Fordham grad Taylor Schilling happily checks into NBC hospital show 'Mercy'

Updated: September 23, 2009

Fordham grad Taylor Schilling recalls standing in a class not so long ago doing a scene from Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" that changed her life.

"I thought, 'Wow, this is where I feel at home,'" Schilling told the Daily News. "It was a feeling of disappearing and coming into myself."

There won't be any disappearing for Schilling these days.

In just a couple years, she has gone from attending college to a part in the film "Dark Matter," which co-stars Meryl Streep, to being the lead in a new NBC hospital drama, "Mercy," launching Wednesday night at 8.

Schilling plays Veronica Callahan, a nurse who returns from Iraq to work at Mercy Hospital.

"Veronica is sort of a dream for an actor," Schilling said.

"She has so many different layers, and is so complex and so human, and there's so much to sink your teeth into."

The show is shot partly on location at a closed hospital and in a studio in New Jersey. Besides Schilling, it stars Jaime Lee Kirchner, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Tupper and others.

Despite her relative inexperience, Schilling said she doesn't feel the pressure of carrying the series.

"I absolutely don't," she said. "It doesn't feel like pressure on my shoulders. It feels like the show sinks or swims based on the team. We have an amazing cast and an amazing crew and an amazing creative team. Everyone is extremely invested. I feel so supported."

Still, Schilling's face is the largest in promos for the show.

As with any series representing a subset of society, there will be complaints about the portrayals, and nursing is no different.

"You can't care that much about what people think," Schilling said. "Everyone is going to have an opinion. What I can do is do my best and hope the majority like what I do.

"I do hope nurses can see some sort of reflection in this role," she added, "and I hope it's entertaining. It's just TV, I'm not really saving lives."

That said, the show has nurses on the set to help with the terminology and techniques involved in medical procedures, which, Schilling noted, need to be done as if it's rote.

"Mercy" is more than just nursing. The story lines follow the characters outside of the hospital as well. Callahan is married and having an affair with a doctor at the hospital.

All of which plays into the reason Schilling got into acting in the first place.

"This is one of those things I've always loved and always wanted to do," she said. "It's such an interesting way to explore myself and explore human beings. I'm endlessly curious about what makes other people tick, [what makes] me tick, and to get that work is a dream."