Mandy Moore talks 'out of my wheelhouse' 'Dr. Death' and being 'unscathed' by pop start

Mandy Moore’s new onscreen love couldn’t be more different than her “This Is Us” husband Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia), and a departure from Rebecca Pearson is exactly what the actress/singer sought for her next role.

“I was like, ‘Wow, what would be just so completely different?’” Moore, 39, says in an interview. “That's the fun and the challenge as an actor … what would be a bit of a deviation and a left turn?”

Moore is following her favorite part to date – mom of “The Big Three” on NBC’s family drama that wrapped last year after six seasons – with the second installment of “Dr. Death,” which drops all eight episodes Dec. 21 on Peacock. In the anthology series inspired by actual events and the Wondery podcast of the same name, Moore portrays news producer Benita Alexander who falls in love with thoracic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini (Edgar Ramírez).

Netflix's 'Bad Surgeon' documentary dives deep into the lies of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini

The doctor appeared to be an answer to the prayers of Alexander and his patients in whom he transplanted plastic tracheas seeded with their own stem cells to extend the lives of those with damaged windpipes or who were born without one. But the only one of Macchiarini’s patients (out of at least eight) who survived had their transplant removed. And his relationship with Alexander was built on lies. (The heart-wrenching ordeal is chronicled in Netflix's three-part “Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife” which debuted last month.)

After reading the first two scripts, Moore thought “I have to do this.” So she, her husband, Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, and their two young sons (one who was born in October 2022) moved to New York for filming which began early last December.

“It was just so out of my wheelhouse, and I found it so incredibly compelling and engaging,” says Moore. She also related to Alexander who Macchiarini love bombed with trips to Russia, Greece and the Bahamas. He also promised an Italian wedding to be officiated by Pope Francis.

“I feel like there are many of us in that boat that have found ourselves in unhealthy relationships with controlling, manipulative people, absolutely,” Moore says. “So, I definitely related to that.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Moore revisits her first leading role “A Walk to Remember,” how the desire to make her kids proud fuels her (though her oldest, Gus, “has no interest” in “Tangled”) and her start as a “Candy”-coated pop star. (Moore hasn’t read Britney Spears’ memoir but sees it as “some good holiday-break reading.”) Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: Out of the past 12 months, of all the Google searches about you, one of the Top 5 queries is still ‘A Walk to Remember’ more than 20 years after the movie came out (in 2002). Why do you think there's still so much interest?

Mandy Moore: Maybe it's just the universal themes and stories of a good girl reforming a bad boy. I'm flattered that anybody would still find it relevant and love it in the way that we loved it all those years ago. It means a lot.

For all those people still Googling, is there something that might surprise them about the movie?

Oh my gosh. I was just so madly in love with Shane West. It's not news to anybody, but he was older than me. He was so handsome. I didn't know enough to separate the fiction from real life. He was the loveliest guy. I had such a gigantic crush on him.

Were you nervous, considering it was your first leading role in a movie?

I was terrified. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to memorize lines. I didn't know how to hit a mark. Poor Shane West really had to teach me everything on that film. I was just such a newbie in every sense.

How has your confidence as an actress grown since?

I'm able to trust myself and trust my instincts in a way that I never would have known to do as a kid. Also, I had no life experience. I had nothing to draw upon, whereas (now) I'm going to be 40 next year, so I got a lot of baggage (laughs). I have a lot to color my experience now. There's no substitute for that.

There’s recently been a reexamination of how the media treated your fellow pop-star Britney Spears. Did that make you reflect on your pop career? Do you feel any differently today about how you were treated or what was expected of you?

I think the standards are wildly different now. So much of what flew and what was considered acceptable would by no means fly these days. I feel like I was left unscathed because I was younger. I wasn't as famous. I was able to live my life a little more quietly because of that. People just didn't care, which was just fine by me. I was able to do what I love. I didn't have to withstand that level of scrutiny in my private life and my career choices and all of that. So I can't imagine what those contemporaries of mine had to deal with.

What do you want out of your career at this point?

I just want longevity. I want to keep having the opportunity to do this in some sense, in some form. I want to make my kids proud. I want them to be able to look back one day and be like, “Mom did some cool things with her life.”

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mandy Moore talks new show 'Dr. Death,' being 'unscathed' by pop start