Actor narrates 'Red Band' as character in a coma
ATLANTA – Griffin Gluck has a different kind of acting challenge on Fox's Red Band Society (Wednesday, 9 p.m. ET/PT).
Playing the comatose Charlie on the medical drama, the 14-year-old Los Angeles native must lie still for long stretches as the show films its scenes.
"There are challenges and there are bonuses" to the long periods without movement, Gluck says during a break between scenes on the brightly colored hospital set.
Despite his state, Charlie is often the center of attention and on the receiving end of conversations with other patients in the pediatric wing of Los Angeles' fictional Ocean Park Hospital. Caregivers talk to Charlie as they attend to him, hoping he will come out of the coma. Executive producer Margaret Nagle says her brother, an inspiration for Charlie, could hear when he was in a coma.
Gluck's Charlie also serves as the show's omniscient narrator and can appear to other characters, such as mean-girl Kara (Zoe Levin), who passes out and sees him in the premiere episode.
"I love those kinds of scenes," Gluck says of the surreal meeting between Charlie and Kara. "If you ever see a surgery in one of the episodes, most likely I will be there. Coma Boy will appear."
Charlie fell into a coma after a traffic accident and the resulting surgery, which are detailed in a flashback scene for an upcoming episode that was being filmed in early September. Gluck has a touching pre-surgery scene with Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, who plays Nurse Jackson.
All the stillness during the coma scenes provides its own challenge. One can get sleepy.
Wilson Cruz, who plays Nurse Kenji, "was in the room helping me out with my daily coma (treatment) and he started singing in between takes, these old, sleepy show tunes. My eyes closed 10 to 15 minutes at a time. It was really hard not to fall asleep. I did fall asleep," says Gluck, who also appeared in ABC's Private Practice. "And I woke up mid-take. It was very embarrassing, but it was also one for the bloopers."