Chelsea Muirhead knows how to play an overworked surgical intern, because she was once a struggling actor

Hold onto your popcorn — and your stethoscope — because the universe has a delightfully quirky sense of humour. Just ask Canadian actor Chelsea Muirhead, who hails from Mississauga, Ont. She was charting a course for the fascinating realm of biomedical science, she tells CBC Arts, when Hollywood came calling. Now, she's trading her lab coat for scrubs with a role on the new Netflix series Pulse.  

Netflix's first medical procedural drama follows the personal and professional lives of ER residents at Maguire Medical Center in Miami. Muirhead stars as Sophie Chan, a smart medical intern on the quest to become a great surgeon.

One month after the series' premiere, the actor is still pinching herself. She calls the role "a dream come true." 

Muirhead spoke with CBC Arts about Pulse, the fascination with medical dramas and how early morning theatre classes and clown workshops gave her the tools to navigate an acting career. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CBC Arts: Does it feel surreal to star on a global Netflix series that could be this generation's Grey's Anatomy?

Chelsea Muirhead: Well, when you put it like that, I don't think it's fully sunk in yet. It's like holding sand, I can't even fathom, but I'm on a whirlwind. It's a dream come true, and it's already such a gift to be working on material that is so juicy and just so fun to play. The fact that it's being received so well, and to be on such a massive platform, I can't believe it's happening. 

As the season goes on, we learn more about Sophie. Did you create a backstory for the character? 

Yeah, parts of it were [showrunners Zoe Robyn and Carlton Cuse's] idea. Like, the fact that she's from Indiana — Churubusco, specifically — and the pageant stuff. Then, for all of the other backstory, I just kind of created it myself. I injected a lot of myself into her.

She is like the worst parts of myself. Like, all of the fear, the anxiety, and she's so ambitious. I will do whatever it takes to be great at what I do, and that is Sophie to a tee. But where she, I think, needs to learn a little bit of something — and also for me — is to practice a little bit more trust, to nurture friendships and that maybe work isn't the most important thing in the world. 

But what is happening in her psychology? Why is she so mean? Why isn't she taking care of herself? There must be a reason. When I read in the breakdown, they're like, "She's exhausted, will do anything to be a great surgeon, but is having a hard time at this hospital." And I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to be a struggling actor trying to bartend at 3 a.m. and then turn in a self-tape at 9 and then still roll up to work. It's exhausting. 

In terms of her backstory, a lot of it just came from me and what I am trying to learn right now in my life. A lot of things that I've booked in my career, I feel like that's kind of what's happened: the universe is like, "You're ready to discover this part of yourself now, you're ready to challenge this part of yourself." So that was what Sophie was for me.

You are also very much a hometown success story. How did your time at the Ryerson School of Performance (now the School of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University) help you hone your skills and give you the tools you need to come this far?

I definitely think that Ryerson, in a lot of ways, prepared me for the grit of this industry — the just-get-up-and-do-it, if-you-don't-love-this,-get-out mentality. Because when I was in school at Ryerson, it's still a university, but they run it like a conservatory. So I was in school for four years, six days a week from 5:30 a.m. till 1 a.m. Sometimes, I would sleep in the studios just on a prop bed or on someone's floor because I'm like, "I have to be here at 5:30 in the morning so I'll just sleep here."

I love being on set, but sometimes, there's the real life of it all, juggling all of that. But that's what you do in school. You gotta be a bartender. You gotta get your elective. And then, when you get out of school, you still gotta keep doing all of those things. It definitely gave me a thick skin. It gave me grit. 

And it gave me indispensable tools that I still use for acting techniques. Some things I think would have taken me much longer to figure out on set if I didn't have those 10,000 hours in a safe space where I could make mistakes. I could do a Shakespeare workshop and then a clown workshop (where I actually learned the most — to just keep going, to forgive yourself, it's not so serious). I wouldn't have learned that if I didn't go to theatre school. 

Did working on Pulse give you a better understanding of your own goals that you've set for yourself? 

I just always want to be climbing. I always want to be growing. I'll still do anything. I'll take any job — almost any job. Almost. I just want to keep doing things that challenge me as an actor, [something] that hopefully challenges the consciousness of the world. That would be really powerful. I think that's the vision that it gave me. Being on platforms like this, I just want to keep expanding and growing. It almost sometimes feels a little bit too big. I think that's the thing that I still haven't processed. It's a little bit scary. I'm still just a little girl from Toronto, you know?

What do you think of the fascination with medical dramas? We have quite a few right now. 

For me, I really do think my fascination with medical dramas is that, of course, there's a lot of action — but it's real. Like, these are real-life superheroes. We're seeing people — patients and doctors — in both their stories. You're seeing human beings at the worst times in their life, sometimes the best. Maybe it's a birth. Maybe it's a death. They're these very, very vulnerable moments that potentially you or I or anybody walking down the street could go through. And you're watching real-life people be superheroes and climb their way out of darkness. I think that's a really powerful thing that is just so close to home. And I think people can relate to that or be inspired by that. Hopefully, it brings a lot of people hope, too.

Pulse is now streaming on Netflix.