Jake McDorman: His Career and His Show are Both Limitless
When I was 13, I was hanging out with friends, reading a lot, and probably watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island while eating Doritos. Jake McDorman, who stars on the CBS show Limitless, was already acting and had an agent.
Considering he got started so young, it’s not surprising that he’s also had roles in American Sniper, Live Free or Die Hard and on Showtime’s Shameless.
On Limitless, though, McDorman gets to show his comedic side as Brian Finch, your day-to-day average guy. But when he takes the drug NZT, he becomes super smart as it allows him to access 100% of his brain, and he helps the FBI crack cases. The pill wears off in a day, though, so he has to take one every day.
While the movie of the same name was more of a thriller—and occasionally on the TV show, Bradley Cooper reprises the role of Eddie Morra—the TV show has a comedic edge to it, especially after Brian takes NZT.
“Brian is a lovable slacker,” says McDorman.
McDorman says that there is a big difference between Eddie, who is a creepy senator on the TV show, and Brian. Eddie also takes NZT and says that he remembers who he was before he took the drug and wants to be as different from that guy as possible. Brian, on the other hand, tries to cling onto what makes him who he is off NZT. “That’s what makes Brian a character who is fun to play,” says McDorman.
The haunting side of the story is that without a special booster shot given to him courtesy of Senator Morra and his accomplices, Brian would get horrible side effects and die.
One aspect of Brian that attracted McDorman to the role is the two-sidedness of it. “You’re virtually playing two extreme versions of one character—one being normal Brian and one being the most elevated, heightened, and cognitively capable version of Brian that there ever was,” explains McDorman. “As an actor, that’s really fun.”
Performing comedy is a comfortable place for McDorman. “It’s undeniable that a lot of my own sensibilities and maybe my own kind of comedy have made it into the character. But it’s also that the writers write him so well. The comedy is really such an asset to the show,” says McDorman. “Comedy does have the same effect as keeping you on the edge of your seat as action does. Comedy is unpredictable. It’s great.”
McDorman says that playing Brian is a challenge because he has to make sure that he’s not so goofy that he undoes any of the drama happening in the show. “Toeing that line is a challenge. It’s fun to do so knowing that we’ve got to keep it in balance to a certain degree. I love performing comedy and seeing how far they’ll let me go with it before they reel me back in,” he says.
While he has played in both comedy and drama, McDorman says he doesn’t favor one over the other. “I just roll with it. It absolutely does not matter. If it’s good, if it gets to me, if I read it and have the compulsion to put it on its feet, that’s how I know,” he says.
The question that everyone asks him is-would he take NZT if it existed in real life. “Yeah, I’d take it. Why not?” he says. “I can’t possibly predict what I’d do. I’d just have to bank on the fact that I’d be temporarily a genius.”
The season finale of Limitless airs on Tuesday, April 26, at 10 p.m. on CBS.
