‘New Amsterdam’s Ryan Eggold: The Finale ‘Shifts The Landscape’ For The Show
The first season of ‘New Amsterdam’ is coming to an end with a thrilling finale on May 14. HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with star Ryan Eggold about what the finale means for season 2, Max and Helen’s dynamic, and more.
Max finds himself facing his toughest battle yet in the New Amsterdam season 1 finale with both Georgia and his unborn baby in jeopardy. In the final moments of the season’s penultimate episode, Bloom found Max covered in blood when she showed up at his door. Max may be forced to choose his wife and his baby. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with star Ryan Eggold about the finale and how the episode will impact the show going forward. “I’m excited about the finale because it really kind of shifts the landscape for the show a little bit,” Ryan told HollywoodLife. “It’ll be the same show of course, but there are things that will happen that I think will shift. It won’t be easy to just go back to exactly how it was, so I look forward to, like I do on any show, the characters evolving and learning and growing and figuring out new things about themselves and about life and each other.”
New Amsterdam started with Max finding out that he has cancer. He has struggled to balance his career and his health over the course of the season. “I think he’s comfortable in the position of caretaker and I think he struggles to be vulnerable and deal with his own personal life,” Ryan continued. “He struggles with his relationship with his wife and being there as a husband and now figuring out how to become a father for this baby. I think there’s also a hesitancy to just admit how scary it is because when you’re the one who is providing the answers to someone who’s ill, it’s a much safer place to be. So I think it’s scary to admit that he doesn’t have control over this disease and where it could take him.”
Max’s health has been declining since he decided to aggressively treat his cancer. Ryan acknowledged that Max should “probably” quit his job as he fights cancer, but he doesn’t “think he has that in him because he’s so driven to make a difference, to help out, to participate, to shift the system any way he can.”
Max and Helen’s dynamic has been fascinating to watch on New Amsterdam and there’s still a lot to explore with the doctors. Ryan spoke about the complicated dynamic between the two characters. “There is something between them and whether it is respect as coworkers or some kind of romantic flirtation or some kind of friendship that’s deeper or something, I think they’re figuring out what that is. too. I love working with Freema [Agyeman]. She’s such an amazing actress and person so I think it’ll be fun to figure out what that is. I also think there’s something about it that’s kind of true to life, because so many of us in relationships, who have a husband or a wife or a girlfriend or boyfriend, whatever it may be, you have other relationships with other people and those dynamics sometimes become more than simple friendships. So it’s something to explore.” New Amsterdam will return for a second season in fall 2019.