americans?

Michelle: There are a bunch of movies that will be coming along. We filmed them a long time ago, so I’m not sure what the release dates will be. In Young Americans, it’s really just a cameo for me. It was just a completely different thing than you’ve ever seen with me. I played a goth girl.

Q: Being so pale, how do you protect your skin? Do you have any beauty tips?

Michelle: I work a lot and I don’t go out in the daylight. I’m not a big fan of daylight. I love my facialist, Kate Somerville. And, it’s all make-up.

Q: How do you stay fit and deal with stress?

Michelle: I’m the last person to ask about dealing with stress. I’m always the biggest stress ball. But, I don’t stop moving and I never let my Blackberry leave my hand, so I’m getting a lot of thumb exercise. It’s great.

Q: Have there been any embarrassing moments or pranks on either set?

Michelle: I am a walking klutz, so I’m inevitably going to fall on my face. And, I encourage people to laugh because it’s pretty funny when people fall. When I was in high school, I had so many embarrassing moments and the kids were so cruel and torturous to me that I just decided to laugh at myself first, so the embarrassment went out the window. I don’t care anymore. Laugh at me. I’m probably laughing at myself first.

Q: What advice would you give a young person who had an embarrassing moment?

Michelle: Probably just that laughter is the best thing. It’s not about seeking revenge on that person. It’s not letting them get away with it and not letting them get their high off of seeing you miserable. Laugh with them.

Q: What’s the most ridiculous rumor you’ve heard about yourself?

Michelle: I think I’ve been pregnant, a few times. That was fun for my mom. She was like, "What?!" There have been some crazy things about people that I’ve dated in the past, or that I’ve been engaged.

Q: Do you feel that Hollywood is like Gossip Girl, in a way?

Michelle: I think life is like high school. I don’t necessarily know that it pertains to Gossip Girl because that is obviously an extreme fabrication of the most glorious life. But, I do think that life, in general, is definitely like high school and you never get out of it. You just have to stay strong.

Q: What’s your favorite neighborhood in New York? What is your favorite place to go to eat?

Michelle: I’m a downtown girl. I would love to give you restaurants, but then you’d know about them and we couldn’t go there anymore. Leighton Meester and I like to go to hole-in-the-walls that no one would ever expect us to go to, and no one cares that we’re in there. We do that often.

Q: Is it easier in New York? Do people not pay as much attention to you?

Michelle: I think it’s much harder in New York. There are paparazzi on bicycles, which is a new thing. You can’t really speed away in your car. Especially with Gossip Girl being such a New York-based show, it’s harder. I tried my hand at going to Bed, Bath & Beyond the other day, which I love, and that was a little bit of a catastrophe. I caused a little bit of a scene. That would be the only time that I’m a little shy.

Q: Have you ever had a red carpet don’t moment?

Michelle: Yeah. I think I did a head-to-toe leopard ensemble once, when I was 10. I think animal print should be taken in moderation. A shoe or a scarf is fine.

Q: Who are some of your favorite designers?

Michelle: I love Rag & Bone. They’re pretty fantastic. Marc Jacobs has been a friend of mine for years, and I adore him. I like Chloe. I like a lot of younger designers. I’m actually designing a bag for charity with Monica Botkier. 100% of the proceeds will be going to Oxfam.

Q: What do you do to instantly feel sexy?

Michelle: Show off my decolletage.

MERCY premieres on NBC on September 23rd