The Knockturnal sat down with actress Jill Flint on the set on NBC’s The Night Shift to discuss the upcoming finale and more! [Be warned: Spoilers ahead!]
So The Night Shift is based in a hospital, do you feel any differently about medics and doctors now that you’ve played this role?
I come from a family of firefighters, EMT and military personnel. My brother was an EMT for a very long time, and mother was one as well when I was younger. I have massive respect for it. I’m someone who gets squeamish when I see blood. I don’t handle needles very well! Sickness, death, all of that kind of frightens me, although I do find the science of it absolutely fascinating. I love the science of medicine. I have massive respect for anyone who can put themselves into this field, especially when you’re working in an ER, when you’re dealing with people and every choice you make, you make in a split second. It’s a difference between life and death, you’re doing triage and what you’re doing is preparing somebody to go into the operating room, so you’re trying to make them survive long enough to get into an operating room. It’s not even that kind of crazy stuff too, you just get all kinds of people coming with all kinds of ailments. Whether they’re made up, whether it’s something serious, you do a lot of detective work and it’s all on the fly. I especially have huge respect for nurses. I think nurses tend to be the unsung heroes of hospitals. They do longest hours, they work really hard, and they truly are the backbone of the medical community. In the research of this show, I learned of the immense amount of knowledge that nurses have to take, which is impressive.
As you’ve spent more time with your character (Dr. Jordan Alexander) and gotten more comfortable with her, do you think you’ve gained a different understanding of her in any way?
Yeah, that’s kind of what happens on shows like this where you never really know where the character is going to go from one minute to the next. You have this sort of baseline understanding of who this person is, but you know then there’s always twists and turns. So you’re getting to know them–maybe even bringing a few things from your own personality–but you’re getting to know them at the same time. I find myself becoming really protective over her, like you would be protective over your sister or your best friend. It’s like with your fellow female where you want to protect her from making horrible decisions but I guess that’s part of what living and growing as a living, growing, breathing character is these days.
[SPOILER] So we see some bloody gloves…
Yeah we have a shooter that we’re dealing with right now [shooting the season finale]. She’s shot up the place, she’s crazy, she’s screaming at me, and all I’m trying to do is check her wound!
Last question, what is the one thing that you hope to see for your character in coming seasons?
She’s very good at her job professionally, but there’s always some sort of turmoil in her romantic life. I would love to see her have a moment to focus and have made the perfect choice when it comes to making the next step in her relationships. That’s just me giving advice to a girlfriend, like ‘you need to slow down a little bit!’ But I’m alway excited to see what the next script is going to be and where she’s going to go.
I bet there’s fans out there that feel the same way.
Oh my gosh they’re like, ‘Honey take it easy!’
Thanks so much for talking to us!
It’s been such a pleasure talking to you guys!
The Night Shift airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC
