On Thursday, January 23, NBC hosted a mid-season celebration party at Bar SixtyFive at Rainbow Room in New York City. Among the attendees were Terry Crews of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the cast of New Amsterdam, Jocko Sims, Margot Bingham, Freema Agyeman, Dierdre Friel, and Good Girls’s Retta and Reno Wilson.
What are you most excited about fans seeing in the upcoming episodes?
Terry Crews: “We’re now in our seventh season! It’s going to be incredible because the fandom is going to be shocked. With Captain Holt, it’s going to be to totally reversed. I think it’s going to be a very weird experience for all of our fans just because they’re used to ‘the man’ and now he’s just a lowly officer and it’s heartbreaking. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s going to be hilarious, but it’s going to be very shocking in a good way.”
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Retta: “The scenes I know fans will be geeked about, I can’t mention, but one, in particular, takes place in a very, very large field. We had a large rig that did a crazy wide shot and I was like ‘can they see us? I feel like we need no makeup.’ I was surprised they didn’t use a drone with how big this rig was. But I can’t talk about what it is.”
Reno Wilson: “Yeah, there’s a lot we can’t talk about, but I’m excited about Stan’s new place of work. There’s going to be a lot of fun scenes. I think everyone knows he’s bouncing at a strip club now. It’s kind of dark, kind of funny, he’s just doing whatever he can to take care of his family. And that’s been his MO for the whole show, and he continues doing that, but this time with [boobs] around.”
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Dierdre Friel: “We have these wonderful fans, the Dam Fam, and I think we give them all the feels. I think we continue to give them lots of things happening. Excited feelings, scared feelings. It’s good TV. What else could you want?”
What was your first response to New Amsterdam getting renewed for three seasons?
Margot Bingham: “It’s kind of crazy because I jump in and out. Everybody else is more in it but I’ve never in my life heard of three seasons [being renewed at once]. Has that ever happened? And if it has, I don’t know when. So we’re all so happy to be together. We love this cast, we love this crew, people are so talented.”
Jocko Sims: “I was just hanging out on a Saturday [when I heard the news], literally relaxing when I got some text messages. I looked and saw it and I was just stunned. It still hasn’t hit me. I remember when This Is Us got picked up for three seasons last year and it just didn’t occur to me that that could happen with us. It never crossed my mind. I’m just thrilled. That’s amazing!”
Is that something you worry about as an actor of a hit show? Being renewed…
Jocko Sims: “Where I’m at in my career, I learned to stop worrying a long time ago. I used to [worry about] what’s the next season going to look like, are we going to get picked up? I just gotta go with the flow and leave it in God’s hands and see what happens. So that sort of peace of mind has helped me for the last 7/8 years.”
Freema Agyeman: “It’s very surreal because as an actor, you never really get that sort of validation or assurance or certainty with anything that you do. You’re always hustling and trying to find that happy medium between what fulfills your soul and what is commercially appealing. And once in a while you get this unicorn that fulfills both. I feel creatively stretched in a very good way, in an exceptional way.”
What initially drew you to the role you play in New Amsterdam?
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Jocko Sims: “First and foremost, I wanted to be a doctor when I was in high school and I had a medical symbol on my high school ring. That’s how serious it was. I got to college and realized I didn’t want to be in school for the next 12 years, so I took a theater course (always been into entertaining). I took a theater course, fell in love with it, went to UCLA, got my BA in theater and started auditioning and booked my first audition, actually. But that whole wanting to be a doctor thing was always in the back of my mind so I wanted to play one and now I have two [of my] dream jobs.”
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