After opening in theaters last week, The Good Nurse is now available to stream on Netflix. The true-crime thriller centers around Amy Loughren—a single mother with cardiomyopathy, who develops a close friendship with her fellow night nurse. However, when the hospital is hit with multiple mysterious deaths, Amy begins to suspect the person she’s come to depend on.
The Good Nurse is based on the book by Charles Graeber and tells the true story of Charles Cullen, a serial killer who murdered his patients under the guise of being a night nurse. With Amy Loughren herself being heavily involved in the making of the film, the main cast includes Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Kim Dickens, Malik Yoba, and Alix West Lefler.
Actors Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich chat with Screen Rant and share their initial reactions after hearing the true story of serial killer Charles Cullen, and working with the real people their characters are based on.
Nnamdi Asomugha & Noah Emmerich Talk The Good Nurse
Noah Emmerich, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Jessica Chastain in The Good Nurse
Screen Rant: I really enjoyed this film. I thought you all did a fantastic job with it. Did you first hear about these events when you were reading the script and getting involved in the movie?
Noah Emmerich: Yes, I was, embarrassingly, completely ignorant to this story. I didn’t know anything about it. I read the script. I didn’t even know when I read the script that it was a true story. I thought it was a made-up story, and then I found out it was true. And that was really intriguing and shocking and horrifying. And again, you know, our journey into this project and really learning a lot more about it.
Nnamdi Asomugha: Yeah, and same with me. I had no clue. I found out when I got the material. I had never heard of Charles Cullen or anybody involved in this. I didn’t know the story. But once you get the material, and you see how horrifying it is, and you find out that it is a real story, you feel like you owe it to the real people to tell this story in the right way.
Since this is real, how much research did you end up doing? You play the cops who are trying to crack this case.
Noah Emmerich: I just wanted to add, I just thought of this, because it’s interesting that none of us have heard of this story. It’s the worst serial killer in American history. We’re a serial killer obsessed country. We tell tons of serial killer stories all the time, everyone reads about it all the time. And yet no one knows this story. And it makes you wonder why.
Yeah, I had never heard it myself.
Noah Emmerich: I wonder why this story of a serial killer who was institutionally protected for many years…I wonder why this story never got told. It’s just an interesting thing to think about and all the more grateful that we’re telling it now. And now segwaying into the other question about research, there’s the book, The Good Nurse, that is the Bible for this story.
It was really thoroughly researched, written beautifully, and it has all the story in it. We read that book, and that was our real kind of Bible for the story. And then we were able, fortunately, to meet the people that we played, Danny Baldwin and Tim Braun, who were incredibly generous with their time and energy and spirit and were supportive and generous and gracious, and gave us the wind in our sails to go forward.
Now that you are getting a chance to tell this story, what are you hoping that the audience is going to take away from either the characters, the real people, or the events at the hospital?
Nnamdi Asomugha: Yeah, that’s interesting. You know, Noah always says something—”You’ll get out of it, what you bring into it,” or something along those lines. Everyone comes into a film with their own bias and their own thoughts and that’s what they get out of the film. I think, for me, I just want them to see that there are people out there that are making courageous steps towards bringing down people that need to be brought down. Even if it’s the biggest risk of your career or it’s a big risk to your life, there are heroes out there that are doing that, and I think that could really encourage someone else to speak up and to do their part.
About The Good Nurse
Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth in this gripping thriller based on true events.
Check out our other interviews for The Good Nurse as well:
The Good Nurse is now available to stream on Netflix.