We were joined on the Popternative show by Jessy Yates who can be seen playing Dr. Harper Simms in Netflix’s first English-language medical procedural series, Pulse. The series premiered with all 10 episodes on Netflix on April 3.
Created by Zoe Robyn (The Equalizer), Pulse‘s ensemble cast also includes Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher), Colin Woodell (Fly Me to the Moon), Justina Machado (Six Feet Under), Jack Bannon (Pennyworth), Néstor Carbonell (Bates Motel), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Chelsea Muirhead (Warrior), Ash Santos (Mayor of Kingstown), Daniela Nieves (Every Witch Way), Arturo Del Puerto (For All Mankind), and Santiago Segura (Walker: Independence).
In Pulse, as a hurricane heads towards Miami’s busiest Trauma Center, third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) is thrown into a promotion when beloved Chief Resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) is suspended. Amid the storm and an onslaught of trauma cases, the hospital goes into lockdown, and Danny and Phillips must find a way to work together – even as the bombshell details of a complicated and illicit romance between them begin to spill out. Jessy plays Danny’s supportive younger sister, Dr. Harper Simms, who is also a resident at the emergency hospital and is a wheelchair user.
As a wheelchair user herself, this was an important dynamic to portray on TV, Jessy tells us, “I play an emergency medicine resident, and I’m also a wheelchair user. So, the showrunners were so awesome about making sure that they were getting input from other physicians who use chairs.”
She adds, “they made a relationship with a doctor named Daniel Grossman who is an emergency medicine attendee out of the Mayo clinic. I got to shadow him during a shift at Mayo and he’s a doctor who uses a chair, he was injured about 5-6 years ago, and it was so eye opening to see how he interfaced with patients, the things he needed to adapt to both physically and socially. I don’t know that I could have done the job had I not seen that.”
Watch the full conversation with Jessy Yates below.
Pulse is streaming on Netflix.
Follow Jessy Yates: Instagram
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