When Carey Mulligan complains to Fernando Holguin, MD, during a Zoom office visit about a persistent feeling of living in a time loop, the veteran doctor’s medical sleuthing skills kick in.
“Well, let me ask you a question,” Holguin says. “Have you tried to murder Andy Samberg again and again, and he just won’t die?”
“Yes!” the visibly excited actress exclaims.
“That’s it! It’s Palm Springs,” Holguin says. “You’ve definitely got it.”
Another successful diagnosis in the books.
The scenario, which poked fun at the time-looped-based 2020 film “Palm Springs,” wasn’t real. But the doctor playing one on TV was.
Holguin is a critical care and pulmonary disease specialist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The good-natured doctor took a brief break from his teaching students and treating COVID-19 ICU patients to join a tribute to the pandemic’s medical heroes on the 78th Annual Golden Globe awards on Feb. 28.
After his brush with stardom, Holguin, also a professor of epidemiology and director of the Latino Research & Policy Center in the Colorado School of Public Health, spent some Zoom time with CU Anschutz Today, recalling the comic acting experience and sharing what fuels the passion behind his work.