LOUISA CLEAVE checks the pulse of TV's favourite medics.
Goran Visnjic, Dr Luka Kovac
George Clooney quit and the Croatian became ER's resident sex symbol. He cannot escape the question: does he consider himself a hunk?
Six months previously — when his grasp of the English language was much less than it is now — he evaded reporters by saying he did not understand the word.
After six months of working with a language coach, Visnjic has no defence.
"My professors in school in my country told me so many times if audience thinks about you something which you don't think you are but it is a good thing, positive thing, then let them think that," he struggles to explain.
"Those things you already have are with you. If you have good diction or are good spirited, you don't need to show them, put them in front. If you try to show them then it's getting ugly."
Visnjic says he was one of about four actors hired at the same time to work on ER yet people still regard him as Clooney's replacement. It is a connection he obviously does not agree with and wishes it would fade away.
"Why? I have an accent, I'm from Croatia. So many different things about me and George. I'm a little bit grey, I'm 28. I don't know how old he is. From the first spot it's a big difference."
But Visnjic discovered he did have something in common with Clooney — kicking around the dummies the show uses as patients during trauma scenes.
"One day a girl came to me from the crew and said, 'You're not supposed to do that,' and I said why.
"She said, 'Because George used to do that.' I'm sorry. I'm hitting dummies all my life," says Visnjic.
Perhaps it's a European hunk thing.
Erik Palladino, Dr Dave Malucci
He's quite a joker, this guy. "I'm here for the 5-to-15-year-olds," jokes Palladino.
"No one mistakes me for a real doctor but sometimes people request that I play doctor in the bedroom," is just one of the gems to come out of his mouth.
His character is similarly wisecracking. It's a mechanism he uses to cope with the job, says Palladino.
"He's pretty arrogant and insensitive. That's other people's perception, not mine.
"I think he's just a kind of hotshot and he loves having fun and he loves being a doctor and the human body is a car engine to him. That's how he sees it, so he doesn't get emotionally involved like every other doctor that he works with. I think he's beaten down and seen so many horrific things and at some point you have to have a cutoff. His cutoff valve is a sense of humour."
New York native Palladino decided to become an actor after watching Raging Bull, the brutal 70s' boxing movie starring Robert DeNiro.
Palladino confesses to hating exercise but he loves to box. It keeps him in good enough shape to play a sexy second-year resident on the show.
He went to the same all-boys school as Alan Alda and was stoked when their paths crossed during Alda's regular guest appearances on ER.
"He said one of the things for any actor was to be confident. When I'm feeling insecure about the scene and if I haven't figured it out before I shoot it, it's not going to come off. If I'm feeling insecure about a scene I better figure it out and understand it backwards and forwards ... so when I go to shoot it I'm so confident it just bounces off me and no one can touch me."
Time's up. Palladino bounces off to his next interview. Without a parting wisecrack.
Eriq La Salle, Dr Peter Benton
Most actors have little in common with their characters. La Salle is an exception.
He has the strong, silent type presence of Peter Benton — and is equally as focussed on his work as the no-nonsense surgeon.
La Salle is also passionate about social justice and speaks at length about the insidious racism in America.
An ER original, he shows no sign of leaving the show like his veteran costar Anthony Edwards (Dr Mark Greene) and is still intense about the medical drama after seven years.
"I think it is one of the more interesting shows on television. When we're at our best, and we haven't always been, it is something to be so proud of and that's very rare.
"Most television shows are not saying anything, are not doing anything. It's escapism and just stupid and I think this is one of the few shows people get really wrapped up in. When you're part of something like that it's easy to remain committed."
La Salle has pursued his other ambitions while working on ER: writing, producing and directing films for television and short films. He even starred in some of them.
He says if playing Benton has taught him anything, it is to appreciate his free time. "I work as hard as I can but it makes me appreciate my down time, to just read or whatever. My play time, if I do it well, heightens my work time."
* ER
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TV's medicine men
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