WATCH: Liem Vu of Global’s The Morning Show visits Enrico Colantoni on the set of Remedy.
TORONTO — Enrico Colantoni is scrubbed and ready to get into the operating room as Dr. Allen Conner on the sophomore season of homegrown drama series Remedy.
The 52-year-old Toronto-born actor told Global News that he and the rest of the cast went back to work feeling comfortable and confident.
“We hit our stride by the end of the first season, which is a rare feat. Usually it takes about a season and a half for the writers to find their voice, for the actors to find their groove,” he explained. “I felt we did it in 10 episodes because we were allowed to just jump in together.”
Colantoni’s pride in Remedy is palpable. “It’s not often that you get to do a TV show that’s written like a play,” he said.
The series also kept Colantoni at home. He starred on the short-lived U.S. sitcom Hope and Gloria opposite fellow Canadian Alan Thicke and had a breakout role on Just Shoot Me!, which ran for seven seasons, before starring on Veronica Mars.
In 2008, with the long run on U.S. television behind him, Colantoni returned to Toronto to play Sgt. Gregory Parker on Flashpoint.
“I grew up wanting to play a police officer,” he recalled.
After Flashpoint ended its five-season run, Colantoni was offered the Remedy job.
“It scared me more than anything because I never imagined myself playing a doctor,” he said.
Colantoni insisted he wasn’t worried about whether audiences would welcome another series set in a hospital.
“I never think about whether a show will catch on or not,” he explained. “Characters speak to me and writing speaks to me.”
Besides, Colantoni sees Remedy as more of a family drama than a medical drama.
“That’s what sets us apart from other hospital shows,” he said. “Certainly we have the medical B-story but it usually just revolves around how it affects our characters.
“When you have family dysfunction, it’s far more interesting. Everybody can relate to it.”
READ MORE: 10 things you need to know before Remedy returns
Colantoni acknowledges there are distinct differences between working on Canadian and American shows but he doesn’t spend much time thinking about them.
“I’m an actor first and foremost, which sort of makes me a gipsy, which makes going to work anywhere exciting to me,” he explained. “I’m doing the same thing.
“It’s different mostly because the community is so much smaller in Canada. The ties are tighter, they’re closer. You end up working with the same people on different shows. It’s family. What Canadian television tries to do is much more exciting.”
Colantoni is slightly less in love with using social media. He has more than 38,000 followers on Twitter but doesn’t tweet obsessively.
“It’s one of those things that I don’t understand entirely,” he said of Twitter. “I don’t understand the importance.”
Still, he finds social media a good way to keep in touch with fans.
“It’s such a fun concept of jumping in and being intimate with people that want to know you and make you feel like you’re touching their lives in some special way,” said Colantoni. “I don’t want to be that tweeter who’s just promoting shows. I like to feel close.”
Season 2 of Remedy debuts on Global on Monday, March 23 at 9 p.m.
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