Eddie Redmayne can’t be trusted when it comes to performing CPR in a life-threatening situation.
Although he had to go to nursing school to prepare for the role of caregiver on The Good Nurse, he has not mastered the CPR skill. At least not like her co-star Jessica Chastain did.
“We spent about two weeks in the classroom. And there’s no way of bonding with someone better than being reduced to being back in the classroom,” Redmayne said in an interview with EW.
“I was always useless at biology. And Jessica had a mind that was incredibly capable. I would do these exercises with these dummies that they use to practice CPR. And it would transpire that no one would have survived under my watch.”
He added: “But Jess was quite brilliant. She would turn up to nurse school early, get busy putting those IV lines into these dummies, and it took me a lot more practice. She had more of a natural instinct for it.”
The Good Nurse Sypnosis
Based on Charles Graeber’s book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, The Good Nurse follows a nurse who is also a single mother and works night shifts.
She faced life-threatening heart issues and the serial killer she captured. Already bound by her job to her physical and mental abilities, she later forms suspicions about her new colleague Charlie (Redmayne).
Suspicions escalated after a string of patient deaths led to an investigation. Eventually, Amy risks her life and the safety of her children to reveal the truth about Charlie. She discovers the reasons why he got away with it.
Before Redmayne was recruited, Chastain was already on the cast list for The Good Nurse. But right after Redmayne had Charlie, they started talking about how excited they were to work together.
“It was a long journey to get it made. It was probably three years or four years from when we first spoke to when we were on set together,” Chastain revealed to EW.
“And Eddie and I talked about how hospitals are filled with incredible human beings, the surgeons and doctors, [and] nurses and paramedics, and technicians. Everyone who works there.
“I believe they are there because you have to have a calling. So, Eddie and I went to nurse school and learned all about it. We really got to work from the roots up in terms of learning how to be nurses, and that really helped bond us.”
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All Paid Off
Ahead of letting the two get close to any kind of IV needle, they had to initially learn the history of nursing.
“On day one, we had this incredible nurse named Joe who told us all about the history. It really was nursing school,” Chastain said.
The actress giggled as she revealed how the training was very thorough she imagined handing medical advice to people.
Later, when it was time to execute their newfound knowledge and skills, both actors found their classroom sitting paid off. The two brought Amy and Charlie’s chilling story to life.
Photo: Vampire Squid
