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In this roundtable we shared with other Italian media, the veteran actor behind Steve Carell and Dr. Cox in the respective 2026 TV shows recounted hilarious anecdotes and gave inspiringly deep answers to our questions.
"Okay. Hi, nice to meet you. Good morning. I have the silly question of the day. I like your nose ring.
Like Dr. Cox. I got my nose pierced for a film with Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence called Nothing to Lose.
I did. I got a bullring in it for two years. I did. I did it in Northern Ireland. It's insane."
"I got on the set and the producer's name was Martin Bregman and he was just an old guy and he talked like this.
And he called me Mac and he goes, what the fuck is that? And I go, I got my nose pierced for the movie. He goes, take it out.
And as you know, you can't take it out because it gets infected. So I go, Mr. Bregman, he was an older guy.
He was Al Pacino's manager for a long time. And he goes, get that fucking thing out. And I go, I can't. I can't get infected."
"And so I did the movie with my nose ring. You should watch it. It's called Nothing to Lose.
OK, thank you so much. And like Dr. Cox hating Hugh Jackman, who could be the actor Walter Mann in Rooster hates?
Let's see who would Walter Mann, the character in Rooster. That's a really good question.
Who would Walter Mann hate? Charlton Heston. Because Charlton Heston is everything he wants to be and he's not going to be."
"Just a big, strong, manly man. And Walt's too busy. He's never going to get there.
So he would be jealous. You wouldn't hate him. He would be jealous.
Because Bill Lawrence, who wrote both Scrubs and Rooster, I think he was jealous of Hugh Jackman.
Because Hugh is so handsome. He won a Tony on Broadway. He's a great actor on film."
"And I think Bill, he can dance, he can sing. And I think Bill was just too jealous of him.
He could do everything.
Yeah. OK, thank you.
Hi, nice to meet you."
"Hi there.
If you get 30 seconds to convince the audience to watch, to put Rooster on their watch list, what would you say to them?
I would say, if I wanted the audience to watch Rooster and put it on their watch list, that in 2026, when we need it the most, Rooster is a big, warm hug."
"It's Steve Carell and an ensemble of unbelievable actors.
And it's not jabs. You know, a lot of comedies are jabs now. It's a big hug.
And I think at one point, comedy wanted to be too acid. It wanted to be too subversive.
This is an old fashioned. This goes back. This goes back to Norman Lear. This is a big hug."
"Good morning.
Good morning.
Let's talk about Scrubs. You are in the first episode. Will you come back in other episodes of the new season?
Yes, but the first season, I'll give you a spoiler since it's already been on in America."
"So there's nine episodes in the new season and in episode eight, I get sick.
And so I have to come to the hospital.
And the only reason that's interesting is now the people who I taught have to take care of me.
And I'm the worst patient on the planet."
"Really?
Yeah, because I want to micromanage everything.
And so writers can write that.
And so now the caregivers have to take care of the mentor."
"And that's fantastic.
I don't know what's going to happen next season.
We just got picked up on Thursday for the next season, which is huge.
ABC and Disney brought us back."
"And so everybody was really happy about that.
And so I don't know. But I don't have no idea what's happening next year.
Bill Lawrence, who is the executive producer who wrote Scrubs and Rooster, he likes to keep his cards very tight.
He didn't tell the actors anything. He likes it that way."
"But you will like to be there.
Oh, I will be there.
But it'll be a balancing act between Rooster and Scrubs.
So Rooster is in Burbank at the Warner Brothers lot, which is fantastic because it's old."
"Bogart and all the great old actors shot there.
And then Scrubs is up in Vancouver, which is also fantastic, especially for Los Angeles actors, because it's in the same time zone.
So as opposed to going to Atlanta, which is a three hour difference, or Chicago, both of which I love, going up to Vancouver is the best.
It's the best."
"Great. David with Gamereactor. Thank you so much for joining us.
Ciao, ciao.
Ciao, ciao. Gracias.
Cox always fought the system, but he stayed Sacred Heart, as we learn in the new episodes."
"So how would you say the character evolved, and you as an actor?
How is what evolved?
The character and you as an actor.
I think what happened in season now 10, which is the revival, is the writers started to explore fatigue and burnout and exhaustion, which is really interesting because writers can write what they're familiar with and writers get burned out."
"And so for them to embrace Cox as a guy who can't teach this generation anymore, it's what he tells them.
He tells that to Zachy's character in the first episode.
He says, I can't teach these kids anymore because he calls one of them Tick Tock Dock, you know, because she's on her phone the whole time.
And he's just like, he goes, I can't I can't teach them the way I taught you."
"And so he says, I'm out.
And so I thought that was really interesting for the writers to go down that path.
Now, he's not completely out because he's going to come back in episode eight.
And like we were just talking about, he'll he'll have a mouth."
"He'll be sick and not sick, dying sick, but in danger.
And the episode 108 we shot was very sad.
It was very moving. It was like the Brendan Fraser episode when Brendan dies back in season five.
And that was everybody's pretty much favorite episode."
"And this one is even better because to explore really raw emotions in a comedy is hard.
It's hard. And we did it in episode eight.
I can't wait for you to see it.
Nice to see you. Where are you from?
Here, Italy. Right on. I'll be your host after."
"Oh, beautiful.
So you were saying that the topic that the revival tackles is also burnout.
But you were saying that episode eight, Dr. Cox will become a patient.
Yes. So how does it deal with the fact that he wants to control everything?
You know, and he has to step down is something that is really common nowadays in our life."
"We have the over control mania.
So it's a really good question.
What Cox, one of the things he's wrestling with when he comes back to the hospital, because he knows something's wrong."
"He hasn't self-diagnosed it yet, but he knows something's wrong.
And he wants to protect Zach's character, J.D., from getting involved.
Because if he's as sick as he thinks he is, he doesn't want to drag J.D. down with him.
And so the episode is kind of a tug of war between Cox wanting to get the right treatment, but not involving J.D., Zach's character."
"And finally, he has to. J.D.'s the best doctor because I trained him to be a superior doctor.
And so finally, Cox is like, you, I need you.
And that's the first time in 10 years that he said to J.D., I need you.
And it was big. We were crying so hard."
"And it was beautiful for Cox to finally get there.
After all this torture he's doing to himself, he finally says to J.D., I need you because I'm scared.
And for an alpha like Cox to admit that he's scared to death, that's really rich.
Wait till you see the episode. It's one of the best episodes we've ever done."
"It was beautiful on the page.
And so what happens when something's rich on the page is the actors can elevate it 10%.
Maybe a little more.
But unless it's on the page really nice, you're not going to make a C plus script A. Just not."
"You can make it a B minus or a B, but that's it.
That's as much as the actors' superpowers are.
Unless you're Jim Carrey or Robin Williams, there's only so much you can do.
And so when it's on the page and it's a B plus or an A, then you have a chance at being great."
"You have a chance.
The lights have to be good. The sound has to be good.
There's all these things that go wrong.
And when it all goes right every once in a while, it's really special."
