From creator Evan Romansky and executive producers Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the Netflix series Ratched crafts a haunting origin story for the iconic character of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The story begins in 1947 as Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson) arrives in Monterey County in Northern California seeking employment at a psychiatric hospital conducting experimental procedures on the human mind. While she presents herself as the perfect nurse for the job, Mildred has a deeper and darker mission she’s pursuing which comes with potentially dangerous consequences.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Jon Jon Briones (who plays Dr. Richard Hanover, head of Lucia State Hospital) talked about why this was really a dream role, what he thought of the scripts, the importance of bringing visibility to a Filipino character, the experience of working with Ryan Murphy for the first time and how that lead to their working relationship now, his trick for making his lines sound natural, working with the incredible women of Ratched, and his journey to Hollywood.

COLLIDER: This show seems like a dream for an actor to be a part of and such an exciting character to get to play.

JON JON BRIONES: Oh my god, absolutely. When you get invited to Ryan Murphy’s world, that’s a special thing. For him to invite you is a compliment because he deals with worlds that are so colorful with a heightened sense of reality. For him to trust you to do what he wants you to do with it is special. And this character is so complex. I’ve never played a character like this before and I’ve never been one of the leads in the show before, so it was something else.

When you got the initial word from Ryan Murphy about this, what did he tell you?

BRIONES: That’s funny because first, my agent said, “You’re gonna be in one of his new shows but we don’t know which one yet.” And then, a few months later, they said, “Okay, you’re gonna be in Ratched.” The next time I saw him was at the after-party during the Emmys when the show [The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story] won a lot of awards. At the after-party, we were talking and he said to me, “Jon Jon, you’re gonna be very happy with the role you’ll play in Ratched. I wrote a really good part for you. He’s a brilliant doctor and he has a lot of monologues.” My wife was listening behind me and when I said bye to him, we were giggling like excited kids.

So then, when you get the scripts and read them and you see just what the character is going to be, what was your initial reaction to that?

BRIONES: First of all, I loved the first three scripts that I got. They were amazing. There was a line in there that was cut from the show, where Mildred Ratched was talking to me in the beginning and she asked me, “Are you of Filipino descent?” That made me so happy because the show acknowledged my culture in this character. They could have ignored the Filipino body that this character is living in but instead they embraced it. That actually made it easier for me to relate to this guy. Also, the fact that he’s a family man made it more real to me. That was an amazing thing.

What does it mean to you to get to portray a Filipino character on a show like this and bring that level of visibility to the viewing audience?

BRIONES: It’s a big thing. As a person of color and as an Asian actor, for the most part, the default in storytelling is always the Chinese or the Japanese or the Korean point of view. That’s amazing because people of Asian descent can see themselves on screen and see people who look like them but there’s not a lot of Filipino representation. That is the next move for an actor like me to represent and to be up there and to make Filipinos like me go, “Okay, we can do this. We’re being represented there.” At the same time, there’s also the added pressure of doing it right because if I mess it up, I’m gonna mess it up for the whole country. That’s exaggerated but the pressure is there.

What was it like the first time that you met and worked with Ryan Murphy?

BRIONES: I finished Gianni Versace. I was doing a show on Broadway at the time, Miss Saigon, and I got a call from one of his producers, Brad Simpson, and he said, “Ryan is very happy with the result.” He didn’t direct the episode that I did – it was actually Matt Bomer – but he was editing it and said that he loved what I did and wanted to see the show, Miss Saigon. They all came – his producers and Matt Bomer and Darren Criss were there – and they came backstage after the show, and that was the first time that I met him. It was like seeing God. We were in my dressing room and he was looking around. He’s so contemplative, always. You don’t know what he’s thinking. He was looking at the pictures on my wall. And then he turned to me and said, “What are you gonna do after Miss Saigon?” And I said, “Well, I guess I’m gonna be looking for another job.” And then, he said, “Well, I just have to snatch you up.” In my mind, that was just Hollywood talk. People talk like that all the time, and it was so nice of him to say that, but for him to actually do it was something else.

As you got the scripts for Ratched and realized what you would have to be doing as this character, was there anything that ever made you nervous or that you were worried about pulling off?

BRIONES: You have to understand, English is my second language, so I felt it was really important to me to get the script way in advance to really study it and learn it and say the lines, over and over again, like I’ve been saying it all the time and it’s just normal to me. The medical jargon was easy for me because I was a massage therapist in my former life and we would study anatomy, so I was familiar with that. But Ryan was true to his word and I had a lot of monologues. That was the only thing that needed work, just getting the words out there. The storytelling was just amazing to do. He gave me such a complex character and to be surrounded by such amazing actors was like playing with an all-star team.

Do you have tricks for yourself when you’re doing big monologues?

BRIONES: You’re going to laugh but when I learn my lines and I start to memorize it, I start to do household chores while saying them. It helps me to get it out of my head. It becomes natural while I’m making my bed, cleaning the kitchen, washing dishes, or watering the plants outside. It helps me because the words become secondary and I understand it more. The intention is clear to me when I say it like that. I think it’s important that I’m not worried about the lines anymore.

You’ve previously talked about how you grew up in a poverty-stricken area in the Philippines. How did you end up as a Hollywood actor? Was that something that you had ever even dreamed of doing? Did you think something like that was even possible to do?

BRIONES: That’s a very good question. When I look back at such a long journey, no, never. I grew up watching Hollywood movies. That’s it. I never went, “Oh, someday I’m gonna be doing that and I’ll be there.” Coming from a poor family, you’re worried about food, you’re worried about school, and you’re worried about learning. When you grow up, you’re worried about helping your family get out of your predicament. But at the same, the love for performing came to me. I was singing in a church. I sang at all of the services and in exchange, they give me free schooling, so I’ve been singing since a young age. And then, that turned into a love of performing. Because of my singing, I got Miss Saigon in 1989. Cameron Mackintosh came to audition us and even that was like, “My God, what is this life? I’ve never dreamed of leaving the country and now I’m gonna be in London.” And then, a few years later, I’m in Hollywood doing this. If somebody told me back then, “You’re gonna be living in L.A.,” I would have said, “You’re crazy. Get out of here.”

What was it like to explore the dynamic between this Dr. Hanover and Mildred Ratched, and having Sarah Paulson to dive into that with?

BRIONES: When I first read it, that was a challenge that I was so excited about that. First of all, for Ryan to say, “You’re gonna be going head to head with Sarah Paulson’s character,” I was like, “Okay, let’s get it on.” The relationship between them is so interesting. Both of them are hiding something but they also equally have this certain goal and they would do anything to achieve it. Mildred has her goal and [Dr. Hanover] believes that he can help people. Both of them have this massive ego, so for them to interact in that setting is so interesting, with all of their flaws and their goals as their beacon. That was great. It was a good thing that I had a confrontation with Sarah Paulson before Ratched, in American Horror Story, so I was a little prepared for all of that. The genius of Ryan Murphy is that he puts characters together who you’d never think would even be in the same room together. He also puts his actors in positions that they’ve never been in before. He surprises you and you surprise yourself at the same time. He basically says to you, “You can do this,” while you never saw yourself playing that kind of character. It speaks a lot about him and his vision and his genius.

It seems like that would also really help create a trust with his actors.

BRIONES: Absolutely. That’s so important. He’s saying to you, “Jump. Take a leap off this ledge. We’re gonna catch you.” He trusts that you’re not gonna hurt yourself but you have to trust that he is putting together all of these things to make you safe and that there will be something to catch you, and it always happens. That’s Ryan Murphy.

What was it like to share scenes with such incredible women as Judy Davis, Sharon Stone, and Sophie Okonedo?

BRIONES: I love Judy’s work. She’s just an amazing actress but once you get to know her, you see her humanity and how funny she is. I was so happy that we had that dance sequence. My character is always mean to her. He’s just horrible. And then, when we had that dance, it didn’t show onscreen but filming that was so much fun. When I had my first scene with Sharon Stone, she was walking to set and she had this like big aura around her. We were doing a scene and I was having a little difficulty with a beat in our scene, and she took my hand and looked in my eyes, and she was so close to me and said something. I can’t remember what she said to me because it was Sharon “Basic Instinct” Stone but that was enough for me. She was basically saying, “You’ve got this. You’re an actor.” That was so nice of her. That was just beautiful empathy and humanity. And Sophie Okonedo, every time we did a scene together, she’s such a theater person that when we did rehearsals, she never marked, and I’m the same way. When I saw that, I connected with that. Even when the camera is not on her, she’s giving you everything. The whole time, I just wanted to go, “Come on, turn the camera on her. You’re wasting this.” They’re just generous actors. They’re not new. They’ve made names for themselves. They just really love their craft and they’re good storytellers.

Now that you’ve had this experience with Ryan Murphy, are you hoping to continue working with him on other projects? Have you talked to him about anything since this?

BRIONES: No, but I would love to continue this relationship because his vision is so amazing and really epic. He tells a good story. He’s not telling stories for just financial reasons. It needs to mean something to him. He tells stories that need to be told. He’s a champion for underrepresented people – people of color, people of a certain age, the LGBTQ community. He’s always looking out for stories that need to be told, and I would love to collaborate with him again.

It seems like you always know, if he has a role, that it’s not going to be boring and there is always going to be something really interesting and colorful to do in it.

BRIONES: Oh, boring will never be associated with Ryan Murphy. He has his characters who are flawed and hiding things but he puts them, specifically in this show, in this beautiful setting with beautiful buildings and locations. He knows what he’s doing. He knows that the beauty of the setting makes the turmoil of these characters more interesting and more poignant.

Ratched is available to stream on Netflix.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.