TCA 2016 Interview: Yaya DaCosta Talks NBC’s Chicago Med Season 2Posted by Imani Cruz
August 15, 2016
NBC’s Chicago franchise continues with another hit show by Emmy Award-winning creator and executive producer Dick Wolf, with ‘Chicago Med’. Set in a busy Chicago ER, the show follows a cast of nurses, doctors, and patients as they deal with the ins and outs of working in the medical field, intertwined with their personal lives. The cast features a solid combination of both new and old face to the screen including veteran actors Oliver Platt and S. Epatha Merkerson along with rising actress Yaya DaCosta, who plays Nurse April Sexton.
DaCosta, who is best known for her run on ‘America’s Next Top Model’, has risen to notoriety in the past few years, as she portrayed musical icon Whitney Houston in Whitney, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler. In her most recent role, DaCosta joins the Chicago Med cast as a nurse dealing with patient sickness as well as a sickness of her own. DaCosta says that this role was life-changing for her and exposed her to a world she’d never knew before.
Recently at the TCAs, Blackfilm.com spoke with DaCosta about her role as the series is set to go for its second season.
Before you joined the cast of ‘Chicago Med’, what was your outlook on the medical profession and has it changed since?
Yaya DaCosta: I’m someone who was raised with a more holistic approach to healing, eastern medicine, you know? My father did acupuncture on us as kids. He studied in China. We only took antibiotics probably if it was really really necessary. For someone who really hadn’t stepped foot in a hospital since birth, it was a huge, open opportunity to learn. I literally knew nothing. We went through some really intense training. Spending time in the hospital, shadowing doctors and nurses in scrubs. We were introduced to the nurses as med students, so we didn’t throw anyone off. Occasionally somebody would recognize you but it was great to be taken seriously as a med student and be able to get really up close and personal to the procedures that were being done. So when it came time to film, it helped me get a little less uncomfortable. Even though we know that the blood we use is fake, and the skin that we’re slicing open is actually silicone, it looks very real and it can have a real affect on your body. I’m now a little bit more comfortable. I have such respect for people in that field. It’s such a selfless job all the way through. Especially because our show takes place in the ER . . . When you look at these people who dedicate their lives to this, it just makes me so proud to be personifying, on-screen, such a noble profession. I don’t think I could do it in real life and be able to leave all of that in the hospital and go home and be happy. It’s very intense.
What do you see in your character (April), that reminds you of your own personality?
Yaya: I think that it happens inevitable with TV, because in the beginning, we’re given very little information and there isn’t a lot of room to create an extremely complex character because you don’t want it to do anything that’s gonna conflict with information that comes later on through scripts . . . A lot of times, ourselves come through the lines. Our personalities may come through a little bit, but I think April is definitely a person of her own. She’s definitely developing. We’re beginning to see more about her.
What lessons have you learned from playing April?
Yaya: Yeah! There was a really touching moment where, after the third or fourth time she berates her little brother for doing something that he wasn’t supposed to do as a medical student, she decides that in order to preserve her own sanity she has to step away. She has to let him grow up and figure it out on his own. She can’t continue to baby him, or try to protect him. She has to let him go, essentially. It was a great example. It was about putting yourself first, and I’ve definitely had to do that in my own life.
What are some of your upcoming projects that we can look forward to?
Yaya: The most recent one is The Nice Guys, and soon there will be one called Bolden. It’s really a gorgeous film about Buddy Bolden, who in the late 1800’s, was one of the pioneers of jazz. He has this coming of age in music, during the time when records were first invented and there was all this confusion. A lot about innovation, and the genius that someone can have. Also, how easy it is for a mind like that to go mad. That’s what ended up happening. Half of the movie follows this man in an insane asylum. Seeing how he got there and what influence he had on music. I play Nora Bolden, his wife, and it was really beautiful. I love period pieces! I love putting on the costumes. I had my hair out, in the rain – child! When have you seen kinky hair in the rain on film? This is exciting. Everything was so raw and so real and beautiful.
Catch ‘Chicago Med’s season premiere on Sept. 22 at 9/8c.
