Josh Lawson operates on another level with 'St. Denis Medical'

When he was working in Australia, actor Josh Lawson wore multiple hats – writer, director, producer, actor.

Now, as a member of the cast of “St. Denis Medical” he can focus on one job “and I can creatively express myself in other ways after the job,” he says.

He can also dig into the role – an egotistical trauma surgeon who keeps other staffers on edge whenever he’s around.

“It does liberate me in a way,” Lawson says. “And I feel very focused. Very often (on other projects), I’m always looking for the next branch to grab onto. That wasn’t the cast with ‘St. Denis.’ I was really, really focused on each day as it came.”

Now on its winter break, “St. Denis Medical” is one of the hits of the new comedy season.

Shot in mockumentary style (it’s from the producers of “Superstore,” a series Lawson appeared on, too), it gives the actors ample opportunity to offer suggestions and add something more to the atmosphere. As the self-centered Dr. Bruce, Lawson can bring plenty of nuance to pre-surgery consultations and interactions with staff.

When the hospital’s executive director (played by Wendi McLendon-Covey) looks for a new “featured employee of the quarter,” she goes to Dr. Bruce and asks his opinion. Immediately, he sees this as a way to extend his run and own the competition for another quarter.

Dr. Bruce Schweitz, Lawson says, has ties to an actual surgeon. “I went to school with a guy who’s an orthopedic surgeon and I’ve told him he has provided a great deal of inspiration. But there are a lot of different characters from different things that I’ve stolen little bits from.”

While “Superstore” had a similar format (he played the store’s pharmacist), it didn’t offer interaction with the filmmaking crew. “With this,” Lawson says of “St. Denis,” “you hear the documentary team off camera ask certain questions and they become sort of an additional character in the ensemble. It was definitely a new skill. I had to train myself to look at the camera because, my entire career, I’ve been told to do the opposite.”

That career began in Australia, his home, where he attended St. Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, before moving to Los Angeles to study comedy.

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Like many of his Australian peers, Lawson tried his hand at all aspects of the business. “The industry (there) is small,” he explains. “In order to keep creatively active, you really are left very little choice but to do your own things, find people and do co-op theater or write theater or write short films. It’s not so departmentalized as it is in the States. In indie films, of which I’ve done an awful lot, there is a real kind of camaraderie where we’re all in this together whether you’re in front of or behind the camera.”

“The Eleven O’Clock,” a short subject Lawson wrote, produced and starred in, brought him an Oscar nomination and an introduction to another aspect of the business. “It was a game changer for my career,” he says. “I don’t know if any of us expected that it would be, but it was. It's an amazing experience that I’m awfully proud of. As I get older, I fall more and more in love with creating my own stuff.

“I think the whole life you live, the more you feel like you have something to say about the human condition.”

“St. Denis” affords him the opportunity to observe even more people.

Because he hasn’t been to his own doctor since the series started airing, he’s not sure how it might have landed.

“But I’m off to see the doctor today,” he says with a smile, “so I’ll be sure to ask what he thinks.”

More than likely, the doctor may not even make the connection.

Schweitz is an American; Lawson has a distinct Australian accent.

“I quite like being as far away from me as possible,” he says. “But I expect if Bruce ever does have to do an Australian accent, he’d be quite bad at it. So, I’m looking forward to the day when I get to do a bad Australian accent.”

“St. Denis Medical” airs on NBC and streams on Peacock.