As Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill‘s hit HBO medical drama The Pitt heads into the final few episodes of Season 2, things aren’t getting any easier for the doctors and nurses of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. With the hospital now forced to take its network offline to avoid the possibility of a cyberattack, doing everything the analog way has resulted in a lot of added stress for both staff and patients. Naturally, it might also be one of the most stressful points for a new director to take the reins, but Shawn Hatosy, who also plays Dr. Jack Abbot, was, in his own words, prepared to “ride that horse and hold on for dear life.”
Not only is there a lot in “3:00 P.M.” for any director to navigate — between a young patient with blown-off fingers, another who codes after their chart accidentally slips through the cracks, and the unexpected arrival of Mel’s (Taylor Dearden) sister Becca (Tal Anderson) — but Abbot also manages to carve out a few meaningful moments with Dr. Robby (Wyle) to check in on how his longtime friend and colleague is doing before his planned three-month sabbatical starts at end of shift. Below, Hatosy dives into some of Episode 9’s most pivotal moments, which scene was his favorite to film, his biggest takeaway from Episode 7’s exchange between Abbot and Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), and much more.
COLLIDER: You’ve directed other television episodes, but what was different or what excited you about getting to take on an episode of The Pitt as a director?
SHAWN HATOSY: First of all, the obvious things are that most shows don’t take place in one location. We’re, like, 99% in that setting. On other shows, you spend so much time in prep, like in vans, going to different locations, trying to pick one. That’s a big part of it. So, my focus ends up being less fractured because that prep time, you get nine days — and plus, because I’m an actor on the show, I was in Episode 8 leading up to 9, I’m on set all day. My off time is on set, which is a unique position to be in as a director. A lot of the directors that come in that aren’t on the show only get the lunch hour to walk the set, but I’m able to figure out where things are.
That’s key to prepping this show, is understanding the blocking. The most important thing to understand, I think, about directing this show is how cemented this visual style is. John [Wells] and Jojo [Coelho], our DP — John directed the first episode — they’ve created a language and a style that we don’t really deviate from. The camera follows the action; it doesn’t dictate it. So, as a director, you’re coming into something that already works. It’s not my job to reinvent anything, you know? It’s just to honor the language. We get the medical elements as close to right as possible, and we react from that, so we’re capturing the medical procedure, but we’re also capturing how this day, how this moment, and how this emotional event affects our healthcare workers.
Shawn Hatosy Explains Why He Was “Nervous” About His Directorial Debut on ‘The Pitt’ Season 2
“We all have different ways of doing it…”
You’re also coming in with [Episode] 9 on the heels of Noah [Wyle], who directed [Episode] 6. Did he give you any advice or tips?
HATOSY: We did, and I was nervous. This show has really done well in Season 1. Literally, a couple of days before, we were up on stage at the Emmys, and then I’m coming in, like, “Oh my gosh, I’m directing the show.”
Yeah, we talked about things. Also, acting and directing is something that not a lot of people have done. We all have different ways of doing it, so I would ask a lot of questions about that. Particularly with two cameras working as you’re acting, it gets a little challenging to understand or know the footage you’re getting because when you’re directing, you’re behind the monitor and you’re seeing it all, but when you’re in it, it gets a little complicated. But he’s Noah! He understands the show. He understands the character. His instincts are so spot-on that I’m sure he wasn’t nervous, as opposed to me, who’s terrified.
You’re also directing at a turning point for the season, which is the ED having to shut down the network and go analog. Did that add any pressure at all, or did that present itself as a fun challenge in following the doctors and the nurses while they’re forced to go old-school?
HATOSY: The prep is understanding the choreography, and I was tasked with starting Episode 9, coming right off of a scene that will have been established, but I won’t know what that looks like until they’re wrapping Episode 8. I have no idea where anybody’s standing or what that looks like, so it’s really a challenge in preparing it. That is the one thing I will say about directing The Pitt: it is understanding that you are going to jump on the horse and you are going to ride that horse and hold on for dear life and just accept what’s there. You can’t really plan it.
We’re always looking for ways to make it messy and tell that story of what it feels like to work in this analog environment in a system that is so heavily reliant on technology. To not have it is the challenge. So, you’re right, it’s sort of the beginning of the next chapter of Season 2. And this cast, this crew, Jojo — without her… The way that we work is we spend a bit of time blocking and understanding where everybody’s going to be, and I watch her looking at things, and we essentially will develop what we call a master. It wouldn’t be, in a traditional sense, a master, but she is just following action, and this shot that she generally comes up with gets you like 70% of the scene in just that one take. It really is just a joy. It provides an immersive feeling that you can’t replicate anywhere else, and to be a part of it is just such a thrill.
The patient with the firecracker, that poor boy who blows part of his hand off, how did the practical effects team approach that case? It does look like there are some visual effects involved, but did the actor have to wear a glove on his hand when that sequence was filmed?
HATOSY: We basically work on The Pitt with practical effects. This was a unique situation because he has to be able to move his fingers, and that would have been a little bit too much of a challenge, so the decision was made to go with the visual effects. What we did was we taped his fingers. We had green tape, so he was able to move his other fingers, and then these two were taped, so that made it so that we could really do anything. We could squirt water on it, which we have to do to irrigate. As far as what it was going to look like, we created a great model of what that actual trauma would look like, which we used as our source, and then the wonderful team created what we’ve seen on the show.
‘The Pitt’s Nurses Unpack the “Heartbreaking” Noah Wyle-Directed Episode That Left Them Shaken
Brandon Mendez Homer, Amielynn Abellara, and Laëtitia Hollard discuss the emotional highs and lows of Episode 6’s spotlight on the nurses.
You and Noah have this moment at the end of the episode where Abbot is checking in with Robby. It feels like there’s a lot that’s being spoken in between the dialogue. What do you think Abbot is most concerned about with regard to Robby’s sabbatical?
HATOSY: Noah’s instincts about Robby and the character and the emotional arc are so spot-on, and you really have to, as an actor on the other side of it, as a director, listen to what those instincts are and shape the show essentially around that. Everything that’s happening is really happening through his eyes, and Noah had some pretty convincing and great ideas about this particular scene with Abbot. It’s coming at the end of the 3:00 p.m. shift, so we’re looking at maybe 3:45, him seeing Abbot and Abbot saying, “If I don’t see you before, take care,” and the beginning of his goodbye parades. This is sort of the beginning of that.
So, as we’re checking in with Robby, what we know up to this point is he’s going on this thing, and people are kind of talking about it, but once Robby decides to start saying goodbye to people, the question is, “Is this goodbye a bigger thing than just goodbye? Is this the last time I’m going to see you?” kind of thing, which was what we were talking about. The Abbot goodbye is the first moment where Abbot really understands, for the first time, that there’s something bigger happening here, and it’s because of the way Robby is seemingly emotional in that moment.
What it also does is, as Robby heads in to talk to Whitaker, you get a sort of compartmentalized version of him. You’re seeing this leader who is proud of his student, who’s now got his card and is going to be a doctor, and who also understands that Whitaker is in a relationship where he’s overstepping boundaries, and leads him to this understanding without being didactic, which, being the great Robby that he is, is not having to overstate it and letting Whitaker figure it out. But then that kind of leans into this other moment of unhinged Robby, for the briefest moment, of saying, “Take over my house. Maybe I’m not going to come back.” This whole thing that occurs is just such a beautiful thing. So this is now the next step in his parade of goodbyes: getting his affairs in order. It’s delicious.
Abbot and Mohan also have a lovely exchange after you finally show up in Season 2, when Abbot agrees to cover the supplies that Mohan’s patient needs. What is that offer rooted in, for him? Is it really just to take one thing off her plate, or do you think there’s something more at play there?
HATOSY: I do think he understands her in a way that… I think he understands a lot of the staff, to be quite honest, but he likes Mohan, for sure. They have this dynamic in their relationship. The system is fucked up, right? And this system isn’t working for Diaz, you know? So, when the system doesn’t work, Abbot’s the kind of guy that’s like, “Well, yeah, the system’s never going to work, but I’ll do whatever it takes to break it, fix it, whatever.” Not fix it, but go around it. Uber the thing to the guy, take Howard himself to Presby. This is who Abbot is.
Also, he does understand how she tends to personally connect to the cases. I think it’s quite a nice scene. I think that the nuance… it could have been a lot more overtly flirtatious or something, but I thought it was handled really nicely. I think there’s something vulnerable about Abbot in this scene, which is cool, and she’s clearly at a weak moment. So, to see these two come together and help each other, particularly in a relationship, a dynamic that has been kind of set up, is quite rewarding.
Shawn Hatosy Reveals His Favorite Scenes To Direct on ‘The Pitt’
“… the energy in those scenes always feels real, so directing them is fun.”
From a directing standpoint, do you have specific types of scenes that you most enjoy? Is it scenes that are more dialogue-heavy, or scenes where there’s more action involved?
HATOSY: That’s a really cool question. So, the trauma scenes are exciting, and they have their own shape, and there’s not a lot of room to block because the medical is the way the medical is. We kind of do it exactly how it would be. Having said that, the energy in those scenes always feels real, so directing them is fun. It’s really fun. The scenes that are the most challenging are when there’s, like, 15 or 20 characters in the hub and you have a couple of hours a shift, and you need to cover it. It’s really hard not to just make those scenes standard cut, cut, cut, cut. What’s exciting is figuring out ways to keep it continuous so the camera is capturing it, not in cuts. But it’s not easy to do.
My favorite scene, honestly… You know what it was? There’s a scene where Perlah and Emma are over the fax machine working on it, and then Dana comes in. There’s just something about it that I love the feeling of. There’s levity. There are a lot of pops of character within that scene. It’s infused in there. It just happens very naturally and organically.
Before I let you go, Animal Kingdom has been getting a big streaming resurgence, and I was curious about your thoughts on the show finding a second life thanks to streaming and social media.
HATOSY: I’m sure the other actors would agree that we were very proud of the show. It did fine when it was on TNT, but it’s tough because that’s a specific audience who was watching. I will see every kind of young person, old people, every week, they’re into it. The response to Pope has always been something that I’m very proud of because he is so unlikable at the beginning. There’s a visceral reaction. They hate him! They cringe when they see him. But then, by the end, you’re rooting for him.
So, it makes me feel great. I’m thrilled it’s doing so well on the global charts. It did really well this summer domestically. It was in the Top 10 for over a month on Netflix. Now it’s really finding an audience that is remarkable. So hopefully, maybe there are other things to explore there. I’d be into it, for sure.
On a personal level, I’m always going to be ride or die for Southland. I remember watching that show live when it was on primetime, and it’s still, to this day, one of my favorite shows.
HATOSY: Southland, too! Southland just went to Netflix. It was in the Top 10 the first week. It’s really cool.
New episodes of The Pitt Season 2 premiere Thursdays on HBO.