Before ‘Tracker,’ Justin Hartley Made Us Swoon in This Medical Drama
Unbeknownst to many, Hartley once tried his luck at medical dramas; just a few years before This Is Us, the actor landed a role on The CW series, Emily Owens, M.D. There, he played a medical intern who was also the love interest of the series’ namesake character, portrayed by Mamie Gummer. Unfortunately, the show got canceled after just one season, but since then, Hartley has never tried to play a doctor again; still, his appearance makes the series that much more compelling to watch.
Justin Hartley Landed His ‘Emily Owens, M.D.’ Role After Appearing in ‘Smallville’
Hartley first made his onscreen debut back in the early 2000s after getting cast as Fox Crane in the NBC soap opera, Passions. In the years that followed, he also took on several guest roles in various TV shows, like The CW teen superhero drama, Smallville, where Hartley was tapped to portray the DC Comics figure, Oliver Queen, a.k.a. the Green Arrow. His performance drew a ton of praise from fans, so much so that they expected Hartley to reprise the character in The CW’s Arrow. However, the network decided against this, casting Stephen Amell instead.
Despite this, Hartley also decided to stick around The CW for a while, auditioning for the network’s medical drama, Emily Owens, M.D. For Hartley, the appeal of Emily Owens, M.D. was rather straightforward: he was searching for a series that combined comedy and drama, as he enjoys both genres. So, when Emily Owens, M.D. creator, Jennie Snyder Urman, and her team held auditions for the show, Hartley knew he had to try his luck.
After attending several rounds of auditions, his hard work finally paid off, as Hartley got cast as the show’s male lead while it was still using the title, First Cut. Just before production started, the actor also made sure to do as much research as possible for the role. During an interview with Assignment X, he even spoke about interviewing his own doctors just to be sure that he would nail his onscreen portrayal.
In ‘Emily Owens, M.D.,’ Justin Hartley Is Caught in a Love Triangle
By the time Emily Owens, M.D. went on the air, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy had already been running for several seasons and was going strong, which made Urman want to create something similar. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she explained how Emily Owens M.D. was supposed to be a show “where Ally McBeal meets Grey’s Anatomy meets Scrubs.” In Emily Owens, M.D., Mamie Gummer plays the titular character, a new medical intern who realizes early on that the big hospital operates much like high school. The orthopedic surgeons are the jocks, and the women who work in plastic surgery are the mean girls. Meanwhile, interns like Emily are first-year students still figuring out where they belong.
Much like high school, too, there are a ton of crushes going on at the hospital. In the show’s pilot, Emily makes it clear that she has had feelings for Hartley’s Dr. Will Collins ever since they met at medical school, but unfortunately, she isn’t the only doctor with her eyes on Will. Cassandra (Aja Naomi King), Emily’s fellow intern and tormentor in high school, is into Will, too, and to make things worse, the two have serious chemistry and, eventually, they get together. As for Emily, the series’ writers also complicated her life a bit more by giving her another love interest in the form of Dr. Micah Barnes (Michael Rady), a senior doctor at the hospital.
Despite that, Emily and Will are brought closer together throughout the show’s 13 episodes; while their relationship is platonic, it doesn’t take much to figure out that something is going on between the two. At the same time, Will and Cassandra remain an item on the show, which eventually makes Emily realize that it’s time to move on. For Emily, moving on means admitting that she also has feelings for Micah. Interestingly, Will and Cassandra decide to break up in the finale, with Will finally admitting to himself that he wants to be with Emily. In the final moments of the series, Will makes his move, unexpectedly showing up outside Emily’s door, and after months of teasing the two characters, they finally get together. Unfortunately, no one knows what happens next between the two, as The CW decided to cancel the show just a month after Emily Owens M.D. premiered. The medical drama struggled with ratings from the beginning, leading to its early demise.
Since ‘Emily Owens, M.D.,’ Justin Hartley Has Moved on From Medical Dramas
Once Emily Owens, M.D. ended its run, Hartley moved on from the medical drama rather quickly. For starters, the actor guest-starred in the ABC mystery drama, Revenge, where he played Patrick Osbourne, Victoria Grayson’s (Madeleine Stowe) estranged son. Not long after that, Hartley returned to his soap opera roots, playing both Adam Newman and Gabriel Bingham in The Young and the Restless; while he was working on this project, Hartley joined the cast of This Is Us.
This Is Us would eventually end its successful run in 2022, and two years later, Hartley switched gears to star in Tracker. The project is unlike anything he has done before, but that was never an issue for Hartley in his career. On screen, his commitment to his character is on full display, and both viewers and critics have praised him for it. Unlike his previous episodic projects, Hartley also serves as an executive producer on Tracker, which makes it a bit more difficult for him to work on other TV projects. With that said, though, it’s not too late to rule out another medical drama for Hartley in the future. Who knows—he might just find himself scrubbing in once more for good measure.
