Hope Zion has quickly become Rookie Blue reunion central. The past few weeks have seen Travis Milne and Charlotte Sullivan walk through the doors, and now it’s Peter Mooney’s turn. The former Nick Collins drops by Saving Hope for a recurring role as Jeremy Bishop, general surgeon and Charlie’s good friend.
His journey begins this week with “Waiting on a Friend” as Jeremy is plunged into the middle of a complicated surgical procedure that effects much of the team and we learn a bit about his backstory to boot. We spoke to Mooney on the phone as he walked home after having breakfast at Lady Marmalade.
Before we talk about Saving Hope, I have to ask you about Rookie Blue. I was sorry to see it get cancelled, but at least we got closure.
I think the way Tassie Cameron wrapped it all up was kind of perfect. As much as you hate to see something come to an end, I’m really happy with where it left off. There are no nagging, lingering feelings about anything.
That said, I would not be opposed to a spinoff web series following Nick and Juliet fighting crime in Vancouver.
Yeah, I wonder what they’re getting up to in Vancouver? I think that would be awesome. [Erin Karpluk] and I will do our own spinoff.
What do you take away from that set?
It was just such a good vibe on set. I know it sounds cheesy but it’s pretty rare to have that level of ease and comfort and familiarity with everyone. We’ve become really close friends throughout the process. It was a great period of life, like you might look back on high school. This little, self-contained time period that was so nice. It’s also something to bring onto future jobs; that attitude and how much fun work can be.
He’s there to complicate things that are going well for other people. High-stakes situations like this cause you to look at your co-workers a little differently and things can blossom.
If Rookie Blue was high school, is Saving Hope college?
It’s pre-med. [Laughs.] I think of it as pre-med because I’m sort of learning. We have amazing medical advisors on the show and yesterday I was learning how to do a one-handed, left-handed suture on a patient’s spleen. Now, the patient is just a dummy and I think I would have killed him if he had been real. We don’t have anywhere near the wealth of knowledge that actual doctors and surgeons have, but getting a taste of that has been really, really exciting.
You’re the perfect guy to have in an emergency. You know how to take someone down and to sew someone up.
Yeah, I’m the perfect person to have during a calamity on a plane.
Jeremy shows up in Thursday’s episode and makes an immediate impression with his three-day stubble and buttoned-down shirt. How did you get the gig? Did you audition or did they seek you out?
This one was kind of special and rare. Rookie Blue and Saving Hope share producers, so they were already familiar with me because we share a lot of the same directors. I’d known the cast because we’ve been in side-by-side studios and some of the cast are very good friends of mine. So when it looked like Rookie Blue was wrapping up, there was a perfect opening on Saving Hope so I jumped on over. It was a speedy transition and not a lot of time to learn all of the medical base I would have liked to.
Tell me a bit about Jeremy’s back story. We learn on Thursday that he’s a friend of Charlie’s and that he had some trouble in L.A.
He and Charlie go way back, and that’s rolled out during the season. He’s from Toronto but spent years in L.A. doing his residency. He had a house there and was really settled down. His return to Toronto is an abrupt, surprising shift for him and his head is still spinning when he arrives.
Jeremy seems to have a good bedside manner.
Yeah, he’s very off the cuff. He’s running on impulse and not very calculating and that comes in handy with his bedside manner because he’s able to read the situation and their need and he’s able to respond to that. He’s not a clinical or removed doctor.
Talk about his journey this season. Any love on the horizon?
He’s there to complicate things that are going well for other people. High-stakes situations like this cause you to look at your co-workers a little differently and things can blossom.
You’re filming Saving Hope until the middle of December. What’s next in the new year? Are you writing and developing your own projects?
I am. I have several projects in the early stages in development that I’ll go back and focus on. But I’ll be back to auditioning too, which is kind of exciting. It’s been such a long time since I’ve done that … I’m kind of excited to get back to it.
Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.
