‘Brilliant Minds’: John Clarence Stewart Talks Thorne’s Sparks With Carol, Clashing With Wolf & More

Dr. Anthony Thorne (John Clarence Stewart) has a very different way of dealing with patients than Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) on Brilliant Minds. He has to, since he’s running the ER, and he can’t spend hours or days with the same patient.

But in the Monday, November 17, episode, they’ll be working together when, on a flight gone wrong, one patient’s life is literally turned upside down. John Clarence Stewart previews the team-up, what’s coming up with those sparks between Thorne and Dr. Carol Pierce (Tamberla Perry), and more.

The emergency of this episode is a plane crash, and it’s where Thorne thrives, but then focus on one single patient isn’t the norm for him. So how does he feel about that?

John Clarence Stewart: I think it’s challenging. He has to make sure that no one falls through the cracks, that no one is higher than anyone else or more important than anyone else. But I think because of the way that Michael [Grassi] has structured it, because of the givens and because of the emergency specifically and accountability, she starts to rise to the top as the priority, which is just a graceful way of getting us to a point of specificity, which is very useful.

How does working alongside Wolf go? These two have been butting heads all season.

We have been butting heads, but I think that the thing that I have been leaning into for myself as the actor, the fact that we have different ways of doing the same thing, and because we have different ways of caring, we have different ways of trying to serve patients and also different jobs really, when it comes to helping patients — my job is to stabilize them and to move them on so that they get the help that they need, but they can’t get the help that they need if they’re not stable. And Wolf is a specialist doing his thing when people have risen to the level of needing his specific expertise, which he’s a genius at. And so sometimes those desires, they don’t mesh, which is beautiful, but in this, they happen to synergize, which is an interesting thing. So the word that comes to mind for me is watching the respect that — because I think with both of them, respect isn’t just given, it’s earned, and that’s something that unites in service of this patient, which I think is really beautiful.

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Does Thorne wish that he could do what Wolf does and spend time with patients after this episode, or does he know that he is needed in the ER doing what he does and that’s more important?

Well, I think that he knows he’s needed in the ER and that, I can’t say that it is more important, but I will say that they aren’t able to get helped by Wolf if Thorne doesn’t do his job. And the reality is also that there are certain soft skills that Wolf has to employ when you’re specifically with someone and you’re helping a single patient. There’s these bedside manner things that have to be a part of it that Thorne doesn’t always have the opportunity to employ, right? There’s not time for that stuff. It really is getting them to a point of being OK and stable so that they can move on to the next one and the next one because the people that specifically in this emergency, the people that need help, it’s endless. So I think that there’s potentially a little bit of envy, like deep down for Thorne, because what a luxury to have time in a hospital, what a luxury to have time to focus on a single patient when I have so many others that need help. So I think that that luxury is potentially a bit of a sore point, but Thorne loves what he does, truly loves what he does,

There are some sparks between Thorne and Carol that have been really fun to watch. Are we going to see more of that possibility, more of the two of them growing closer?

Yeah, I think that we’re going to see more of that possibility. I think we’re also going to see that relationship and that connection be made interesting in different ways. And I think that it really is beautiful, the shades and the different colors that we’re seeing from Carol in their dynamic. I think also Thorne is a way with Carol that he is with no one else. In one way, Thorne is a very quick judge of character and who a person is and all of that, so I think that speaks to who Carol is. There’s really not time to waste on certain things. And so the fact that he’s drawn to her, that he feels magnetized in her direction, I think says a lot about the doctor and the person that Carol is. And there are things that we learn about each of them, and I’m excited to see how that unfolds. But it’s going to unfold. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s going to unfold.

Where is Thorne’s head when it comes to that though? We’ve heard a bit about his own family life, too. So, where’s his head when it comes to the possibility of just a relationship in general with anyone else?

Yeah, I think that one of the things that’s interesting to me is with what Michael is doing, you get to dive into the effects of the vocation on the person. And so with the divorce and everything, I think that the way that Thorne works in his career at the hospital, you can’t just turn that off. That way of working, that way of being, that way of the stakes being that high and not really needing or having time to do the kind of softer things, the more nuanced of things at times, I think that that has potentially had an effect on his personal life. And so there’s a wound there when it comes to his divorce. There’s a pain there when it comes to his children and the fact that he’s not around in the way that he wants to be around. And so it complicates things.

The thing that I am enjoying about Carol and Thorn’s relationship is that they’re able to hold space for a little bit of that intricacy, a little bit of that, which is a very specific kind of pain. It’s a very specific kind of ache and pain going through that when you have children and trying to still do your job at the highest level you can. And so being able to have a space with someone, each of them that understands and that is going through it in real time is such a gift.

Pief Weyman/NBC

Is Thorne going to interact with Dr. Amelia Frederick (Bellamy Young) at all? Because it doesn’t seem too likely given his job is in the ER, but you never know how that storyline’s going to be unfolding.

No comment. [Laughs]

What’s his take on Dr. Charlie Porter (Brian Altemus)?

He says it as much, he’s an over-stepper. Everybody has a role to play, and he understands very quickly that Charlie hasn’t accepted his role, and that’s dangerous regardless of all of the intricacies and things that Thorne doesn’t know about Charlie in his life and all of those things. When it comes to a team and it comes to everybody doing the thing they need to do, Charlie has not accepted his role. And when you have a person who has authority, who hasn’t accepted the chain of command when it comes to people’s lives, that’s dangerous. And so Thorne does not have patience, and he shouldn’t have patience for the kind of anarchy that Charlie is caring and has. And I think that’s a very interesting thing.

I think it’s a point of tension between Wolf and Thorne, right? Because I don’t think that Thorne would’ve allowed a doctor like Charlie to work with them. There’s no way that he would’ve been there. Something would’ve happened, he would’ve been let go, something would’ve shifted. But Wolf is — for whatever reason, Charlie is still there. And so if Charlie is still there, he is a liability. And I think that’s how Thorne sees Charlie. Until Charlie has proven to Thorne that he can be respected, that he understands what his job is, and he can do that without endangering the patients, he’s a liability.

And it seems like a liability that Thorne’s going to have to deal with in this flashforward timeline when Charlie’s running the department.

Don’t play! Don’t play with it. [Laughs]

Brilliant Minds, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC