A monster in the operating room: Joshua Jackson becomes Dr. Death

By David Villafranca

Los Angeles, US, Jul 15 (EFE).- The nightmarish story of Christopher Duntsch, an American surgeon whose malpractice maimed dozens of patients, is the subject of the new series Dr. Death, which has launched on the streaming site Peacock and stars Joshua Jackson alongside Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater.

Jackson, known for his work on Dawson’s Creek and Fringe, took on the unsettling role of Duntsch, and in an interview with Efe explained what drew him to the character.

“What I found appealing right from the jump was not understanding how this man came to be,” he said.

“The first place I was sent to understand the story was into the podcast (Dr. Death) and the podcast does an amazing job of telling you the story of the victims, the story of the trial, the story of what it took to finally take this man down,” he added.

“But what it doesn’t do, because it’s not the focus of the podcast, is tell you who the man is, how did this guy happen?”

Jackson said his first impression was that Duntsch was a psychopath, but that the reality was much “scarier.”

“He thought he was a brilliant surgeon, he thinks he’s a genius, he thinks that he’s doing the right thing and it’s everybody else that’s the problem. The disconnect from reality there is literally insane,” and is what made the role intriguing for the actor.

The title Dr. Death already hints at the dark nature of the character as someone who harbors secrets and has blood on his hands.

Jackson grappled with the challenge of how to interpret this real life character without judgment.