‘Limitless’: What’s a Guy With a Drug-Enhanced High IQ to Do? (Answer: Help the FBI)

By the end of the 2011 feature film Limitless, struggling author Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) had transformed into a wealthy would-be politician thanks to dangerous “smart drug” NZT, which allows users to increase their brain power. In CBS’s continuation of the movie, struggling musician Brian Finch (Jake McDorman) lucks into some NZT and attracts the attention of New York FBI agent Rebecca Harris (Dexter’s Jennifer Carpenter). After Brian gets a little help from Eddie himself (Cooper, an executive producer, will be an occasional guest star), the FBI realizes a guy with that high an IQ makes for a good crime-solving partner. They agree to supply Brian with NZT and partner him with Rebecca. We get smart with McDorman and Carpenter.

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Before finding NZT and a purpose, Brian is adrift, doing tedious temp work, while Rebecca is more driven and has her life slightly more put together. Which character do you feel closer to, personally?
McDorman: I’ve always known what I wanted to do—I left school at 16 to move out to L.A. and act, and I’ve somehow never had to have a “real” job. This is my one skill.
Carpenter: I worked at a place called Bruegger’s Bagels, and a friend and I would hide out in the freezer to avoid working. [Laughs] No one looks for you in the freezer!
McDorman: We just found a body in a freezer on the show!
Carpenter: That was fun! I was also slinging sushi in L.A. for a year. They don’t feel like such bad gigs now looking back, but I’d love it if I didn’t have to go back to waiting tables.

If someone gave you just one NZT pill, what would you do with your time as one of the smartest people on the planet?
McDorman: I hope I would do something for the good of other people, like Brian does, but there’s a good chance I’d just end up at a Guitar Center for a day, playing amazing music.
Carpenter: Maybe you would have charities you really want to support or organize all their problems and try to solve as many as you could in 24 hours.
McDorman: Or that. [Laughs]


Limitless, premieres Tuesday, Sept. 22, 10/9c, CBS