Michelle Trachtenberg

Exclusive Interview: MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG PUTS ON HER SCRUBS FOR ’MERCY’

The actress talks about playing a nurse on the NBC series, researching the role and the Gail Berman/BUFFY connection

Most hospital shows focus on the doctors. NBC’s MERCY puts the spotlight on a team of nurses at a New Jersey hospital and films on location in the East Coast state. The youngest and most inexperience nurse, Chloe Payne, is played by Michelle Trachtenberg. Ironically, Trachtenberg is arguably the most seasoned actor in the cast, as she’s been performing since she was six years old, guest-starring in an episode of LAW & ORDER. She had the title role in the feature film HARRIET THE SPY and caught the attention of genre audiences as the heroine’s younger sister in the final three seasons of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. More recently, Trachtenberg has made waves in recurring roles on HBO’s SIX FEET UNDER as a diva and on GOSSIP GIRL as the trouble-making Georgina Sparks. She talks about her new gig and its connection to one of her old jobs.

iF: You’ve gone from audiences watching you grow up onscreen in real time on BUFFY to playing a college-age person on GOSSIP GIRL and then being a professional on MERCY. Is this a comfortable progression for you?

MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: It’s a true age progression. I’m about to be 25 this year and Chloe, my character on MERCY, is 25. So it’s actually quite natural. I’ve kind of played true age all my life. Sometimes I play a little older.

iF: Did you study any aspect of nursing before taking the part on MERCY?

TRACHTENBERG: Not really before. I mean, I read some online blogs that nurses do, because I wanted to focus less on the medical aspect of it and more on the emotional toll that nurses have to endure. So we have medical experts on set who take us through the procedures and everything and it’s a crash course right before each scene, because to be perfectly honest, I’m never going to remember a few months of medical training. It’s not my chosen profession, so we have people on set at all times, making sure we don’t mess up.

iF: What struck you most about what you found on the blogs? Was there anything that was helpful in playing Chloe?

TRACHTENBERG: Well, there are certainly different dynamics of how a nurse accepts a patient’s death. Some try to completely disassociate themselves from their patients; others care too much. Chloe definitely is the one that cares too much. So they just talked about the different repercussions when you do care, because there’s so much stuff involved in the medical field. But there’s also life, too, so they try to focus on the positive. Definitely death affects Chloe, but with every new patient, that’s arguably focusing on the positive, because she is moving on and is trying to help others. So there’s a mix of [emotions] and she’s moving into the E.R., so there’s definitely going to be a lot asked of her emotionally.

iF: What appealed to you about the project, the theme or working with executive producer Gail Berman, or …?

TRACHTENBERG: Gail Berman’s extraordinary. She’s been a part of my life for over ten years now, from BUFFY, of course [when Berman was the executive at Fox television involved in the series].

iF: Do you read the BUFFY comics at all?

TRACHTENBERG: I don’t [laughs]. I was fourteen when I started [working on BUFFY], I’m twenty-four now, so Berman has definitely had a major role [in Trachtenberg’s career arc]. That was initially why I read the script [for MERCY] to begin with, because I actually wasn’t really looking to join a television program again. I was very happy being a recurring [player] on GOSSIP GIRL, but Gail has exquisite taste in material. Also, [MERCY creator/executive producer] Liz Heldens came very highly recommended, so I was really attracted to the fact that it was a show about three women that were steering the ship.

iF: How is filming in New Jersey?

TRACHTENBERG: It’s really nice to be on the East Coast. I think it’s good to shoot a show where it’s actually set. That rarely happens. Probably the only downside is that, when it’s snow on the ground in the show, it’s really snow on the ground and it’s freezing.

iF: Any other projects going on?

TRACHTENBERG: Yeah. I did COP OUT with Bruce Willis as well as Tracy Morgan. I play Bruce’s daughter.

iF: Do you get to do more comedy in that?

TRACHTENBERG: Yeah. The character is not necessarily comedic, but it is a comedy. I don’t actually know what landed in the movie, because there was a lot of improv that was very funny.

iF: How is it being part of a cast of MERCY’s size?

TRACHTENBERG: We actually feel like a pretty big cast and we each are given equal attention within every episode. So no one ever feels like the odd man out. They take great care [to give the characters something to do].