‘Doc’ Star Amirah Vann Explains Why She Expects Gina & Amy’s Friendship to Come Back Stronger

We know that Doc will be back for a second season on Fox — and with 22 episodes! — but when it returns, it has a major relationship to fix. And no, we’re not talking about any part of the love triangle.

Sure, there’s the matter of what will happen for Amy (Molly Parker) when it comes to her ex-husband Michael (Omar Metwally) and new love Jake (Jon Ecker) — when she woke without eight years of memories following a car accident, she didn’t know she was divorced and had moved on — but we’re more concerned about her friendship with Gina (Amirah Vann), which was left in a rocky place. Gina had needed Amy to be there for her like she was for her best friend time and time again, and she wasn’t.

Below, Vann reflects on Season 1 and where it left off for her character and looks ahead to Season 2.

There’s so much that happens in the finale: the crash, Gina’s patient, the stuff with Richard, the Amy and Michael and Jake stuff. What was your reaction to that finale script?

Amirah Vann: Secretly as an actor, you wait for those scripts, you know what I mean? Where you can get into a little bit more of what I do as a doctor, the pressures as a neuropsychiatrist, and also those bonds. I think what makes us all kind of tune into medical dramas so attentively because you see the relationships, those built relationships, and you either have experienced it yourself or you wish that you had a doctor like that who cared so much. So it’s quite the honor to read that script and go, “Yes! It’s the time to really dive into that for Dr. Gina Walker.”

This is such a tough episode for her. I feel like nothing says that more than her breaking confidentiality early on. And she points out he didn’t want to hurt anyone else. How is she feeling about how all of that happened? She doesn’t really have time to process.

Another thing that I love about Barbie [Kligman] and Hank [Steinberg], our showrunner and our creator and our producers, they just are so brilliant at writing these scripts and just coming up with these ideas where you just see the personal life kind of really conflict with the professional lives. I will go out on a limb and say a lot of us are trying to balance that crossover between personal and professional, and sometimes it bleeds over. I feel like we’ve seen Gina and Amy be besties the whole season, and I love that you see that relationship between these two strong, smart women really blossom. And I also love that it’s not perfect. I love at the end that Gina’s like, “Listen, I needed you and I am kind of at a loss right now that you couldn’t be there for me.” And we laughed about it on set. I was like, “Well, of all the times for her to really kind of expect so much from Molly’s character…” It’s kind of a tough scene for everyone and a tough moment for all of the doctors. And so you just realize it’s really beautiful to watch a series go in and out of patient stories and personal.

Fox

It also kind of feels like she needed a moment to say she’s not going to talk about this now because of the way she’s been there for Amy all season, to be like, I’m going to say how this is goes going forward, right?

Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head. Yeah. She’s like, “I’m going to make a me choice. I’m going to make a me choice right now.”

Gina’s pushing her away. Do you think that exchange would’ve happened with the Amy who Amy was before the accident though?

Absolutely, because I think that’s the beauty of them having two decades of a friendship. Gina says it early on in the season, “Oh, I know your attitude very well. I’m very familiar with your tone.” And so I think that’s the beauty of their relationship is she’s one of the few people who’s — I’ve loved her as a friend for the entirety of the 20 years, and I’ve had compassion, especially as a neuropsychiatrist, too. I think that gives a lot of intel as to why people do what they do and the impact of trauma on people, not only the way the brain works, but how that manifests in everyday life. So I think Gina has a great capacity for love, and I think the sassiness keeps it spicy, keeps it real. I think Gina appreciates the honesty from her friend. She knows it comes from a real place, and I think it’s a very dynamic friendship, and some of the best are. You don’t want someone who’s always saying yes to you

It’s the one relationship that was never in question.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s a beautiful thing, too. So it’s good. Hopefully, fingers crossed we go into Season 2 and we can kind of see where they leave off. They do leave off in an, “I’m pissed at you” place, but you kind of know that the bond is not harmed. It’s like maybe some space, maybe some time to reflect, but we’re going to hopefully come back stronger, I think.

It feels like these are the two characters who can sit down and talk and get everything out there.

Which is an awesome thing to see on television because I think there’s so many ways that women can be represented on TV. And so we get really excited when we see one strong woman, but then when we see strong women together and how they interact, I’m like, that’s really my life. I mean, I have extraordinary female relationships in my life, women that I’m like, oh my God, I’m so glad now that having two daughters, this is my circle, my daughters have all these fantastic aunties and stuff like that. So I just think it’s a beautiful dynamic to see strong women on TV challenge each other in a really positive, forward-moving way. It’s nice.

There’s been great stuff with the relationships across the show this season.

Absolutely. I mean, the love triangle, I mean, who doesn’t love a love triangle? [Laughs] So I’m a fan of the show as much as I’m in it. I think all those actors, Jon and Omar, are just so wonderful. And of course, Molly Parker is phenomenal. So that love triangle, it’s like you don’t even know who to advocate for. I was like, I don’t even know who I’m rooting for. Whose team?

I feel like Gina is just team Amy though.

Facts. Yes, Gina is. Amira was confused. [Laughs] But you’re right. Gina is absolutely team Amy, which is once again, great to see. But I think that’s the beauty of even that love triangle is that you just go, oh my God, what would you do if you woke up [in that situation]? This is based on a true story. … We all know all that can go down in eight years, and she really has experienced a lot of love loss, but in her mind, she hasn’t. And so, oh God, that’s why I signed up immediately when I read that initial pilot script.

Fox

Is there anything about Gina’s marriage that we haven’t seen that you can share? Because we only got a little bit of it this season.

I think there’s so much to share because I mean, this is her second marriage and she’s also been married to a man, and you’re also talking about someone who’s a neuropsychiatrist and she’s helping other people all day long and yet and still, she’s on her at least second marriage, third engagement. There’s a lot there. I think there’s absolutely a lot to uncover about what is going on with her psychology and what is that? That’s a reflection of something. It’s nothing wrong with it, there’s no judgment on that, but it is a reflection of there’s something going on that’s not allowing her to make a choice that she’s like, okay, this is it. Or at least hadn’t been able to.

Yeah, because it’s always interesting to see who are the people that someone in that field goes home to.

Right.

It’s always like, is there anything where can she turn off that side of her when she’s home, or does that come into play? And that plays into the relationship and why it exists?

That sounds like we need about three, four episodes on Gina.

And flashbacks. I want flashbacks.

Yeah. They do a great job with those flashbacks. Even with the love triangle, I actually thoroughly enjoyed watching because then you really get to invest because you know them now, and even especially, oh my goodness so much with Scott Wolf‘s character, those flashbacks are where we really got to say, oh, we really thought one thing. And any good drama, whatever you think about the character, you get this information and now it turns it all on its head and it’s like, oh, well, maybe they aren’t just pure evil. Because no one’s pure evil. And you just see with him at home and you go, oh my God, this man was suffering. He’s a father. He’s a father like all the fathers that we know out there trying to make the best decisions for his family and his children, and you just can’t expect all of that to just stay at home neatly wrapped in a box.

One of the moments I really liked in the finale was when Michael was checking on Gina and said to tell him what she needed, and then that hug. How much did she need that?

Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. She just needed a friend. And I think that’s a beautiful relationship, too. To be honest, I feel like that level of friendship, intimacy is beautiful to see on TV because often we see intimacy that it’s always some sort of a relationship of some sort, an ex or a current lover or someone who you’re pining for. But I actually really enjoyed that moment because it was just like, oh, it’s a male-female relationship, and it’s like genuine friendship. It’s like genuine, sincere care. There’s no interest. And so I just thought that was a beautiful thing just to see on TV.

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If there’s a second season, what else would you like to explore with Gina?

I want to move forward with her. I want to see what’s going on. There are so many things because even being a neuropsychiatrist, talking to some of them as I was preparing for the role, they tackle these things all day. So they deal with children, they deal with older people. And I think being able to represent the medical field is so important, and to let people be seen is such a great honor and responsibility. And so to do that on TV and just kind of go more into depth of what it is with people with Alzheimer’s or with children that have traumatic brain injuries, I feel like there’s a lot of the population who’d have to suffer and deal with that and are trying to navigate that, so kind of telling their story would be quite the honor. And also going deeper into the friendship, but then figuring out who Gina is at home. What happened with these three relationships and is she staying in this one? Is this where she kind of figured it all out and her new wife is it? Or is this kind of a chronic problem? We don’t know. We don’t know yet. Does she need therapy? I don’t know.

What were some of your favorite scenes to film from the season?

Of course, that last episode was everything with Omar, and he’s such an amazingly talented, vulnerable, generous actor. And so I think all of us really are really passionate about the work. We’re passionate about the words, we’re passionate about this series, we really do all each other. All of that really helps when you talk about chemistry behind the camera and on camera. And so that was a beautiful scene to explore with him and to find it because you don’t know physically, you know the lines, but then you’re in the space with someone and you’re just trying to figure out how to deal with them and be gentle with each other and really be a friend in that moment, really just be present with them and see, do I touch them now? Do I give them their space? What is that? Even reaching out for him, that came by just my physical body of where I was and just being like, I just yelled at him and not wanting him to feel like I meant that in an aggressive way towards him, but it was just me kind of feeling like I needed to just kind of scream.

And as an actor, those are such beautiful moments because those are the moments that are off the page that you just kind of are like, I’m living in this and it’s written so beautifully, and the other actor is so wonderful, and I get to be so present with the crew that magic happens. And I feel like I watched it so many times.

And the other one that I definitely will always say is when Molly Parker [as Amy] first wakes up and she has to deal with that information about her son, and I thought that was just so stunning. She was so raw and there was a point where I was like, okay, I can’t see this scene anymore. Every time they played it, I had to turn away. I was like, it breaks my heart seeing her realize that she’s lost her son over and over again. And so I think that was a beautiful moment, too.

Doc, Season 2, TBA, Fox

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