On FOX's new hospital dramedy “Red Band Society,” Wilson Cruz plays Kenji, a nurse who frequently gets to banter with Octavia Spencer's Nurse Jackson.
It's a dynamic that Cruz calls The Olympics of Sassy Nurse.
“It was automatic. I met Octavia on the set and it was as if I'd known her my whole life,” Cruz says.
With “My So-Called Life” celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, it's notable that since that seminal teen drama, Cruz has largely eschewed regular TV roles, opting instead to concentrate his energies on a long-term advocacy role at GLAAD.
“I have to look at a teen show show through the prism of 'My So-Called Life' and I think this show comes as close as anything I've seen,” Cruz told me when we sat down last week, admitting that he had thought he might be done with steady acting.
Instead, Cruz finds himself on the older side of a two-tiered cast of adults and kids with “Red Band Society.” And do the “Red Band Society” kids even know “MSCL” anymore?
“I think a lot of them know and obviously the younger they get, the less they know. But don't worry, I fill them.”
Check out the full Wilson Cruz interview above.
And check out my interview with “Red Band Society” co-star Rebecca Rittenhouse.
And “Red Band Society” premieres on Wednesday, September 17 night at 9:00 on FOX.