The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Doctor Odyssey
star Phillipa Soo.
During her chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, she revisits her journey from
Hamilton
to headlining an ABC medical show opposite Joshua Jackson.
Soo also takes a moment to discuss her experience reuniting with Lin-Manuel Miranda for
Warriors
.

Phillipa Soo first saw her star soar courtesy of one of the greatest successes in Broadway history, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Ever since scoring a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for playing Eliza, Soo’s been scooping up new opportunities on stage and screen, prioritizing being grateful and present for every single one of them, including her latest, Ryan Murphy’s new show, Doctor Odyssey.

In the ABC medical drama, Soo headlines alongside Joshua Jackson, Sean Teale and Don Johnson. Johnson plays the captain of a luxury cruise ship called The Odyssey, while Soo and Teale step in as Avery and Tristan, the ship’s nurses who are well versed in both the social drama and medical challenges the ships’ passengers tend to pose. Now, however, they’re led by a new head physician. It’s Jackson’s Max Bankman, an experienced doctor who thinks he knows best, but quickly learns he’ll need to lean on Avery and Tristan’s experience dealing with and caring for folks on the high seas.

With Doctor Odyssey in the midst of its Season 1 run on ABC, and streaming on Hulu, Soo took the time to join me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to go back to her earliest sources of inspiration, and to break down her journey from stage to screen.

The Steppenwolf Actor Who Showed Soo Her Dream Could Be a Reality
“That’s a person who maybe grew up just like me … or had a similar itch in terms of wanting to tell stories for their entire lives.”

You’d only need to see a single Phillipa Soo project to know she was meant to be on the stage and screen, and that’s something she saw in herself at a very young age, too.

“I’ve known since I was a kid — like very, very small — that I wanted to be a performer. I didn’t know necessarily if I wanted to be an actor, but I remember my mother worked for a theater company in Chicago, and we went to go see a youth production that they were doing there. I don’t remember what the production was, but all I remember is there was this girl on stage and she was sort of in a spotlight and there was a dance number that she was doing, and
I remember turning to my dad and being like, ‘I could do that.’
He was like, ‘Yeah. Yeah, you could.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’ That was really the first moment that I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wanna be up on a stage.’”

Often on Collider Ladies Night, we discuss the difference between wanting to be up on a stage and believing that one can do just that professionally. In Soo’s case, someone helped bridge that gap quite early on.

“I think the first step was meeting someone who was doing it. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, so I had grown up seeing theater and my mother had worked in the theater doing some stuff behind the scenes. I had a chance to meet an actor friend of hers who was a company member at Steppenwolf, Yasen Peyankov. He was so generous because I remember we’d go see his shows knowing, ‘This is my mom’s friend and we’re gonna go see him in a show,’ and then after getting to see him and speak with him and say hi out of costume at the stage door or outside of the theater,
it was just really cool to see someone who had made a living at doing this
, that it wasn’t just this idea of a person playing a character and not being able to actually fully understand who they are as people.”

Another thing about Peyankov that really struck a young Soo? His work as an actor was heavily tied to community. She explained:

“That’s a person who maybe grew up just like me and had a similar upbringing, or had a similar itch in terms of wanting to tell stories for their entire lives and just not knowing exactly what that is. Seeing that in him, seeing him do that as his profession and in a way that felt so connected to his community and to the people — Steppenwolf is a company of actors that are coming together and telling stories all the time.
That idea of community and being there with a company of people and building stories with people who almost become like your family, that very much was my trajectory
as well, so I’m not surprised that’s kind of how it started.”

Eventually, Soo would go on to join one of the most beloved Broadway musical families of all time, the cast of Hamilton.

When ‘Hamilton’ Changed Everything
“I hadn’t sung any of the words or lyrics or music, and I just knew that it was gonna change the world in some way.”

Hamilton was hugely successful from the moment it opened. Miranda’s musical adaptation of Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton biography sold out shows at the Public Theater when it debuted off-Broadway. After winning eight Drama Desk Awards, Hamilton moved to Broadway where it was met with rave reviews, significant fanfare and a record-breaking 16 Tony Award nominations in 13 categories and, ultimately, 11 wins.

Soo, however, identified how special the show was far before any of that happened. She recalled, “Quite honestly, just from listening to the demos, I knew that it was special.” She added, “I hadn’t gotten into a room, I hadn’t talked to anybody, I hadn’t sung any of the words or lyrics or music, and I just knew that it was gonna change the world in some way.”

During our conversation, Soo also zeroed in on an especially unforgettable personal memory from the early development of the show. Now everyone well knows that Hamilton wraps up with “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” which focuses on how Eliza not only preserved Alexander Hamilton’s legacy, but was also a key part of the story herself. However, Soo didn’t find out she’d be the centerpiece of the end of the show until the very last day of rehearsals.

“The most emotional moment for me in stepping into portraying Eliza was one of the last readings where we were just behind music stands. This was before we got up on our feet and started blocking and choreographing. It was just the first full reading of the entire thing behind music stands, and
the last song hadn’t been written yet
. We were in this process, it was like a couple of weeks of rehearsal, and we were learning all the music. I had previously done a reading of Act Two, so there’s all this stuff from Act One that I’d never heard before. It was super exciting. Then, Lin brings this last song, I want to say, on the actual last day of rehearsal, like the day before the presentation, and was like, ‘So
I wrote the end of the show, and it’s Eliza,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ I was so caught off guard
, and I had this deep wave of emotion. I was just so moved that this whole time I’ve been with her in this journey and really just, as a young actor, putting my head down, just so grateful to be there and be in this moment, no expectations at all, except just so grateful to be there, and then getting the honor of finishing the show. I was just like, ‘Oh my god.’ And I think that level of respect for the work, for Lin and Tommy [Kail] and Andy [Jones] and Alex [Wiscomb], and also
a level of respect for the people whose lives we were portraying, respect for Eliza, for her legacy and what she did
, I felt so honored to be a part of that moment. And so, I wanted to carry that feeling that I had when I received that news that day into actually performing that moment, because I think a lot of people felt the same way. They’re just like, ‘Oh my god, it’s her. It’s her,’ and to be left that, it was awesome.”

Making the Move from Stage to Screen
“If I’m doing everything that’s within my control to the best of my ability, it doesn’t matter what happens.”
Image via ABC

After leaving Hamilton, Soo took on other Broadway productions, like Amélie and The Parisian Woman, but there was also a noticeable uptick in screen credits, including her first series regular role, playing 1st Lieutenant Harper Li on the CBS military drama, The Code. A wonderful opportunity indeed, but one that only lasted a single season.

“I just remember thinking, when we heard that we weren’t gonna get a second season — and I felt this way about
Amélie
the musical, which only lasted five weeks on Broadway —
there’s a lot of things that are out of your control, but what’s
in
your control is showing up
, knowing what you’re doing, knowing your lines, doing your work, being there for your fellow actors, taking care of people on set, showing up on time. That is all in your control, and that’s all you can do. And so that by the end of it, when something like
The Code
ends, you can say, ‘Well, if someone told me this was only gonna be one season, I would have felt very good about how this went because I’ve made some friends, I had a great time doing it, I really enjoyed the process.’

Not only did Soo really enjoy making The Code, but that production also taught her vital lessons about working on a series, lessons that would carry over to Doctor Odyssey. She continued:

”
Because that was my first time being on a set as a series regular, I learned how to do that job.
I learned how to make sure that I was hitting my mark every time, and when we’re shifting to the other person’s coverage, getting close to the eyeline of the camera. I learned that by doing that experience, and I wouldn’t have learned that if I hadn’t done that. I just, in those moments, know that if I’m doing everything that’s within my control to the best of my ability, it doesn’t matter what happens, I will know that I have done my best, and I have peace. Although, there is a level of sadness.”

Such sadness is inevitable for anyone with great passion for the work they do, but Soo’s schedule would soon become busy with a multitude of other wonderful opportunities, including the chance to play a lead role in a Ryan Murphy show.

Jumping Into Ryan Murphy’s TV Empire
“I just think he’s fantastic, and what a dream for an actor.”

Related ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Review: Sexy Network TV Is Back, Baby!  The new ABC series sees Joshua Jackson returning to what he does best: playing a dreamy lead.

When Doctor Odyssey came Soo’s way, one of the biggest reasons why she was so eager to jump in feet first was Murphy. She explained:

“I think Ryan Murphy is the king of world-building. In terms of the storytelling, it’s visually just so stunning what he has made, to the point where it’s emotional — you have an emotional response to what you’re seeing. So right off the bat I knew I wanted to work with him.
I just think he’s fantastic, and what a dream for an actor.
”

With this world, there was also a wealth of exciting creative possibilities for Soo to indulge in from working with “lifted” material to sharing the screen with Joshua Jackson, Don Johnson and Sean Teale. She continued:

“This world, this sort of high-stakes being a medic on the high seas on a very luxury cruise liner, as I was gathering the pieces of what this world was from receiving some sides and being like, ‘Okay, who
is
this character,’ the language was lifted. I loved that. And then all the way to getting towards pre-production with the costume and wardrobe design and seeing what this world was because of that, and then arriving here and seeing the sets, it all came together in a lovely puzzle that’s just made itself clear.
I got more and more excited, and more and more scared.
I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we’re making something completely new, and I get to be a part of it.’ I’m like, ‘Pressure’s on!’ But I think there’s something really wonderfully generous and sparkly about the four of us that we all have this innate connection right off the bat. I think it’s written into the text, but I also think that we inherently just bring something to these characters and therefore are bringing something to the room and into the process, and I think that’s apparent. I think that really translates to the screen.”

Yes, Phillipa Soo Is Enjoying Everyone’s Wild ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Theories
Image via ABC

There are many dramas out there that take a more grounded approach to practicing medicine. However, that’s not the case with Doctor Odyssey. When discussing what Soo learned about how a cruise ship medical center might operate, she laughed and said, “I guess I learned that a lot of the things that we’re doing, you really wouldn’t do on a cruise ship.” She continued:

“This world, it’s lifted.
It’s like a fantasy. It’s otherworldly
, truly, because, like I said, world-building — you have this very stylized world that we’re living in. It’s very simple. It’s as simple as, there are these stickers, they’re not bandaids, but they go over the IV port, and they have this little gold dot on them, which is like a design choice, but the gold dot isn’t what you see in a hospital. And the way that our IVs look, they’re not in bags, they’re in these beautiful glass gold bottles. [Laughs] It’s real in this world.”

Given Murphy’s monumental success with series that lean heavily into genre-storytelling, the internet has run rampant with theories that there will be some sort of major twist in Doctor Odyssey, something that might reveal the things that are happening in the show aren’t as real as they appear to be. Soo’s choice to use the terms “fantasy” and “otherworldly” could certainly support that, but for now at least, she’s not giving anything away — if she even knows anything at this point in the show’s production at all!

“Only Ryan knows what it’s truly going to be. Maybe it’s truly a testament to what we’ve built. Tonally, it’s very specific. You’re intrigued because you’re like, ‘This isn’t like the ‘real world’ as I know it.’ So I think it’s doing its job. It’s making people curious. They’re using their own imaginations. I mean, I love that.
Anything that I do where I can make people
think
about it beyond just the experience of watching it, great.
That makes me happy.”

When further questioning if Soo knows the truth herself, she teased, “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. Either way, couldn’t tell ya!”

We’ll have to wait and see if Doctor Odyssey takes a sharp turn mid-season, but in the meantime, be sure to check out Soo’s full hour-long Collider Ladies Night conversation in the video at the top of this article.

Release Date September 26, 2024 Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

Doctor Odyssey is available to stream on Hulu.

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