‘Watson’: Ritchie Coster Talks Shinwell’s ‘Immediate Connection’ With Nurse DeCosta and Having to ‘Strip Away’ His Season 1 Self (Exclusive)
Watson star Ritchie Coster spoke to PopCulture.com about Shinwell’s career change.
Monday’s episode saw Shinwell starting on his nursing student path and kicking off with a pretty interesting shift.
Between flesh-eating bacteria and working with Margot Bingham’s Nurse Carlin DeCosta, Shinwell kept as busy as ever. This will be the start of a new path for him, and after what he went through in the first season with getting blackmailed by Moriarty, this may just be the fresh start that he needs. Take a look at what Coster had to say. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Pictured: Ritchie Coster as Shinwell Johnson Photo: Colin Bentley/CBS
PopCulture: In the episode, Shinwell is now a nursing student, and he seems to be butting heads with Nurse DeCosta. What was it like exploring that dynamic?
Ritchie Coster: It was glorious because even though they’re butting heads, there’s an immediate connection between them. And the actor that we got to play Nurse DeCosta, Margot Bingham, is a very, very accomplished actor. And so we could do an active exploring of the beginnings of that relationship, hopefully in a very nuanced way, because Margot’s very awake and very present and very discerning. And she has good taste. So wherever she wanted to take the scene, it was gratifying to follow.
PC: While checking on patients, Shinwell notices that some of them have wounds that are similar, so he brings it up to Wasson and the fellows, and it’s discovered that it could be an outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria. What do you think was going through his mind when he was putting the pieces together and figuring out that this may not be normal?
Coster: He was so out of his debts at this point, given these circumstances. And I think he’s on the border. He’s on the borderline of absolute panic and confusion, but he’s spent time with Watson and the fellows, and there are clever people who are gonna take care of this for him, and they do. It was gruesome. I had to look at all these wounds that were black and had pus coming out. And that was very easy to play the disgust of it.
PC: During the case, Shinwell ends up getting close to one of the patients, a kid who is an athlete named Ben, who winds up losing his leg. The outcome greatly affected him, but will it continue to impact him as the season goes on and as he starts to see more patients as a nursing student?
Coster: I’m waiting to see how that develops myself. The individual case with Ben losing his leg, I don’t think that specifically comes back up in story. But I think here is the great lesson of Shinwell learning to be a nurse. There comes that point where something bad happens, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. And I’m sure that moment, that realization happens for everyone who becomes a medical professional, is that you learn that there are some battles that you simply cannot win. But as Watson says, you take the positive that you can and just keep moving forward.
Pictured (L-R): Morris Chestnut as Dr. John Watson and Ritchie Coster as Shinwell Johnson Photo: Colin Bentley/CBS
PC: Going off of that, Watson and Shinwell do share a great moment together, and Watson comforts him after what had happened. What have you loved most about working out that dynamic with Morris [Chestnut]?
Coster: Whenever I see the new script and there’s a scene or scenes where Watson and Shinwell get to spend time together and have a meaningful conversation, it always brings a smile to my face because Morris is such a pleasure to work opposite. What you see with Morris is what you get. He really is this big, generous, warm-hearted man. And I never quite know where we’re gonna go with those scenes and how we’re gonna play them. And they always seem to develop in the moment just because he’s a very open performer. He’s a very open actor and will go wherever the moment seems to compel him, compel us. I love working with Morris. I adore it.
PC: What are you most looking forward to with Shinwell’s nursing student storyline?
Coster: I’m looking forward to the possibility that it brings him closer to Nurse DeCosta. I’m not looking forward to perhaps having to say all the medical words that the rest of the cast have been cursed with since the beginning of the series. And I see how they struggle and how they fight and how they bang their head against the wall trying to pronounce this syndrome or that condition. And at the moment, I’m safe because he’s still a nursing student, so he’s not expected to know all that stuff. But at some point or other, I’m gonna open a script, and Shinwell’s lines are gonna include something about this endless series of medical jargon. And then I’ll be a sadder man.
PC: What do you hope continues with Shinwell and Nurse DeCosta? Is there anything specific that you would love to see between them?
Coster: Nothing specific. Whatever comes down, I’m gonna be happy with it. I know whatever comes down the pipe, that direction, like I said, is not a direction I’ve been in before. So I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play the events and the nuances of a relationship. I’ll tell you what I am looking forward to. I’m looking forward to being kind. It’s not something I’ve had lots of opportunity to do in my career. And just any opportunity for kindness is gonna be great. I enjoy playing that stuff.
Pictured: Ritchie Coster as Shinwell Johnson Photo: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
PC: Has there been anything that’s surprised you about Shinwell so far since the series started?
Coster: What surprised me in the acting of it is how much I had to strip away of Shinwell between Season 1 and Season 2, because there was something about Shinwell in the first season he was kind of in control of things. Apart from being blackmailed and having to betray his best friend, of course, he was kind of in control and not touched by what was happening around him. I think the script has demanded that Shinwell be a little more naked this season. And that’s taken me by surprise. How much of Shinwell I’ve had to strip away to just be a man experiencing something new.
PC: In your own opinion, why do you think now was the right time for Shinwell to try something new and become a nursing student?
Coster: I think Shinwell, in the first season, was taken aback by actually seeing people being kind to each other and trying to help each other and fix people, specifically Watson. And I think that threw in for relief how dark and nasty Shinwell’s life up to this point has been, and how many crimes and sins he has committed. And I think now is the time for him to try and earn his own redemption. And he needs to be free of the weight of an ugly past. And that can’t come soon enough for any of us.
New episodes of Watson air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.
