St. Denis Medical star Mekki Leeper took Us behind-the-scenes of the highly anticipated NBC series to share some secrets about the magic that goes into making a TV show.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip, Leeper, 30, walked around the Los Angeles set for the upcoming mockumentary, which premieres on Tuesday, November 12, with back-to-back episodes.
“Some doors are real and some are not. These are real,” Leeper, who plays newly-hired nurse Matt, explained. “Some of the signs are pretty robust but a lot of the trash cans are fake. This is a real trash can but many of the fake ones are tempting and I do put trash in there sometimes.”
Leeper pointed out the “wall of gratitude” that can be seen in the background throughout season 1.
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“Some of them are sort of insulting to the intelligence and handwriting ability of children. I think a comedy writer did this and misestimated how smart kids are today. My favorite one is the aesthetic effort put into decorating [a letter that reads], ‘Thank you for everything,’” he quipped. “But [then there is] the lack of effort in the phrase, ‘Thank you for everything.’ We saved your dad and you plopped down four meaningless words. That’s interesting.”
While exploring the set, Leeper noticed that costars Allison Tolman and David Alan Grier had their own custom chairs — but he didn’t.
“Allison and David get a chair. Interestingly the chair I am sitting in right now just says cast,” Leeper noted. “It is sort of an indication of how accomplished I am as an actor compared to other people. It is offensive and I am going to call my agents about that.”
Leeper went on to show some of the medical props used on screen. He started with a defibrillator that he assumed wasn’t functional.
“A lot of the props I think are real things that don’t work. But they make it look realistic for the show. I play around with this a lot but I am always afraid it is going to kill me or something,” he admitted to the camera. “But it probably won’t. I will get a big check from NBC Universal if I do die temporarily and probably someone will use this to bring me back to life and collect a lot of money.”
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St. Denis Medical follows overworked doctors and nurses trying their best to care for patients at an underfunded Oregon hospital. The upcoming series stars Leeper, Tolman, Grier, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Josh Lawson, Kaliko Kauahi and Kahyun Kim.
The setting means viewers will often see fictional patients in different stages of recovery.
“I saw a guy die in here the other day,” Leeper recalled in Us‘ exclusive video. “They don’t use a real dead guy but it was really interesting because the actor told me he auditions for corpses all the time and he always books it because he is really good at it. He has been doing corpse [work] for years.”
Leeper continued: “He told us that he holds his breath for as long as he can and he listens to the scene with his eyes closed over and over. When one of the main characters is saying something, he knows they are definitely going to be on camera and he won’t so that is when he takes a breath really quick.”
The final part of the tour featured Leeper checking the structure of the building. After confirming that the show uses light panels to pretend certain scenes take place outside, Leeper poked fun at how “frighteningly flimsy” the wooden walls of St. Denis Medical are.
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“So if I ever trip and fall into a wall, I will probably be horribly injured,” Leeper, who previously starred on Jury Duty, quipped before starting to say his goodbyes. “I was going to say I am going to go back to my trailer, I am probably not. It is lonely there. I might go to crafty to try to meet friends or something. I am going to hang out here as long as I can. My apartment is sad and my personal life is empty. I like this job and I hope I never get fired.”
Before St. Denis Medical‘s premiere, Leeper spoke to Us about how much he learned about the world of medicine from his new role.
“It turns out that all this medicine stuff is actually pretty complicated to learn. And goofing around on a set is not a very conducive environment to medical knowledge,” he said about how he gained a higher “appreciation” for hospital staff. “These people are so smart. They’re retaining so much information and they’re so poised. Because even when it’s fake, I get scared when there’s a medical emergency [in a scene]. I’m like, ‘This is really intense.’ So yeah I have a higher respect now for nurses and doctors. It’s just amazing what they do.”
St. Denis Medical premieres on NBC Tuesday, November 12, with back-to-back episodes before streaming the next day on Peacock.
