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Jowell's job was to have two IV bags ready, but the
tubing tangled. Consequently, when she had her part,
she was fighting with tubing on IV bags in the background.
She said it was too realistic.
Jowell said it was a fluke when she got on the show.
Friends were doing background or extra work as people
who are placed for background activity to create the
busy milieu that adds to the drama and realism of the
set. One of the stand-ins asked Jowell a quick question
about setting up an IV. The prop people usually handle
this with the tech adviser, but Jowell helped out. Technical
director Sachs noted her expertise, and she has worked
steadily since.
Leslie Shea, RN, came to the show as a transplant nurse
when they were doing a story about transplants during
the '94-95 season. They told her they needed real nurses
to set the stage. It was so much fun that she brought
her daughter Jane Andrus, RN, on board. Shea said the
best time is when she gets to work with her daughter.
Shea describes working on the set as like being on
a different planet. They might set up a scene with a
patient in a bed and leads to the monitors, and when
they say "cut," everyone stands back as the
prop people come in to take off the leads, rearrange
the bed and do all the things she usually does in her
job. In a film production, everyone has their roles
to play, and the prop people step in to re-establish
a set, not the nurses. Shea said it's strange when you're
used to jumping in and doing what's needed.
Andrus has worked on "ER" for three seasons.
She specialized in PICU and now works at the Long Beach
Memorial Hospital ER. She said she still gets a thrill
out of going onto the set and getting her wardrobe or
scrubs.
Once, Andrus went to the commissary with a patient/extra
who had a massive head wound. Her luncheon partner had
an immense head bandage on, with "blood" running
down her face and part of her "skin" falling
off. Andrus remembers reminding the extra that her "skin"
was falling into her salad.
The commissary, Andrus said, is a conglomeration of
all the different shows being filmed. Once, she lunched
with the Gilmore Girls, a group of astronauts and "ER"
cast members in their scrubs.
Patrick Nila, RN, was working as an ER nurse at L.A.
County when John Wells, the executive producer, saw
him and asked him to come on the show. That was during
the 1996 season, and he's been working with the show
since. "Feel the camera," were words he heard
a lot in the beginning. This means, "watch out
for the camera." Today, it is just part of a day's
work for Nila.
The difference between this work and his real work
is that on "ER" they have the luxury of doing
a scene over and over until they get it right. A scene
typically starts with getting the script, followed by
a short rehearsal with the nurses, then the actors are
added to the scene, then the props are added for the
next rehearsal. The scene is rehearsed at half time,
then it speeds up to real time and repeated until it
becomes natural.
One trauma scene may take 10 or 11 hours to shoot.
It is done for one camera and then repeated for a ceiling
view and/or a wraparound view and/or a close-up. Nila
listens for his favorite words, "cut, print, great,
moving on, new deal."
Actress Yvette Freeman plays the no-nonsense nurse
Adams. She prepared for her role by observing the ER
activity at Northridge (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center.
She tells of being put into a room with a deceased accident
victim as a tolerance test for staying in character.
Freeman said she was shocked, but she knew her character
had seen everything, so Freeman stayed calm. She jokingly
brags about being able to take the fastest blood pressure
on record, but, please, don't ask her what the numbers
are.
Many of the nurses have gone to work on other shows.
Actor and pal Wyle helped LeBlanc-Cabot get started
during their first season by referring her for an analgesic
commercial as an adviser. This helped pay her Stanford
tuition and commuting expenses. She has since worked
on dozens of shows such as "NYPD Blue," where
she was the nurse with actor Jimmy Smits when his character
died, along with "The X-Files" and "Ally
McBeal." She now is working on a Jack Nicholson
movie.
Jowell talks about the movie "Blood Work"
with Clint Eastwood and Angelica Huston as his physician.
Jowell was the nurse while Huston did an angio on Eastwood.
Jowell also has been in the television show "Diagnosis
Murder" and is starting her fourth season as set/production
medic on "Strong Medicine."
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