Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis—it’s the longest word in the English dictionary and it also happens to be a medical term. Medical jargon takes the cake when it comes to the most complicated and convoluted tongue twisters in the English language—and actors of medical dramas have to memorize them within days. Of course, that’s a much easier task than what real doctors have to do, but still, we feel their pain.
We asked the cast of The Good Doctor how they do it, and most agreed: they learn by sound instead of spelling.
“I learned phonetically, but at the same time, I’d like to know what I’m talking about. So you know, I don’t dive into the medical terminology too much, but I do try to understand what’s being done,” said Brandon Larracuente, aka Dr. Danny Perez, season six’s newest member of the main cast.
When blood and guts aren’t taking over the screen, the doctors are spouting so many medical terms at lightning speed that they can fly over the viewer’s head, courtesy of how seamlessly they’re embedded in the script. But pulling it off isn’t so easy for the actors.
“I generally start working on it about a week ahead of time just because Morgan speaks so quickly, and when you’re doing the medical stuff, you’re also physically doing [surgeries] so you can’t be thinking about it,” shared Fiona Gubelmann, who plays Dr. Morgan Reznick.
Learning phrases like “pericardial effusion” is hard, but trying to pronounce them like they’re not SAT words is the real challenge.
“When we’re filming, we have hiccups with words because it’s a whole tongue twister and you have to say it like it’s [part of] everyday life,” shared Bria Samoné Henderson, who plays Dr. Jordan Allen.
Noah Galvin, who plays Dr. Asher Wolke, concurred: “It’s [about] making it sound like vernacular, like it’s secondhand for you.”
Lucky for the cast of The Good Doctor, there’s a whole host of real doctors and nurses on set to guide them through all the medical jargon. And even luckier for cast members like Paige Sara, who plays Lea Dilallo-Murphy, they don’t have to learn any medical jargon at all. Sara is one of the few actors on the show who doesn’t play a doctor, although she did get to wear scrubs for the first time in season six.
“I’m very happy to never touch medical jargon,” joked Sara. “You know, I originally auditioned for Claire and I was making the casting [director] laugh because it just didn’t sound right coming from me. So I’m very happy not saying medical jargon.”
But there is a bright side to learning all those words—pretending you know what they mean.
“The one good thing is the more that you do it, the more certain phrases start popping up. So you’re like, ‘Oh, I recognize this one. I must have done this and this surgery you know, three years ago or something?’” joked Highmore. “I’m still waiting for that moment where someone’s saying ‘we need a doctor!’ I’d be like, ‘I think you just poke a hole in here and then everything will be fixed’ and that would probably make things much worse.”
Fortunately for them—and for everyone else—none of the actors have ever been mistaken for real doctors on the street. But you can see them portray doctors in The Good Doctor, available in the Philippines on Amazon Prime Video now.
