'The Patient' Is Not Based on a True Story, but It Has Very Personal Things From the Creators' Real

Steve Carell’s intriguing new role in The Patient isn’t based on a true story, but the Hulu series’ creators, Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg took several critical things from their personal lives for the show. In The Patient, Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson) abducts his therapist, Alan Strauss (Carell), for at-home therapy. Sam wants help to stop his homicidal urges, but despite Alan’s attempts, the murders continue. Here’s where the inspiration for The Patient came from.

Is ‘The Patient’ based on a true story or a book?

The Patient on Hulu is not based on a true story or a book. Instead, the inspiration behind the new psychological thriller came from the creators’ personal life and interests. Producers and showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg grew up in Jewish families. That’s why they decided to build Alan’s character around Judaism. Both writers also spent a lot of time in therapy, so they chose to create a series around it.

Why is Steve Carell’s character, Alan Strauss, Jewish in ‘The Patient’?

Although the central plot of The Patient is about Alan Strauss’s attempt to provide therapy to a serial killer, there are several underlying storylines. Alan frequently talks about his wife’s death and his son’s conversion to become an Orthodox Jew. So, why did the writers make Carell’s character Jewish? In a recent interview, the showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg opened up about Alan’s religion. 

“When we came up with the original idea, the character wasn’t originally Jewish,” Weisberg told Variety. “And then you start, as you always do, looking for ways to add specificity and depth. And we came up with that idea pretty quickly. But it allowed us to tap into things from our own lives.”

It came alive as the writers incorporated their common beliefs into the series.

“The Jewish themes are very personal and important to each of us,” Fields explained in the same interview. “My dad was a rabbi, so I grew up in that world. Joe grew up with a Jewish family, as well. So we were able to tap into something very personal for us. And, ultimately, I think a big part of our belief as storytellers is that what we’re doing is trying to amplify our common humanity.”

Joe Weisberg’s life inspired Ezra’s conversion to an Orthodox Jew

Joe Weisberg grew up in a liberal Jewish home in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Bernard Weisberg, was a civil rights lawyer, while his mother, Lois, was a social activist. However, in an interview with The New York Times, Joe described himself as a stubborn young adult. After graduating from Yale University, he shocked family and friends by joining the CIA.

“Growing up in a liberal family, joining the CIA, was the most transgressive thing you could do,” Joe’s brother, Jacob Weisberg, told the outlet. 

The decision is similar to Alan’s son’s choice to become an Orthodox Jew in The Patient. Ezra (Andrew Leeds) came from a liberal Jewish family but converted to a strict conservative form of Judaism. Another similarity between Weisberg’s real life and Ezra’s character is that they both had a parent fall ill and die after their significant life change. In 1993, Weisberg took a leave of absence from the CIA to move home to Chicago and care for his sick father. However, Ezra’s decisions didn’t follow that path. Instead, he disagreed with Alan about his mother’s care and wishes. 

‘The Patient’s emphasis on therapy came from Fields and Weisberg’s lives

Although Fields and Weisberg never abducted their therapists, both men spent a lot of time in therapy throughout their lives. They thought the topic might be interesting for a TV series. 

“We realized that there was a problem which was that therapy doesn’t have a lot of you know inherent propulsion to it,” Weisberg told Newsweek. “It’s just people talking and it’s very important work but it’s not the kind that works for a TV show.”

However, the therapy itself is a slow process, so they needed something to push the show forward more. That’s where the idea of murder and abduction came to be.

“So we sort of put it aside and started thinking, ‘what if we go some of the more traditional routes of a serial killer and what if we had a serial killer that wanted to get better?'” he continued. “That was kind of an interesting take but we weren’t sure if that worked either and then we were like ‘wait a minute, what if that serial killer goes into therapy?’ then we were like ‘hang on! wait a minute, what if he kidnaps the therapist?’ and then we had a show and at that point, we just knew we could write that in an interesting and fun way and we were really excited about it from that point on.”

And that’s how The Patient was born, not of a true story but built on experiences and intrigue.

Eight episodes of The Patient are available for streaming on Hulu. The final two episodes drop to the streamer on Oct. 18 and 25.

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