Believing in ghosts and sleep deprivation: Hope-Z’s ER doctor and actor Benjamin Ayres have a few things in common
Actor Benjamin Ayres and the ER doctor he plays on “Saving Hope,” Zachary Miller, have one thing in common – they both believe in ghosts.
“I find it impossible not to believe,” says Ayres on a sweltering day on set. “I believe that there is energy around us, whether you want to call it a ghost or a spirit.”
His belief has been confirmed by some of the nurses who work as background performers on the show.
“There’s one nurse who says there’s one ghost (in a Toronto hospital) who consistently walks into a room, walks over and opens a window and jumps out. Now, windows can’t be opened in hospitals any longer, but patients say they see exactly that.”
Though Ayres and his character share their belief in the supernatural, the names of medications don’t come quite as easily to the actor. “It’s one thing to have to memorize your lines at home, and you think, ‘Yah, I’ve totally got this. This is totally easy.’ And then you come to set and you’re moving and you’ve got a stethoscope and you’re shouting actions out to other people and you’ve got to say, ‘Give me a – ‘” says Ayres, as he rambles off quite the litany of medical-sounding instructions.
And when he’s done, he looks pretty proud of himself.
“It’s fun and I say it all the time now,” he laughs. “I was on a plane last week and I thought if something happened, I could start to sound like I know what I’m doing, but then I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, you’re going to have to land the plane. I don’t know what I’m doing.’”
At Hope-Z, however, Zach definitely takes charge. “He’s the gatekeeper to the rest of the hospital so everyone who comes in . . . comes through ER and gets diagnosed and stabilized here and then gets sent up to the ICU or surgery. We usually find Zach in the ER, sometimes in the OR.”
He admits his favourite medical scenarios have involved blood. “A lot of blood,” he laughs.
He also loved the rebar-in-the-chest emergency in Episode 6 and adds he also loves the de-gloving injuries. “It’s when the skin and muscles come off and you just see a fractured bone. It didn’t make me as queasy as I thought it would.”
And though Ayres isn’t a method actor, he’s taken on something his character knows all too well – sleep deprivation.
“I had a daughter who was born a couple days after I booked this show,” he explains. “I watched the first episode I was in and I’ve got to say, I don’t remember shooting it. At all.”
But despite all of this sleep deprivation and the fake blood and running around ER sets yelling multi-syllable words, he loves everything about his role on the show. And when asked to define hope, he pulls out a photo of his daughter. “She’s three and a half months,” he says, beaming. “Her name’s Isadora.”
Join Benjamin and Erica Durance and other members of the 'Saving Hope' cast for a live chat at 9 p.m. ET, exclusively at CTV.ca/livechat.
“I find it impossible not to believe,” says Ayres on a sweltering day on set. “I believe that there is energy around us, whether you want to call it a ghost or a spirit.”
His belief has been confirmed by some of the nurses who work as background performers on the show.
“There’s one nurse who says there’s one ghost (in a Toronto hospital) who consistently walks into a room, walks over and opens a window and jumps out. Now, windows can’t be opened in hospitals any longer, but patients say they see exactly that.”
Though Ayres and his character share their belief in the supernatural, the names of medications don’t come quite as easily to the actor. “It’s one thing to have to memorize your lines at home, and you think, ‘Yah, I’ve totally got this. This is totally easy.’ And then you come to set and you’re moving and you’ve got a stethoscope and you’re shouting actions out to other people and you’ve got to say, ‘Give me a – ‘” says Ayres, as he rambles off quite the litany of medical-sounding instructions.
And when he’s done, he looks pretty proud of himself.
“It’s fun and I say it all the time now,” he laughs. “I was on a plane last week and I thought if something happened, I could start to sound like I know what I’m doing, but then I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, you’re going to have to land the plane. I don’t know what I’m doing.’”
At Hope-Z, however, Zach definitely takes charge. “He’s the gatekeeper to the rest of the hospital so everyone who comes in . . . comes through ER and gets diagnosed and stabilized here and then gets sent up to the ICU or surgery. We usually find Zach in the ER, sometimes in the OR.”
He admits his favourite medical scenarios have involved blood. “A lot of blood,” he laughs.
He also loved the rebar-in-the-chest emergency in Episode 6 and adds he also loves the de-gloving injuries. “It’s when the skin and muscles come off and you just see a fractured bone. It didn’t make me as queasy as I thought it would.”
And though Ayres isn’t a method actor, he’s taken on something his character knows all too well – sleep deprivation.
“I had a daughter who was born a couple days after I booked this show,” he explains. “I watched the first episode I was in and I’ve got to say, I don’t remember shooting it. At all.”
But despite all of this sleep deprivation and the fake blood and running around ER sets yelling multi-syllable words, he loves everything about his role on the show. And when asked to define hope, he pulls out a photo of his daughter. “She’s three and a half months,” he says, beaming. “Her name’s Isadora.”
Join Benjamin and Erica Durance and other members of the 'Saving Hope' cast for a live chat at 9 p.m. ET, exclusively at CTV.ca/livechat.
About Lindsay Zier-Vogel
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Lindsay Zier-Vogel
Lindsay Zier-Vogel has been working for CTV.ca and covering So You Think You Can Dance Canada since 2008. In addition to interviewing the famed American choreographer Bill T. Jones and Canadian prima ballerina Karen Kain, Lindsay’s highlights include criss-crossing Canada on four SYTYCDC audition tours and covering the Juno Awards.
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