From show creator Kourtney Kang (Fresh Off the Boat), the Disney+ original series Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. follows Lahela Kamealoha (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a 16-year-old prodigy who is trying to find a balance between her very adult medical career and life as a teenager in Hawaii. Everything from the blurred lines of her doctor mother (Kathleen Rose Perkins) also being her supervisor at the hospital, to surfing with her father (Jason Scott Lee), to saving a stranger on the side of the road, to wanting her crush to return her feelings, are all part of a typical but sometimes very complicated day for “Doogie.”
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, Lee talked about the pressure of making a TV show that’s inspired by a previous hit, the responsibility that comes from leading a project, the unique insight she has when it comes to her character, getting comfortable with all of the medical jargon, developing a family bond, and how there’s still so much to explore on possible future seasons.
Collider: It was so delightful to watch the show. I was a fan of the original and I had no idea where this was going to go with things, and I thought it was a lot of fun. With something like this, where you hadn’t been familiar with the original, but your parents had, how did you get into it? Did you just pick a random episode to watch? What was your impression of the original series?
PEYTON ELIZABETH LEE: Well, I started with the pilot. The pilot of the original and the pilot of our show are pretty much parallel, in terms of story. It was really cool, through the auditioning process, to have the knowledge of the original show, going into each audition.
Was it also fun to not have to be beholden to anything really specific with the original series, since you’re not directly connected to that? Was there a sense of freedom with that?
LEE: Definitely. I would say that I felt a certain amount of pressure because the original was so iconic and there is such a vast fan base for that show. I really wanted to keep the spirit of the original alive and do justice to the original, but also (show creator) Kourtney [Kang] did such a great job of turning it on its head and bringing the show into the world we live in today, and because of that, she created a lot of space for creative freedom.
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You’re no stranger to leading a show or playing the title character of a show. How had doing this show compared to doing Andi Mack? Have you felt any major differences, or is it just that responsibility feels greater, the older you get?
LEE: What’s so hard about it and what’s so great about it is that you never get your first big project again. For me, that was Andi Mack. It was my first everything. And so, obviously Doogie was different for me because it wasn’t the first time anymore. I had much more experience, walking into it, but there is something so fun about being a little bit older and having a little bit more responsibility and having more experience coming into it. Also, obviously there’s a part of me that, even though it’s not my first time experiencing these things, it’s still just as exciting as it was when it was the first time.
Does that also help you identify with the character, in the sense that you are in a professional setting and there are these adult expectations and responsibilities placed on you, and even though you’re not a teenage doctor, you’re still at the lead of it?
LEE: Definitely. Lahela’s navigation of being caught between two different worlds is very similar to my own experience. Like you said, obviously I’m not a doctor, but I am an actor. I do have unique insight into what it feels like and a very isolating, at times, experience of being a young person in a professional setting, and having these expectations and pressures and responsibilities that adults have, but still being a kid. It’s about having to grow up and rise to the challenge, but also creates space for you to be a kid. Navigating that is something that I have pretty vast experience with, that I was able to bring to portraying Lahela.
This is a young woman who has a lot of confidence in her abilities, as a doctor. What are the challenges in delivering that, as an actor?
LEE: It was a big challenge for me. With most of my acting, as much as I can, because authenticity is so huge for me, I try to pull as much from my real life as I possibly can. When bringing a character to life, I use as much of my real life experience as possible to create a performance. With the hospital scenes and all of her doctor stuff, I had no personal experience to pull from. I couldn’t connect to what it is to be taking care of a patient or have someone else’s life in my hands. Those were not experiences that I was familiar with, in any way. Working towards creating an authentic performance was much more difficult because I couldn’t ground it in my experience in real life.
Did you have someone there on set to help you with all of that, if questions came up during filming?
LEE: Yes. We had a doctor on set, every time we had any hospital scene or medical scene, and I would just drill lines with him, or go through procedures with him, or just listen to him talk about what it was that the scene was about. I also did a lot of research on my own time, Googling, YouTubing, WebMDing, and all that good stuff.
What do you enjoy most about this family dynamic, between Lahela, her parents and her two brothers? What was it like to not only have that relationship develop as characters, but also between you guys as actors?
LEE: There is something so intense about shooting a show that you become bonded to the people you’re working with very quickly. On top of that, we were also on an island together, which just cuts down the population of people you’re seeing by a lot. And then, on top of that, we were doing it in the middle of a pandemic. We really only have each other to lean on and to rely on, so we grew really close really quickly and learned a lot about each other really quickly. I think those dynamics that we developed so rapidly off screen translate on screen and I think really add to the chemistry and comradery that comes across on screen.
When you have such a beautiful backdrop to work in, is it ever challenging not to be distracted by the location that you’re in, just because of the sheer beauty of what you’re surrounded by?
LEE: In a sense, yes, it is very easy to get caught up in all of it, but I think that works for the show. Allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by how beautiful it was only adds to the show because it’s truthful. When you are standing on that beach, looking at that water and the sky and the mountains, there is this very overwhelming experience and feelings that occur because of that. Being in Hawaii and genuinely experiencing all of that really grounds the show.
At the beginning of the season, Lahela is trying to figure out how to balance this professional life with life as a teenager. By the end of the season, do you feel like she will have a better grasp of that, or is that just going to be a continual work in progress for awhile?
LEE: Yes, to both questions. By the end of the season, you definitely see a lot of growth in Lahela. And I think she has a stronger foundation than at the beginning, but life’s a work in progress. I don’t think there’s any point in life where we stop growing, or stop learning, or stop changing and evolving. I definitely think, at the end of the season, even though she has grown and matured and learned a lot, there’s so much still she has to learn and experience.
Have you started to have conversations with your showrunner Kourtney Kang about what future seasons of the show could explore? Do you have a sense of where things might go next?
LEE: We’ve talked about it in a very limited capacity. I try to keep my expectations low, so that they’re always being exceeded. I don’t wanna jinx anything or prepare for something that might not happen. But yes, we’ve definitely talked about it, in the sense of, “Wouldn’t it be so cool, if we talked about X, Y, and Z, or showed Lahela experiencing whatever it may be?” We definitely see so much for Lahela’s character and for all the characters in the show. There’s so much untapped that we haven’t dove into yet.
Is there a quality in her or an aspect of her that you’ve grown to appreciate, the longer you’ve played her and gotten to know her, that you didn’t necessarily realize she had in the beginning?
LEE: That’s a great question. One thing that I really grew to appreciate about Lahela is that she’s incredibly open to learning and to growing. Even as a genius, who is a prodigy doctor, she’s not shut down. She doesn’t seem like, “Okay, I’ve learned everything there is to know. I’m done.” She’s very open to growing and to continuing to change and ask for help when she needs it. I think that’s very admirable.
Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. is available to stream at Disney+, starting on September 8th.
