Will history repeat itself?
Shawn Hatosy brought home an Emmy Award as a guest actor as night-shift attending Dr. Jack Abbot for Season 1 of The Pitt; his heart-to-heart with Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) in the season finale of Season 2 couldn’t make a better case for a repeat. After the two doctors work together to save the lives of a mother and newborn, it falls to Abbot to confront his troubled best friend with a desperate plea to get help. “Yes, life can suck. It can be unbearable and brutal and ugly and heartbreaking but it’s also beautiful and hilarious,” he tells Robby. “You’ve got to find somebody to help you dance through the darkness. … I’m still your emergency contact, and I do not want to be contacted.”
“This season has become for Abbot a real chance for him to check in and see that Robby is on a self-destructive path,” Hatosy tells Gold Derby. “And as more information comes to Abbot, he is coming to a point where they have to have it out.”
In a video interview with Gold Derby (watch above), Hatosy reveals why Abbot is more compassionate than Robby, which doctor he’d steal from the day shift for the night shift, and his surprising idea for Season 3 (think Three Men and a Baby).
Gold Derby: How do you feel about Season 2 compared to Season 1?
Shawn Hatosy: I remember in between Season 1 and Season 2, waiting to find out what Abbot was up to, and I got word that he wouldn’t be in the first episode. I was like, “What does that mean? He was in the first episode last season, so where is he?” And then I heard Episode 7, and I thought, “Does this mean Abbot is going to be coming in on a gurney? Is he hurt?” Then they let me know he was moonlighting as a SWAT medic.
Shawn Hatosy and Noah Wyle in Episode 7Warrick Page/HBO Max
And I thought, “Sounds like a guy that’s sitting at home listening to his police scanner. That makes sense.” And then I started to see the scripts, and I was really excited. As we go towards the last three episodes, understanding that that the night shift was coming in and it was going to be a changing of the guards, and we get to meet all of these other characters who are new and working at night, and then to see the patients and the kind of cases that are coming in. I was like, “Yeah, this is cool.”
You also got a chance behind the camera, too, directing Episode 9. What was that like for you?
That was really exciting, and something that I obviously was wanting to do. And having done other shows with John [Wells], my experience as a director was totally tested on the show, because it’s just different. It’s a different kind of animal. We’re in one location. It shoots continuously in order. There’s a lot of characters, and it’s very much procedurally done the show in terms of the medicine and how we attack it. So it was daunting, but totally a thrill getting to work with all of these characters and actors that that I’ve become a fan of.
Sepideh Moafi, Shawn Hatosy, and Noah Wyle in Episode 9
I have started to understand everybody has their own process, and being able to work behind the scenes on that and help guide the ship as best as I could was really cool. I’m obviously an actor who, as a director, is very much tuned in to performance. And that’s kind of my special attribute as a director, and that is something that on this show you can really highlight, because the camera really is going to do what the camera does. It’s not the kind of show, as a director where you spend a lot of time designing shots, it very much follows the action. So as a director, you’re figuring out how to transition from one scene to the next, and how to score the music of the performance.
What was it like directing yourself?
I gave myself a couple more takes. [Laughs] You start to get comfortable in character, and it starts to feel second nature. So that becomes secondary when you’re directing. And thankfully, Abbot was only in the last act. So I had a lot of energy to focus towards those first 40 pages.
Abbot really serves as Robby’s conscience. But these are two damaged guys. What is it that they bring out in each other?
They’re real nice mirrors of each other. Abbot poses this question of I’m not sure why I keep coming back here at the beginning of Season 1, and then by the end, after the mass casualty, his understanding of why he’s there is crystallized. It pushes us into the next chapter of this dynamic with Robby, which is like, I go to therapy, I work on myself, and maybe you should, too.
Noah Wyle and Shawn Hatosy in Episode 9HBO
This season, we see that both of them are on destructive paths, and I think Abbot believes he’s doing the work, and he claims it’s a process, but it’s not totally different from what Robby’s up to. So I don’t know where that’s going to take us. Robby sees in Abbot somebody who is an equal, who he respects, who he trusts, yet they both deal with the staff differently, which is something that I really think is wonderful about the two characters. They are very similar in how they work with medicine, how they understand medicine, how they work around the system that’s kind of screwed up. But this season has become for Abbot a real chance for him to check in and see that Robby is on a self-destructive path. And as more information comes to Abbot, he is coming to a point where they have to have it out.
Indeed. The season ends with their confrontation where he tells him, I’m your emergency contact, and I don’t want to be contacted. Do you think he gets through to him?
I think there are levels of getting through to him. My scene analysis for the episode is it starts with Dr. Mohan [Supriya Ganesh], when she’s talking to him, and he tells the story about his vision of what his future looks like, and then Dana [Katherine LaNasa] talks to him, and then Abbot talks to him.
Dana shares her Robby concerns with AbbotWarrick Page/HBO Max
And Abbot talks to him in a way that nobody else can, because he brings up his own trauma and explains what it means to be here. They are in the scene where the resuscitative hysterotomy happened in trauma one where, I mean, Abbot has been an attending for 20 years, and I don’t know that he’s ever done one of those before. That’s exciting — they do all this training, and suddenly it walks in the door, and you’re like, I can finally do what I’m prepared to do. We’re going to save these people. And there’s something about that feeling of, hey buddy, we get to do this together. We don’t get to do things like this together. It’s very emotional to me to be able to experience that with your best friend. We’re the bees that protect the hive, so all of that coming together in that moment, it is another piece that helps Robby get through. And then we have the Langdon [Patrick Ball] scene, which helps him understand that he’s like a lot of the people that Langdon saw in rehab. And then he’s in there with the baby, and it’s an amalgamation of all these things that brings him back.
That free birth case really felt like such a powerful moment for the two of them to be in there together.
It’s what it represented for the two of them. What’s under that scene is not so much Abbot’s focus on the case as his focus is being turned to what is my friend doing? Is he on his motorcycle? Is he wearing his helmet? And I need him. Not that Abbot probably couldn’t do it himself. I think he could, but he wants Robby there, because he knows how it will affect him.
Having said that, to work with both Noah and John on a scene like this, where it’s just so wonderful to have complete trust in everybody’s process. Having worked with Noah and then John for so long. We shot it all practically, and the baby was built. So there’s just an energy when it’s real, that it feels real. That’s what’s so amazing about The Pitt. It’s incredible.
Laëtitia Hollard, Katherine LaNasa, Shawn Hatosy, Ken Kirby, Gerran HowellWarrick Page/HBO Max
How does that compare for you to other shows that you’ve worked on?
It’s just such a different kind of thing. It has a quality of being on stage, just in the amount of memorization I make sure I have landing in my brain so I don’t have to think about it, whereas on other shows, you can kind of maybe find your way a little bit. It is an incredibly immersive feeling, and that is hard to replicate on other shows because of the style of shooting. You have a lot of freedom to find and not hit marks and make mistakes and just sort of go with it and as an actor, that makes you feel like you’re not an actor. It makes you feel like you’re a doctor, even though I know I’m not a doctor. I’m not qualified. There’s an energy to it that is unlike anything else. It’s like a drug.
I know you’ve teased in other interviews a night-shift spinoff. What would that look like?
We get to start to see it in Episode 14, where you have a new intern come in and Dr. Crus [Henderson, played by Luke Tennie] and Ellis [Ayesha Harris] are there with Shen [Ken Kirby] and they’re this different looking crew that we’re not used to, and they’re dealing with these very specialized kind of cases coming in. There’s an American flag impaled into the man’s chest, and they’re all drunk. So I think that the tone at night is different. And you also get to see the personalities that choose to work at night. Abbot has a different relationship with how he teaches the staff than Robby, which I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s very nice to see the two different sides.
Abbot’s night-shift crew gets the weirder casesWarrick Page/HBO Max
What do you think is Abbot’s style?
I think he might have a little bit more compassion. You see it with Langdon in Episode 14. He quickly comes in and gives him a pat on the back, whereas Robby has demanded that that be earned over this very long shift. Abbot is quick to praise, he does it with Santos in Season 1. She does that crazy procedure, which was very dangerous. And he’s like, “You never should have done that, but good job, you saved them.” With Dr. Mohan, he understands her, she’s very careful in her work, because she is incredibly caring. He doesn’t see that as a problem. He sees that as her superpower, and he trusts her, and he believes in her. It’s not to say that Robby’s way isn’t effective. It’s just that that’s how Abbot works.
What appeals to him about being on the night shift?
Well, his therapist says he finds comfort in the darkness. I also think that he’s a guy who probably doesn’t sleep a lot. So rather than just sitting up in bed, staring at the ceiling. … He’s a guy that is alone in his personal life, and I think he has invested a lot in the people that he works with, and in a big way that is his family. And maybe that’s not the most healthy thing, but that’s what he’s holding on to. He’s a guy who is very comfortable in when things are going wrong at work, and he’s very competent when it comes to that and that is what his purpose is. So he keeps going back there to feel needed, and then if he spent too much time alone. … He’s working SWAT, so who knows what else he could do. It’s like he’s got to find him a way to keep himself busy.
Abbot moonglights with the SWAT teamWarrick Page/HBO Max
If he could steal one doctor from the day shift and bring them to the night shift, who would he take?
That’s a really good question. Well, I think that he would probably choose Dr. Mohan.
What do you think of the news that Dr. Mohan is leaving the show?
I can’t really comment, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on there, but Abbout would obviously be disappointed. I’m disappointed because this dynamic, this relationship that they have, the writers have teased these moments throughout Season 1 and we explored it. But there’s nothing. There’s no there there, really, other than just sort of this idea. So the idea isn’t finished. I think that Supriya’s characterization of Dr. Mohan and what she has brought to it has made the audience love her in a big way. She’s a fan favorite, and I would say that Dr. Abbot is the head of the fan club. Early on, he’s believed in her, and he sees her as the future, and he says that she’s the smartest one here. So that’s why I think he would choose her. I think the power dynamic is obvious. So I don’t see Abbot as somebody who would cross that line. I think that that’s part of what makes the relationship so special, because it’s clear that he’s got that attraction, but there’s nowhere to go with it, but that creates this excitement.
The writers are so good at laying on all those breadcrumbs and having great interactions between such the large ensemble. They give everyone a lot to work with.
I think another character that Abbot really has not been able to work with up until this point is Mel, Dr. King [Taylor Dearden]. I think that those two would really connect. There’s just something about her, and it wasn’t always on the page. It’s kind of what Taylor has created here, and it has turned into this very unique character with a strong point of view. I think that that might be another character that Abbot would really gravitate towards, just because maybe they could talk about Civil War history, and I think Abbot would be down for a reenactment.
It does feel like the writers are definitely writing more to the actors as they’ve gotten to know them better. Do you feel like that’s happening for you?
I certainly feel like that’s something over my long 20-year history with John starts to take shape. There’s parts of you that can’t help but come out. Abbot is a lot like more like me than most characters I’ve ever played. He’s a little off, but he’s got a confidence to him but he’s also super vulnerable at times. And he’s funny, and you know, I’m hilarious, right? And things will happen, like in Episode 14. The guy that comes in with the flag impaled into his chest — when we shot it, they were bickering and it was really, really loud, and we couldn’t hear anything. So by the time we pushed through the doors of Trauma 2, and I knew the camera wasn’t on me. I said, “Sir, we are going to help you. We’re gonna get you medicine, but you need to shut your f–king mouth.” I said it completely out of character as a joke. And then they cut, and everybody laughed, So I think it was still in character, but it was very much me, right? That happens all the time on the show, and I think that’s a good thing. It makes the characters richer and deeper.
Hatosy would like to see a night-shift spin-off of ‘The Pitt’Warrick Page/HBO Max
What have you learned from the experience of making the show?
What I’ve learned is, I think it’s important to have expectations about how a scene might go or how an episode might turn out, and it’s OK to have an idea in your head what you think it might be, but take all of that and then show up at work and then just erase all of those expectations and not plan. I think the best performances come out of reaction to what’s happening in front of you and not what is in your head. That’s been really big for me on this show. I look at how it all kind of happened, and for me, I did’t have the medical training. I came in as a guest star, and I still am a guest star, and I found out just a couple days before that I was going to go be on the show, and I didn’t have a ton of time to do the what we as actors think is so important, all of this prep work and all of this training and understanding of backstory. I just showed up and I looked at what was in front of me, and I accepted it. I accepted what Noah was bringing to this character, and reacted to it. And that has been really successful in this character. So that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned.
How much fun are you having engaging with the fans on social media?
I’ve always enjoyed the healthy interactions. Twitter was just kind of launching when Southland was in Season 1, and then there was some weirdness that happened with Southland, and then there was this groundswell of support that started on Twitter. So that’s what brought me to Twitter. It’s weird being on a show and then putting it out there. With the social media, you can get this instant response of, “Oh, I like that scene. Or this is how I see this character.” It’s very cool to be able to be a part of that when it’s healthy.
And how do you keep it healthy?
Sometimes it just gets a little crazy out there, but it just shows how much fans are really responding to the show. I really, really love the response to this show. I really do. It was all very unexpected that this guy who didn’t even go to college could be a motivating factor for a kid who is trying to figure out if they want to go to nursing school. That to me is just crazy. So I just really appreciate the fans, and particularly the ones say, “Hey, I’m an attending physician in Austin, and I’ve been struggling, and seeing your portrayal of this character really makes me feel seen.” Stuff like that is so awesome.
Noah Wyle and Shawn HatosyWarrick Page/HBO Max
The big revelation in the finale was about Al-Hashimi’s (Sepideh Moafi) seizure disorder and Robby’s reaction to it. How much of that is Abbot aware of?
I don’t think he knows. I think he was there, though, and saw them get into something, which going into our scene, I was wondering if maybe that would be something that he would bring up, but because of Robby’s state and what was at stake for Robby. But there’s definitely going to be some texts tonight [between them], going what was that? What’s going on between you and Dr. Al? Nothing good. That performance was so fantastic, and I really enjoyed Sepi’s portrayal and how it shaped from the beginning until where we see her at the end. That kind of arc is very good. And she really, really landed the plane.
If you could whisper in the writers’ room, is there one thing you would want to see for Season 3 for you, for Abbot, for any of the characters?
I would love to see Abbot come to this place of maybe challenge from Robby. You think you’re fixing yourself, but you’re not. Maybe if there are more cracks there for Abbot that start to show up on shift that Robby gets to maybe walk him off again, that would be kind of cool.
And is Robby going to wear a helmet?
I don’t think he’s leaving now, do you? I think he’s staying with the baby. That would be a good Season 3. That’s what I would whisper to the writers. Let’s start in Robby’s bachelor pad. Whitaker’s there and they’re putting together a crib, because they’ve taken the baby, and it’s going to be Whitaker, Robby and a baby.
And Abbot’s running the ED.
No. Abbot’s outside doing nude yoga.
