Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of HBO Max’s ‘The Pitt’ introduces a variety of new characters, all of whom bring a distinct flavour to an already incredible show. In the second episode, we are introduced to Dr. Caleb Jefferson, a psychiatric attending physician, who shows up to advise Dr. Dennis Whitaker about an old woman who has Alzheimer’s, and the news of whose husband’s death has to be broken repeatedly to her by Whitaker. While the character appears in only one scene, it’s clear that this isn’t the last we have seen of him. What also sets him apart is that he is a person with disability, a detail reflected in the character by the actor who plays him.
Caleb Jefferson is Brought to Life by an Actor With Disability
Christopher Thornton plays the role of Dr. Caleb Jefferson in the second season of ‘The Pitt.’ The actor has been paraplegic since a rock climbing incident in 1992, which resulted in two fractured vertebrae. Being a private person, Thornton has not spoken much about his accident. However, he has talked about the experience of recovery. In an interview with the LA Times, he said that after recovering from an accident like that, a person must “face the rest of his life.” “You’re not dying. That circle of friends that was visiting you all the time has gone back, and you’re just, like, sitting in a chair. And then what?” he said. He called losing a person’s passion or ability for something “even more damaging” in some way, and for a while after the accident, it seemed he wouldn’t act again.
However, he returned to the stage soon, taking the theatre world by storm. Over the years, he has established himself as a prolific actor, known for his work in and as ‘Hamlet’ at the Lillian Theatre, ‘Up the Hill’ at the Stella Adler Theatre, and ‘Small Days’ at the Hudson Stages, among others. He has also been a member of the LA-based theatre company Page 93. Additionally, he has also appeared as a range of characters in TV shows like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ ‘FBI: Most Wanted,’ ’Presumed Innocent,’ ’Magnum P.I.,’ ’Will & Grace,’ ’Grey’s Anatomy,’ and ‘Santa Clarita Diet,’ among others. He also appeared as a con man named Sam Scales in Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer,’ whose murder serves as the main plot line of the fourth season.
Thornton channeled his experience with disability into a character named Delicious in the 2011 film, ‘Sympathy for Delicious.’ He wrote the movie, which became the directorial debut of Thornton’s close friend, Mark Ruffalo. He said that the story focuses on the idea of believing in miracles, revealing that, following his accident, his friends had taken him to several faith healers and holistic practitioners in the hopes of healing him. He discussed the complexity of wanting to believe that a miracle will work, only to resent and get mad at oneself for feeling scammed when it doesn’t.
He noted that, eventually, it is acceptance that leads one to move forward. “I haven’t had to accept what I am; I’ve had to accept what happened. I’ve had to accept a huge change, one day doing things this way, and then having to adjust to doing things a very, very different way,” he said. After becoming a part of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning series, ‘The Pitt,’ he has another major project lined up. He is set to appear in Joe Robert Cole’s adaptation of ‘All the Sinners Bleed,’ the 2023 novel by S.A. Cosby, for Netflix, with which he will continue his streak of playing diverse and intriguing roles.
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