Exclusive: Malcolm-Jamal Warner Talks ‘The Resident’ Season Four & Career Longevity
Premiering this week (January 12) on Fox is Season Four of its hit medical drama series “The Resident,” which follows the lives and duties of staff members at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, while delving into the bureaucratic practices of the hospital industry. Throughout the four seasons, Malcolm-Jamal Warner has been a fan favorite as AJ Austin (AKA ‘The Raptor’), a volatile and dramatic cardiothoracic surgeon with overwhelming talent, who proves difficult to keep in line.
For over 30 years, audiences have watched Warner grow up on television, starting with the long-running classic television series “The Cosby Show.” In addition to “The Resident,” Malcolm has also made headlines in 2016 starring as A.C. Cowlings on the critically acclaimed, award-winning FX series “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.” Additional recent credits include: Amazon’s “Sneaky Pete,” TNT’s “Major Crimes,” “Suits” on USA, “Sons of Anarchy” for FX, “Community,” and “Dexter,” to name a few.
BlackFilmandTV.com recently spoke with Warner on being on the show, what to expect this season and still working after 30 years.
What can we expect from your character this season?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: There's a lot of good stuff. I'm actually excited because I think we're coming in for the fourth season really strong. Expect a roller coaster of emotions, specifically with regard to the Raptor. By the middle of the season, we're actually going to see yet another side of him that we have never seen before.
What was it like coming back, getting that script and seeing that they will be incorporating the pandemic crisis into the season?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: We all thought it was important, especially because of the way the show handles the different aspects of the medical field. We thought it was definitely important to be able to tackle on what's happened with the pandemic. With the first episode of this season, we're dead smack in the middle of the COVID. But then there were a lot of considerations that the show, the studio, and the network have to take in terms for the rest of the season. Do we stay in the world of the pandemic, which would require everyone wearing masks? I think at the end of the day, the consensus was that the television audience is not going to sit through a whole season being actors wear different masks. We do so head on in the first episode, and then with the other episodes after that we're in this post pandemic world.
How much did affect you play a doctor on a show, and then seeing what's happening in real world?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: it's given me as an actor more respect, more empathy, and even more compassion for these actual frontline health care workers. I have a dear friend who was a trauma surgeon, who has always been my go to person, even when I auditioned for the show, she was my my resource. She works out of three different hospitals in Los Angeles. Because she's a trauma surgeon, she gets people literally at their worst. On a daily basis, she's interacting and dealing with COVID patients and COVID deaths. So to have these conversations with her, it really increased my my respect and compassion for what these frontline health care workers have to deal with on a daily basis.
How much have you enjoyed being on the show and the character you play?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: This is, hands down, my favorite role to play. I used to say it was my role on Sneaky Pete but I think that role actually prepared me for this role. It's so awesome to be able to play someone who has so much confidence and so much bravado and is so good at what he does that he doesn't really care what other people think about him. To have an arrogance and bravado, that’s masking insecurities is one thing, but to play a cat who is arrogant and brash, but not because he's overcompensating but because he just he knows he's damn good at what he does. You are going to respect him, whether you like him or not. It's so awesome to play that. Because I always say that playing the Raptor, I get an opportunity to be who I don't allow myself to be in real life?
With this season, we potentially will see romance blossom between your character and Dr. Okafor.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: That's always been a lot of fun for Shaunette Renée Wilson and I to be able to play. When I saw the first couple of episodes that we did my first three episodes in season one, at the end of season one, I just remember being amazed at watching on television and seeing OR scenes with ma and Shaunette. We’ve got our masks on, we have our goggles on, and you can still see the energy, you can still feel the heat out between these two. I was very prideful in that, that you can still see all of that, despite being all jacked up with medical gear.
With so many people working and studying from home, a lot of TV programs are being watching, so much that everything old is new again. We've seen you for over 20 or 30 years, and depending on the audience, how have you dealt with your career throughout this whole time, staying humbled and working?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: A lot of that has to be attributed to my mother because when The Cosby Show first aired in 84, I was 14. After the first couple of weeks, those ratings were phenomenal, like literally out of this world. My mom said to me, "Listen, baby, it's great that this show is the phenomenon that it is. But you know how this business is, this show could be over next year? What are you going to do when the show's over?" She said, "I can type. I can always get a job, but what are you going to do?" So she impressed upon me the importance of longevity. We literally lived each year of that show as if it were the last year because we didn't know. Because it was always about longevity, and people even at the height of the show, and people would ask me, “What's it like being successful is such such a young age?" I was up to philosophy even at 15 that, well, the show is successful doesn't mean I’m successful. I always felt like that I wouldn't consider myself successful until I was 40, 50, or 60 years old. Still working consistently. I can look back on having had a successful career. So I think just the concept of thinking beyond the success of this particular project I'm working on, and understanding the long game. Understanding that it's a marathon, not a sprint, with all of those awarenesses, that makes it difficult just to kick back and be like, "Yo, I'm a TV star. I'm good." Because the reality is the grind is the grind is the grind.
What keeps you busy when you’re not working?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: I have a three year old daughter so that takes fullest time. Because she is used to me being at work all day, for the last eight months to have mommy and Papa home all day, every day, she was in heaven. So really, between my daughter and music and in writing and playing bass, I have a lot to keep me busy.
What's a good reason for people to start catching up on The Resident now if they haven't done so already?
Malcolm-Jamal Warner: The resident is really the only medical show that really tackles head on the issues with the medical field. We deal with a hospital's screw ups and cover ups. We deal in very real stories that has happened in real life. Our show does not sugarcoat the medical profession. We pay homage to the workers but is not shy about shedding light on how the medical field in many ways doesn't look out for people. There's all kinds of profits over patients and The Resident really deals with that.