The Good Doctor Season 5 is streaming now; Christina Chang who plays Dr Lim tells us more about what to expect

Actress Christina Chang reprises her role as Dr Audrey Lim, the chief of surgery and attending trauma surgeon, in the new season of the immensely popular medical drama The Good Doctor. The show that follows Dr Shaun Murphy, a brilliant and quirky doctor with autism and savant syndrome, has had a successful run of four seasons. In the new season, Dr Shaun and his longtime girlfriend Lea get engaged. But the bigger surprise is the reintroduction of Dr Mateo Rendon Osma played by Mexican actor Osvaldo Benavides who is cast opposite Christina. The actress tells us more on a Zoom interview. Excerpts:

Your character has already faced so many challenges in the series. What does this season hold for her? This show is incomplete without its complicated situations, right?
The first episode called New Beginnings was the perfect way to start off our new season because quite a few characters do have new beginnings. So I think right now what we’re seeing is Lim (my character) is in a little bit of a lull. I think she’s getting a break from some complicated things, but of course they’re later in the season.

Your performance was really powerful during the episodes that dealt with PTSD. What was your learning from this experience?
With PTSD, there are several different ways it can show up. What I learned was there are varying levels of it as well. What we decided for Lim to portray was someone who is functioning with it, but having a really hard time. She was sort of on the brink of not being able to handle that. So I have a lot of respect for the doctors, nurses and people on the frontline who are still dealing with COVID-19 right from when it started. And I think the characters on the show also gave some insights into what our frontline health care workers have been dealing with.

How has your character influenced you as a person?
I love my character. Some of her qualities are very similar to mine and then other parts of her are not. So it’s always fun and challenging to play her and it becomes easier when you know the character well. This season is a new beginning for Lim. Last season was pretty rough for her, you know, and someone had actually pointed out to me that I didn’t smile on screen and I hadn’t. I have so much fun off screen that it didn’t register until someone pointed it out. So we’re seeing more smiles in season five.

What was it like working with Osvaldo Benavides?
He came on board at the end of the last season when I met him in Guatemala, and it has been a pleasure to work with him. Unfortunately, David Shore and company keep everything sort of close to their chest in terms of what they have planned for us long term. So we actually don’t know where we’re headed, but for now, you know, we’re dealing with somebody who comes to visit and it’s just about trying to find a way for him to potentially stay. There’s a little kissing that happens but I can’t reveal more.

The show is a roller-coaster of emotions. Did you ever feel emotionally drained at some point?
Yeah. I think last season was pretty draining for a couple of different reasons. I think the pandemic was sort of a new situation that everybody had to deal with, right? And so we were all coming to work with personal concerns or fears, although we did a good job in terms of our protocols and being stringent about testing and all the safety measures. Then the storyline sort of kept me in a place of tension in relation to the other characters on the show. I mean, of course, it wasn’t real tension, but that’s straining when you’re spending most of your time on set, acting upset and frustrated and angry so that part of it also sort of became a little draining. It’s not always like this, it happened only during the last season.

Streaming on SonyLIV
 
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