He’s Man of the Hour—the night hour, that is! The Contending talks to Luke Tennie, who plays Dr. Crus Henderson on HBO Max’s The Pitt.
Luke Tennie is everywhere right now. You might have seen him on Apple’s Shrinking, ABC’s Abbott Elementary, or as night doctor, Dr. Crus Henderson, on HBO Max’s The Pitt.
“I’m pretty sure every actor would be like, hey, that’s impossible,” says Tennie. “And then you get these opportunities and you go, apparently not. If it was possible, the last person I thought it would be possible for was myself.”
After 10 years as a working actor, Tennie says having three hit shows at once is a pretty crazy place to be.
But maybe not as crazy as being part of the Night Crew on The Pitt. When his character appears on the show toward the end of Season 2, Dr. Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) describes working with him as “Crus Control.” What does that entail exactly? At first, Tennie says he tried to approach his character like Lucas Ierson’s Ogilvie: braggy and brash.
“[The casting directors] told me, [Crus is] literally just trying to help. He’s not even trying to flex [like Ogilvie]. You’re trying to help the day go smoothly. That’s it. And I was like, oh, OK. So I play it like that. Do another [take] and turn it up even more. You know, like it wasn’t this character anymore. It was just this guy who wants to make your day go easier. That’s literally who I am as an actor. You hire me. I want you to not have to worry about me. So Crus at some point is a variant of myself.”
Now that Tennie has entered The Pitt universe, what does he think of the fandom? He says he’s into it if it’s with a certain doctor whose LPMs are through the roof.
“There is one fantasy thing with Crus and Dr. Shen. I’m like, yo, Ken Kirby, bro. Let’s go. Because Ken is so dope. I described somebody with a high LPM. If Ken is around, the laughs per minute are insane. But yeah, so I saw one where there are like hearts around Crus’s head or whatever. I’m like, this is hilarious. But it’s funny to me because I’m like a normal looking dude, but hang a stethoscope around my neck? All of a sudden, oh, he’s a 10 out of 10. I don’t look like Frank Langdon. You know, I ain’t built like that.”
Yes, he is!
I had a fun conversation with Tennie, including how he translates medical concepts as an actor and who his character is based on (it’s incredibly sweet). Listen or watch below!
