What was your reaction when you found out that the show was going to tell a story about fertility struggles with TJ and Molly? “I was very excited to explore that. It gets into the different dynamics of their relationship and, hopefully, will show them growing together through these experiences. As an actor and as a person, that’s just thrilling because we get to learn more about each other, you get to see conflict between the two of us and how we handle that, and how we come back together in the end. I think it’s great! I think it’s going to show new layers of ‘Tolly’.”
How would you say TJ is handling the fact that their journey to parenthood is more complex than he thought it would be? “I think TJ is trying to take it step by step. Adversity isn’t a new thing for them, and Molly and TJ have never been conventional. So with that understanding in the back of his mind, he’s very open and willing to make adjustments and to do what they need to do to have a child. When TJ opened up to Alexis about his feelings, he talked about how his whole life, he was warned to be careful because, ‘You could get pregnant,’ and now, suddenly, ‘Everything that we were cautious about, everything we were incredibly careful about, is irrelevant. We’d spent our whole lives being careful and now that we are actually trying to have a child, we need labs and doctors and tests.’ That is disappointing to him, that this situation is not what he imagined it would be, and he does need to get acclimated to it.”
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate how well TJ has been showing up for his partner in this situation? “In the hospital, when they were receiving results and talking with Dr. Navarro, that was a first-time experience for both him and Molly and it was rough, but I’ll give him an eight out of 10. He was present, he was solid and he allowed Molly to feel what she was feeling. Now, the scene where they kind of got into it in their apartment? That, I will give him a five. It was a bombshell for him to find out that she’d been suffering [due to her endometriosis], but still, if he’d been able to keep the lens of it being about her and not making it about him in that moment, it would have been a little bit more appropriate!”
On another note, TJ has been very busy with his doctor duties of late. Did you enjoy your interactions with the Quartermaine family as TJ dealt with the strange case of Ned waking up as Eddie Maine? “I had such a good time filming those Eddie Maine scenes. That whole group of actors is incredibly supportive and they just bring great energy, so it was nice to be involved in their world and to hear their jokes and pick up on their humor. Plus, the work itself was very challenging, so it was a good exercise for my actor brain.”
Is that because of the medical jargon you had to memorize? “I mean, I had monologues and endless pages talking about diagnostics and recovery plans — basically, it was a step-by-step tracking of Ned’s traumatic brain injury, page by page. It was a tough challenge. Not just the lines themselves, but within them, you know, conveying the correct emotions while having the right posture of being a doctor in a hospital. It was amazingly fun, but not easy.”
