Emmy Magazine

Paging All Staff! Stat! A Look Back at "ER"

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Jorja Fox

Dr. Maggie Doyle

‘The first time Anthony Edwards directed “ER”, he had this epic idea to shoot all of act two as one fluid Steadicam shot. We came in and rehearsed it all morning like a stage play.

The scene took place in the emergency room and included almost the entire cast and recurring cast and several guest actors – maybe thirty actors altogether. If I remember right, the camera followed Laura Innes’s character, Dr. Weaver, through five or six rooms and several hallways.

‘My material was at the beginning of the shot and the end of the shot. The most nerve-wracking place to be in a scene on “ER” is at the end. If everyone gets it right – through twists and turns and medical procedures and racing gurneys – I’d feel terrible if I’d walk in at the end and mess up the entire take, which I did on more than several occasions. Now amplify that pressure by being at the end of an entire act! I was just a bit out-of-my-mind nervous at the start of the day.

‘Legendary Steadicam operator Dave Chameides shot that entire sequence. After several takes, as Dave would turn the corner near the end of a very long stretch of shooting – through doors and rooms and moving forward and backward and every which way – Anthony Edwards would yell, ‘Cut!’ and Dave would fall to his knees from the weight of the camera. I will never forget the thrill and the adrenaline of that day. We were all able to say that we shot an entire act of an hour-long drama in six or so hours, and I think it came out great.’

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