Critics Choice Award nominee Alex Rich joins us to talk all about his physically and emotionally taxing role on the chilling FX on Hulu series The Patient where he worked alongside Steve Carrell, Domhnall Gleeson, and Linda Emond (you can see our interview with Linda here) as Elias, who falls victim to Gleeson’s psychotic, homicidal character Sam.

Despite the heavy subject material, Alex describes his experience as “high stakes with a small cast, and the episodes read as a play. You’re in one set and staying in the emotional peaks and valleys of these people in a confined area.”

As his character Elias is captured, tied and blindfolded by Sam, Alex explained that he did all he could between takes and off set to keep a calm demeanor to not exhaust himself from the long days of shooting as his character is almost constantly under duress. “Staying in that space for days on end can be taxing. It was a really dynamic place to try to stay in. That experience, every actor should have the good fortune to sit in because it was a challenge but in the right ways.”

“Domhnall is such a great guy and that made it easier,” he said of working with the actor in a very intense role. “I can’t see what’s happening because of [the blindfold] but Domhnall would come in and authentically scare me. He’d do something unexpected and it was really intimidating. He’s scary! But we’re able to separate the person from the character and he’s lovely.”

The Patient is now streaming on Hulu.