Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Pitt” Season 2, Episode 9.
Shawn Hatosy pulled double-duty in “The Pitt” this week — taking the director’s chair for the first time on the HBO Max medical drama while also starring in some of its biggest scenes.
Dr. Abbott’s return to The Pitt had been hotly anticipated and after only a few episodes, he’s already mired in a big case as the hospital faces another seismic event. Hatosy felt added pressure alongside his Season 2 return when he started directing Episode 9 just days after the HBO Max series won the best drama series Emmy.
“There’s just this immense pressure, like ‘Oh, I’m driving now.,’ ” Hatosy told TheWrap.
While the back half of “The Pitt” Season 1 was rocked with dealing with the PittFest mass casualty event, things are getting hectic in a different way in Season 2 as the computers that keep the hospital humming are shut down amidst the possibility of a cyber attack. Things are going analog in the hospital and those effects are starting to strain the younger doctors on staff. Things are as chaotic as ever but as the director, Hatosy wanted to make sure to capture a different kind of chaos than was seen following PittFest in Season 1.
Below, Hatosy tells TheWrap about directing Episode 9, the unconventional scene that “terrified” him the most, and whether fans should be reading in to Abbott and Dr. Al-Hashimi’s chemistry.
You’ve directed on shows like “Animal Kingdom” and “Rescue: HI-Surf.” How did your experience there prep you for shooting the organized chaos of “The Pitt?”
Every other show that you work on as a director, you just have to take that and throw it out the door. I’m learning a lot of what you’re doing as a director of episodic television, a lot of the decisions you’re making are happening in that pre-production week leading up to it. There are so many decisions that you have to carve down into one thoughtful location, or we’re going to shoot this drone shot when the sun is setting. So it’s like you’re creating a schedule based on these decisions, these locations, all of this stuff, which on “The Pitt” is just not a factor.
With this kind of show, which we sort of find in the moment, is so spontaneous that preparation is not really something that you can do. So that’s to say, my previous directing experience was not helpful because “The Pitt” is its own beast.
Although the cyber attack began a couple episodes back, Episode 9 is the first where the chaos of the systems being down is really felt. How did you want to distinguish the chaos happening in the main room here vs. the chaos felt following the PittFest shooting last season? It’s a different kind of hectic.
First off with the production design and the clutter of the space. I thought it was nice that we were able to put that big portable X-ray device in Dana’s workstation, which I loved irritating her with. She’s the mom of the place, so as we get into her stuff, it irritates her further. Then there’s that big board, all of a sudden, is in the middle of the scene, which is usually very clear. I loved that board because it gave us an opportunity to shoot around it and create frames within frames that aren’t there normally. That was sort of what I was thinking about — how can I make this day harder for these people who are so used to working with the technology.
Also, the background actors on this show. They’re just the best. They work so hard. They’re all creating their own little stories, and so they really help us with that chaos.
You had to have enjoyed getting the honor of shooting the first classic Fourth of July injury of Boy Blows Up Hand with Firework. Looked like you wanted to go as gory as possible?
It was really cool. This was a part of the show that we were able to use visual effects for, for that particular wound. We don’t do a lot of that, but because it moved and because it was on a younger actor, we just wanted to make sure we could get it right. On this show we never shy away from the reality. That’s kind of the core of where we operate from. So the people who do this professionally were like, “This is what it should look like.”
You find out later that the parents of the boy who blew up his hand, and his sister, were deported. What advice or guidance did you give while shooting those scenes?
It’s going around in our world, and so in the present right now. It wasn’t hard to make that feel lived in, because it’s just right in our face. But it is a little bit of a pump fake, because we think it’s really the story about a kid who lost his fingers and what that family looks like. But it really becomes the emotional toll that this young girl, who is caring for her brother because their parents were deported, and what that looks like and how hard it is. I’m glad we were able to tackle it in a way that shines a light.
The most impressive and effective scene of the episode is Howard’s conversation with his estranged sister before his procedure. Howard is using a machine to speak for him and his sister is talking via FaceTime. How was directing that scene where one actor isn’t physically there and the other is talking through a device and still getting the emotional beats to land?
That scene terrified me because of the elements that you just described. We were using the FaceTime on a regular iPhone, and I thought, well, maybe because our only coverage of the sister is on that, maybe we should use an iPad so we can really get in there. They were adamant that Scott (Gemmill) and the team of writers just wanted it to be this way, and that made me nervous. But then I remembered all those videos we saw during COVID of people saying goodbye and I was like, “You know what this is. This happens.”
Also, I was in that scene and it’s the only scene I have that was outside the set. So I’m not going to lie, I was a little scared.
Despite being busy directing the episode, Abbott does have a moment with Robby finally, toward the end of the hour. What does Abbott really think about Robby’s sabbatical trip?
When I was talking to Cynthia [Adarkwa], the writer, and Noah, there was a lot of discussion about what he’s up to leading up to this moment, it’s that time of day — 3 pm — so that moment with Abbott is the beginning of his goodbyes, and it’s sort of the moment that he realizes, ‘Oh yes, I have got to start saying goodbye,’ which then leads him into Whitaker and that scene.
I think Abbott understands more than anybody Robby’s point of view, especially coming off of Season 1. As they come to the end of that, Abbott is trying to articulate how important it is for Robby to try to get some help. Season 2 becomes about the consequences of him not doing that, and I think Abbott realizes that’s what’s going on.
I do think Abbott believes Robby needs some time away. But his decision to do what he’s doing is not necessarily making Abbott, as his close friend and colleague, feel too comfortable.
With the exception of Dana, Abbott is the person who can speak most candidly to Robby. Despite that, he still seems like he might be holding back some of what he really wants to say before heading out again. Or do you think he got it all off his chest?
I don’t think, as our story unfolds, Abbott understands how dark Robby really is in that moment. So as it stands, this is goodbye.
While a lot of fans were excited about your shirtless scene and chat with Dr. Mohan, others were clocking some chemistry between Abbott and Dr. Al-Hashimi. Were they right to catch that vibe?
With Al-Hashimi, there’s a couple of little things there. I think he does see somebody that’s very, very similar to him, that has world experience. So, I don’t know where it’s going to take us.
“The Pitt” releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
