Natalie Morales is certainly no freshman when it comes to jumping into new roles and new shows, working with new actors and directors, and learning a new skill to bring a new character to life. The prolific actor has managed to score roles in some of the most popular TV shows of the last decade plus. She’s been on Girls, The Newsroom, and the 90210 reboot; she’s played a queer nursing-home worker on Dead to Me, the Snakehole bartender on Parks and Rec, a Stanford start-up star on The Morning Show, and an FBI agent on White Collar. So, when it came time to take the role of pediatric surgeon Monica Beltran on Grey’s Anatomy, Morales was ready, and with gusto.
“[Guesting on Grey’s] totally came out of the blue for me,” Morales tells Shondaland. “It’s just such a legendary show, so when the offer came in, I was like, ‘This is so cool!’ And despite all the [characters] I’ve done, I’d never played a doctor before.”
While in real life Morales reckons that being a pediatric surgeon is probably both the most rewarding and the most devastating job in a hospital, her time on Grey’s was strictly a positive one. And that’s in big part thanks to the kids.
“Not only do I get to work with the main cast of this iconic show,” says Morales, “but with all these guest stars who are children. And they’re awesome. I’ve worked with kids before, and I really love it.”
In the multi-episode arc, Morales plays Dr. Beltran, a pediatric surgeon who is at the top of her game and knows it. She’s beloved in her field for her great pragmatism and levelheadedness, and she has a savvy bedside manner with both her little patients as well as their parents. But Dr. Beltran doesn’t always see eye to eye with her colleagues and will let nothing get in the way of helping her kids.
Before Morales’ first episode airs on ABC on Thursday, March 28, we talked to her about playing Dr. Beltran, about joining the well-oiled machine that is Grey’s Anatomy, and about her career as a screen and voice actor. While we didn’t get into any spoilers, we’ll just mention that you might want to keep an eye out for some drama because, well, it is Grey Sloan Memorial after all.
VALENTINA VALENTINI: Who is Monica Beltran, and what makes her tick?
NATALIE MORALES: Monica is somebody who is really, really passionate about her job and will put her patients first no matter what. Like, she doesn’t care if nobody likes her as long as she’s doing what she thinks is best for her patients. Which I admire and respect, and I wish more doctors were that way. She is not afraid to disagree with people, especially people she doesn’t know at a new hospital that she just joined, which is a fun thing to play.
VV: Were you given much background on her, or did you create one for yourself?
NM: I knew she was working in Texas and has moved to Portland, but I really can’t say much more because it will spoil it! I did ask for some fun stuff on her medical equipment. I made all her pens have dinosaurs on them, and her stethoscope has a giraffe on it that I’ve become quite attached to. I wanted things that would make it feel like she really only cares about her patients, you know?
VV: Did you get to do anything in particular to prepare to play Dr. Beltran? Did you shadow a pediatric surgeon?
NM: I honestly did not have any time to do that. But luckily, the medical advisers on Grey’s are so awesome. I did ask [executive producer and medical adviser] Linda Klein a ton of questions, and she made me feel good about not looking like a dope. And it’s not only about making sure I’m saying all the medical jargon correctly and actually understanding what I’m talking about, but also that I got the physicality of a doctor right. Like, what does a doctor do when they walk into a room? Do they shake people’s hands? Do they use hand sanitizer? I wanted to make sure that what I was doing and saying both made it feel real and lived in, that any doctor watching the show would immediately recognize it in a behavioral sense.
VV: Is lawyer jargon or doctor jargon harder to learn and perform?
NM: I think pronunciation-wise, doctor jargon can be harder, but makes-sense-wise, lawyer jargon is harder.
VV: What’s it been like to join such a legendary show where some people — much of the crew — have been there since day one?
NM: Everyone’s been so wonderful to work with. [Showrunner] Meg [Marinis] is just awesome. And I’ve gotten to work with Debbie Allen a few times now on the show, not only acting, but directing, which was thrilling because I’m such a fan of hers. And even the newer cast members are great, but the crew’s been there for so long, and they truly are incredible to work with.
VV: What’s been a really memorable moment for you as Dr. Beltran?
NM: I got to do some brain surgery and knee surgery, and I actually kind of feel like I know what I’m talking about, even though I definitely don’t! But something I really respect about this show is that not only do they have medical experts on staff, but whenever we’re doing a procedure, they bring in the person who invented it to teach us how to do it. Sometimes, they play the nurses in the scene, and they literally hand us the tools that we need to do it, to look like we know what we’re doing. And it’s just amazing because they’re the person who invented that procedure.
VV: Dr. Amelia Shepherd is one of the first people you meet at Grey Sloan — how does that go?
NM: She steals Monica’s parking space, which is pretty rude! And then they have to work together, so that’s not the best first impression.
VV: Well, I guess we’ll just have to tune in to see how that pans out! I did want to ask about your extensive work in voice acting. Has that always been a part of your repertoire?
NM: I tried to break into the voice acting world for a long time and had a hard time doing it. And then I got cast in BoJack Horseman, but not because I auditioned for it — they’d seen my other acting and liked it. So, when that happened, it opened the doors for me to be able to work on other shows like Rugrats and Spider-Man and a few other things. And I’ve been lucky to do so.
VV: Why is it so hard to break into voice acting?
NM: I think because the people who do it are really, really talented, and they work really hard at it, and they can do more than one voice. Whereas if you’re an actor, you can really only do one part in a show or a movie. So, there’s a lot less demand for mildly talented voice actors than there is for actors.
VV: You’ve also branched out into directing. That started a while ago with short films and then some TV and then your first feature, Language Lessons, with Mark Duplass. Do you see any future where you get to direct at Shondaland?
NM: That would be great! We’ll see.
VV: And you just had a movie that premiered at South by Southwest, My Dead Friend Zoe. How did that go?
NM: It got really great reviews, and so we’re eager to see who distributes it, hopefully soon. Another reason it’s getting a lot of buzz is that Travis Kelce is one of our producers; people have been going nuts about that particular part of it.
VV: And have you met Mr. Kelce?
NM: I have not. He came in near the end of postproduction with some extra cash to help us finish it, and that was nice of him. But I haven’t met him. I look forward to meeting him soon!
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and is also a senior contributor to Shondaland. Elsewhere, she has written for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times and Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
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