Upamanyu Biswas
NBC’s ‘Brilliant Minds’ is a medical drama show that chronicles the life and career of neurologist Oliver Sacks through a semi-fictional contemporary narrative set in New York. As a gifted medical practitioner, Oliver Wolf Sacks deals with complex neurological disorders and conditions with the aid of his group of interns at the Bronx General Hospital. However, away from his professional life, the doctor has to contend with several personal issues of his own, including his sexuality and personal relationships. In real life, Oliver Sacks dealt with similar situations in his personal life, which he kept private for most of his existence.
Oliver Sacks Struggled With His Sexuality For Most of His Life
For many years, Oliver Sacks lived alone and never married. Although he continued to explore the depths of the human mind through his work as a neurologist and his numerous books, Sacks was contending with his own internal dilemmas. He never shared details about his personal life until 2015, when he openly acknowledged being gay through his autobiography ‘On the Movie: A Life.’ He revealed that owing to several heartbreaks in his past and a case of shyness, he remained celibate for around 35 years since his 40s. In truth, the celebrated medicine practitioner and author revealed he was suffering from a case of homophobia directed toward himself.
In 2008, when he was 75, Sacks began a friendship with New York Times contributor Bill Hayes, who was 47 at the time. The two met each other after Sacks read Hayes’ book ‘The Anatomist’ and sent him a letter revealing his appreciation of the text. Eventually, their bond transitioned from friendship into love. Hayes explained, “It was as unexpected for me as it was for him. I was not moving to New York expecting to fall in love with Oliver Sacks.” A few months before he passed away from cancer in 2015, Sacks wrote in a New York Times report, “It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.”
For Sacks, his acceptance of his identity as a gay man came at a very late stage in life. Prior to that, the neurologist went through huge periods of turmoil that left him doubting himself and labeling his sexuality as a flaw of some kind. Hayes added his own opinion on the topic by saying, “I think he really regretted the years he spent really struggling with his sexuality, and as he says in the film, his own internalized homophobia. I met Oliver at a time in his life when he was really at peace with himself, but the one thing that he had not really dealt with was romantic love and being in a relationship. It was amazing and delightful to see him explore that as a man in his late 70s and early 80s.”
Sacks’ Conflict With His Sexuality is an Intrinsic Part of His Fictional Counterpart
Although ‘Brilliant Minds’ is a semi-fictional world created out of Oliver Sacks’ career and work, particularly in relation to his books ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ and ‘An Anthropologist on Mars,’ the show attempts to steep itself in all the real-life details of the neurologist’s personal affairs. To that end, creator Michael Grassi felt it was integral that Sacks’ sexuality was represented as authentically as possible. Additionally, Grassi explained that Sacks’ estate wanted “to find a safe place for Oliver Sacks to be out and gay. And this show is the safe place they’ve always wanted.”
Zachary Quinto, who plays Oliver Wolf, reflected on the part by saying, “It’s a real honor for me to be playing an openly gay character on a primetime network television series where the character’s identity is a comfortable aspect of who the character is.” The actor himself came out as gay in 2011. He stated further that the character’s identity as a gay man “is the source of a lot of personal conflict for the character. His relationship to his sexuality, to intimacy, and to his family is complicated. All things that are very relatable and understandable from a human experience.” Therefore, Wolf’s sexuality plays a major part in the internalized demons in his head, which are concretely rooted in his real-life persona’s struggles.
Read More: Brilliant Minds: Is Bronx General a Real Hospital?
