FX on Hulu’s new limited series "The Patient" follows the story of a psychotherapist, played by Steve Carell, held captive by a serial killer. Actor Laura Niemi joined Cheddar News to discuss her role in the series as the deceased wife of Carell’s character and what viewers can expect. "It’s like a little bite-sized, edge of your seat. You know, I don’t know if you can handle being at the edge of your seat for an hour."

Between Bells

Laura Niemi on New Limited FX on Hulu Series 'The Patient'

and between bells back friends that tenant dove and baker machado the new FX on hulu series. The patient follows a psychotherapist who finds himself being held prisoner by a serial killer with a very unusual request fix his homicidal urges. That's interesting. Episode limited series star with steve Donald Gleason and our next guest. That's right joining us now is Laura Niemi Welcome to the show, Laura. Hello. Hello. Hello. We're great better now that you're on. Tell us a little bit about your character and how she fits in in this. What seems like a very crazy world. It is a crazy world. I play steve Carell's wife dr Allan Strauss is his name and I play his wife. I'm a reform cantor. And um so you see a lot of me in flashback because they've already established I'm not giving any spoilers or spoilers away. They've already established that have passed away. And so my character comes up in the storyline in a lot of family flashbacks as he is now held captive in this basement, Which is so interesting. And by the way, is it possible, Laura, we've never seen a drama like this before. And the reason for that is the show is 10 episodes but each episode, 22 minutes long. Most dramas like 40 minutes to an hour. I mean that seems very unconventional. What was your sort of reaction when you heard about that. Well, I love that. I mean coming out of that right now I feel like everybody's uh bandwidth right now is pretty limited true. The fact that well and also it lends itself to this genre, it's like a little bite size kind of edge of your seat. You know, I don't know if you can handle being at the edge of your seat for an hour, that kind of low intensity, you know what I mean? Right. So I love it. I love it. I mean we just dropped what, two episodes the other night on Tuesday comes out. It drops every Tuesday And I'm already getting text messages because we're so in this binging world, right, that everybody wants more and more. But this is a perfect, I love that. It's only 22 minutes. I'm the same because I feel like I want more short. I'm like in a Tiktok world now, I'm wanting short form content now. It's so crazy. Yeah, absolutely. We have to talk about steve Carell. He's been nominated for Oscars in serious roles. But of course we know him in the comedy world as well. 40 year old Virgin The Office, just to name a couple. What was the dynamic like on set between the both of you? What was, what was he like to work with? Well, I have to tell you, I am a huge fan of his drama work. I mean obviously he's the funniest guy ever. But I mean, just, he's just such an amazing actor. So I was really excited to work with him in this genre. And um, you know, just, it was, it was absolutely, it was intense because he was doing a lot of the scenes in the basement and you'll see as the story comes along and I have a little bit more, some of the episodes a little bit more levity, you know, so as a cantor, I'm singing and playing guitar, which I do in the series. And so for me, it was a little bit uh a little bit more, probably a lot easier than it was for him, but he's just, I mean, just a total pro and just such a he's a soft spoken guy. No one would think that because he's such a funny man, but he's a very soft spoken guy, so he's very similar to the character that he was playing. That could be probably because he was so in character during the filming of Laura, let's talk about your character here a little bit more because as you mentioned, you know, you're dead, you're basically in flashbacks because he's clearly mourning the loss of you. So how does best relationship with Alan sort of impact the overall story here? Well, it kind of gives insight into uh what has happened before, before he gets kidnapped and just family dynamics. I mean, you know, as you'll see as you'll see without giving too many spoilers away, you kind of get a sense of his own journey through this before he's actually gotten kidnapped and what's happened with his family and the, you know, the stress of the family dynamic, you know, that has happened and so and what happens when you mourn someone and just all those, you know, really deep questions and it's just uh I mean it's just riveting, It's been really exciting to see how the audience reacts to some of these, to some of these episodes because they're some of them are a little provocative and they were while shooting them. And so it's just gonna be interesting to see how this lands with people. I'm fascinated by that. I feel like I will say, I feel like I've gotten in the stage of my career where I'm the flashback, it's like this is us doing a lot of, lot of flashbacks, you know, you see me a lot of flashbacks, so I'm glad you mentioned this is us because you've been a huge part of franchises, like this is Us. Like you mentioned Stranger Things, another show we love here. What does it mean for you to have roles in such iconic projects? I mean, it's a dream. It's a dream. I mean, also that the different genres, you know, that's what an actor loves to do. At least this actor, you know, being able to, you know, switch genres and do a comedy and do a sci fi and then do a thriller and you know, do a multi cam and do all these different genres. It's like, we get to flex all of our muscles and so that to me is always very important, but I mean this is us. Look, I mean I've been a working actor for 25 years, so uh this is us. I I owe a lot of have deep gratitude for because it kind of put me on the map as an actor, but also, I mean to just to be affiliated with that show and to get to work with the people I got to work with what a loving beautiful group of uh cast and crew, you know, um I feel really like it was a it's a feather in my cap for sure. We'll totally, and by the way, I mean this is us just ended Stranger Things coming to an end as well. I mean, so how do you feel about wrapping up a lot of these iconic franchises? Is there a piece of you that really sort of misses them? Yes. Yes, for sure with this is us, especially um you know, I mean it was such a big part of my life um for so many years, just even if it I was only in certain episodes in the peripheral the episodes that I was a part of and just to be able to watch this character's journey throughout the seasons and how they fleshed out this character so beautifully in that last episode, I don't know if if you got to see it or your viewers, but you know, just the dealing with the loss of a mother and how how incredibly uh just did it with such. I just felt like it was so well, it wasn't, it was in Ellen Mostel who wrote it just, he he wrote it from experience and it was just in it was a beautiful hands and well directed and just of course, you know, milo and alright, yeah, Really Lord, we know kate bush is running up the hill, It's still on the top of the charts. It's a song that saves max and stranger things. So we have to ask you what song would save you from? Oh, I like this question to oh, what song? Uh Oh God, that's a good question. That's a hard one. I know. Uh Oh God. Um uh you know what? I will say this. Diana ross just came into town. All right. Right. So, you know, no mountain high enough, the way she sings that, just like come on. She didn't she didn't she just played the Hollywood bowl. She did. I didn't get to see her. I'm so bummed out. But when you think of that kind of like she's the queen for a reason. The creep. Exactly, exactly. All right, Laura, you can watch the first two episodes of the patient right now on hulu and new episodes like Laura mentioned every Tuesday, starting september 6th. Thank you. Laura by Laura