Taylor Schilling

Taylor Schilling

Fordham grad Taylor Schilling recalls standing in a class not so long ago doing a scene from Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" that changed her life. "I thought, 'Wow, this is where I feel at home,'" Schilling told the Daily News. "It was a feeling of disappearing and coming into myself." There won't be any disappearing for Schilling these days. In just a couple years, she has gone from attending college to a part in the film "Dark Matter," which co-stars Meryl Streep, to being the lead in a new NBC hospital drama, "Mercy," launching Wednesday night at 8.

Schilling plays Veronica Callahan, a nurse who returns from Iraq to work at Mercy Hospital. "Veronica is sort of a dream for an actor," Schilling said. "She has so many different layers, and is so complex and so human, and there's so much to sink your teeth into." The show is shot partly on location at a closed hospital and in a studio in New Jersey. Besides Schilling, it stars Jaime Lee Kirchner, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Tupper and others. Despite her relative inexperience, Schilling said she doesn't feel the pressure of carrying the series.

"I absolutely don't," she said. "It doesn't feel like pressure on my shoulders. It feels like the show sinks or swims based on the team. We have an amazing cast and an amazing crew and an amazing creative team. Everyone is extremely invested. I feel so supported." Still, Schilling's face is the largest in promos for the show. As with any series representing a subset of society, there will be complaints about the portrayals, and nursing is no different. "You can't care that much about what people think," Schilling said. "Everyone is going to have an opinion. What I can do is do my best and hope the majority like what I do.