This fourth season opens with a major cast turnover. Lots of characters leaving, lots of new ones coming in. And there’s a very meta moment in the premiere where Wheezer (Aaron Ashmore) basically says, “This may not be the same SkyMed.” For you, as cast members, does this feel like a reset?
NATASHA: I mean, if anything, it feels like all the new characters have brought a fresh, new and exciting energy. Obviously it was sad to say goodbye to some of our SkyMed family. But it was also a really exciting opportunity to sort of revamp the show with new storylines, and have audiences fall in love with brand-new characters. It feels like there’s an exciting opportunity to build off of these new characters’ stories. It was really fun and it brought an exciting energy to set.
On the topic of being in season four now, it’s a rare thing for any actor to spend so much time with one character. Most of an actor’s life is jumping from job to job, character to character. Does it feel like you’ve gotten to go deeper here, with Hayley and Crystal, than with any other characters you’ve played?
MORGAN: We’ve really gotten to know them deeply, and I feel like the lines between character and our personal selves kind of blend at some point. It’s funny how a lot of the times with the writing, it mirrors your own experience in life. That happens so often where I’m like, “Did the writers read my mind . . . or are they watching my life?” So, it’s been really fun to play a character for so long — and get to know her so well and mesh our lives, in a way.
NATASHA: And also to grow up with these characters. I feel like I, Natasha, am taking my life experience of my 20s — because I started in my early 20s, now I’m in my late 20s — and that also transpires into the character. It’s just a really incredible experience to be able to grow up with your character and with your best friend — because we’re best friends in real life, too — so it’s really fun to sort of seep Natasha and Morgan’s relationship into our characters’ relationship and their friendship dynamic. It’s such a dream.
How are Hayley and Crystal different today than when we were first introduced to them back in season one? How have they evolved?
NATASHA: Hayley, you met her in season one and she was fresh into the SkyMed world, and a little bit in over her head. She was dealing with finding out she had the BRCA1 gene [which yields an increased risk of cancer] and the loss of her mom. You see her through her journey of coping, and then you meet her again in season four where she’s now the chief nurse and she’s in charge of her own, newfound SkyMed family. She’s made her family within SkyMed. She cares so deeply about SkyMed — because it’s all that she has. You see her step into this role of chief nurse and be so passionate about it — and you see her say goodbye to our old characters and bring in new faces, and really just crave the family dynamic that she once had. It’s been really fun watching her grow into her own, to find her confidence and her place in the world.
MORGAN: And I feel like for Crystal as well, she’s also growing up. Season one, she was a flight nurse, and then she was thinking about being a nurse practitioner, and then she kind of got the push to be a doctor. We’ve seen her grow up in that way — understanding she wants to be a doctor, going into medical school and residency, and building up her life. I feel like it’s been a really fun journey for Crystal — and for Hayley.
This is very much a workplace drama. But it stands out because the workplace is so remote, so isolated . . . as opposed to being in a big city or even a normal small town. All these characters have been shipped in from other parts of the country and, different as they are, they almost have no choice but to hang out with each other and become each other’s support system. Do you feel like that mirrors your own experience as actors, filming so remotely, on location in the wilds of Ontario?
NATASHA: Oh, absolutely. We are sent to Northern Ontario. We’re all away from our families and our homes, and we’re there for three, four months. That just immediately brings everyone so much closer. Like, we are leaning on each other in ways that you wouldn’t be if you weren’t away from home. We’re absolutely going out on weekends and having game nights. Morgan and I rent a house together, and we’re always having people over.
And then I also think that transpires into our onscreen relationships. That’s very palpable — that we actually are all friends. It is a really unique experience that, like you say, these characters are living in the north together, in a crew house — and we’re essentially doing the same in real life. It’s so much fun. We have the best time filming. We can’t believe that this is our job.
On a tonal level, from one scene to the next, this show can go from goofy shenanigans to utter heartbreak. Is that a tough balancing act for the writers, and for you as actors?
MORGAN: I think it’s necessary, honestly. Because with the amount of drama and these deeper sort of moments with each other, you need to lighten it up a little bit. Else I feel like maybe we would lose the audience. And I feel like it’s similar to how it is in the field, where people that I’ve talked to that are in the medical field . . . you need humour. You need to be able to kind of look at things lightly — else it can get very, very heavy very quickly. You have to have that goofiness and that comedy in there to break up all of that traumatic stuff that happens.
As outlandish as some of the show’s emergencies may seem, do you think viewers might be surprised at just how based-in-reality they are? They’re not as “crazy” as the audience might think . . .
NATASHA: Oh, absolutely not. One that comes to mind immediately was in season three — the tobogganing accident where a rod or a stick or a branch went through all three people on a sled. We show up to set and we’re like, “Wow, this is crazy!” And no, this was a real accident that happened. So, the writers are actually pulling more injuries than you would expect from real-life things, if not all of them . . . I don’t know if it would be crazy to say that almost all of our injuries are based off of real injuries — which is cool and fun and just kind of gives you a taste of the medical world.
MORGAN: And it helps that Julie [Puckrin], the writer, her sister is the consult for the show . . . [She] was a flight nurse, and it’s kind of based on her life. Also, her brother-in-law was a pilot . . .
As you’re building your character and contemplating their day-to-day existence, how much thought do you give to the long-term impact that doing this type of job would have on someone’s psyche?
MORGAN: At a certain point in the medical field, you get a little bit numb to what happens around you. If it’s something that you’re seeing every single day . . . what I was saying earlier, that’s where that kind of humour comes in. Because there’s really no other way to process that pain and that trauma that you see. Having each other, having the characters lean on each other and have these tender moments . . . medical professionals, they need that. They need to be able to understand each other and lean on each other when you’re dealing with such hard things every single day. I think a big part of this season and previous seasons was that you can reach out for help. If you’re struggling with any sort of mental health [issue], reaching out for help is a very good thing.
SkyMed streams on Paramount+
MEMORABLE ROLES:
Prior to landing SkyMed, Vancouver’s own Natasha Calis spent two seasons anchoring another homegrown medical drama: Global’s Nurses (2020-2021), playing “adrenaline junkie” Toronto RN Ashley Collins. Outside of that, her CV includes Supernatural, The Good Doctor, Ties That Bind, a main role on the TV version of John Grisham’s The Firm and the 2013 TV movie pilot for When Calls the Heart. She also took the lead in 2012 horror flick The Possession. Meanwhile, Winnipeger Morgan Holmstrom has appeared in time-travel romance Outlander as Wakyo’teyehsnonhsa — first wife of Young Ian. You’ve also seen her as steely-eyed zombie slayer Sarah Blackwood in the Day of the Dead TV remake, and in critically lauded 2024 crime flick The Order, opposite Jude Law.
CURRENT GIG:
For four seasons and counting, viewers have thrilled to the unpredictable exploits of air ambulance first-responders saving lives in the wilds of Northern Manitoba (albeit shot mostly in Northern Ontario). SkyMed’s recently debuted fourth season (now exclusive to Paramount+ after previous seasons aired on CBC) saw a major cast overhaul — but the anchors of the ensemble continue to be nurses Hayley (Natasha Calis) and Crystal (Morgan Holmstrom), who preside over a mix of pilots and medics, old and new.