There’s been a lot of renewed interest in Noah Wyle lately. It makes sense, following his command (and likely award-winning) performance on “The Pitt,” but appearances on Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Hudson, as well as unhinged fancams, have made it seem like Wyle-fever may be sweeping the nation (perhaps a good subplot for Season 2).
To be fair, it’s all well-deserved and Wyle has been an excellent steward of the series. Moreover, he’s spent most of his career highlighting the vital importance of emergency medicine and the doctors who perform it; a mitzvah in and of itself. But in translating the realities of this space, Wyle has brought another beautiful aspect to the fore of all that “Pitt” talk: a platform to showcase young talent.
“My dad told me years ago that the key to longevity in this business is figuring out how to work with young people,” said Wyle during a recent conversation with SAG-AFTRA Foundation, “and don’t be the guy that says, ‘You know what we should do or you know what we used to do?’”
Come awards season, we hope voters heed Wyle’s advice and don’t forget the young people either. As such, IndieWire would like to remind them of some of the more unsung heroes of “The Pitt,” a group we’ll lovingly refer to as “the first-dayers.”
Though Wyle’s Dr. Robby is the first character we’re introduced to and the last one we see, the initial structure provided to Season 1 centers on it being the first day of a new rotation for Drs. Mel King (Taylor Dearden) and Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) and medical students Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez). And, oh, what a day it’s about to be for them.
In the finale, Dr. Jack Abbot (guest star Shawn Hatosy) calls it a “baptism by fire.” This coming from a combat veteran. Perhaps the greater irony is that, for these four actors, such a framing would be apt in describing their own experience of bringing this series to life.
“It was completely new for me,” said Howell during a recent interview with IndieWire. Though he’s performed on camera since he was 14, the Welsh actor admitted “The Pitt” was unlike anything he’d undertaken previously. And that was before he even knew where the first season would lead. “I haven’t done that much American TV work than what I originally thought was just a hospital procedural. It’s obviously so much more than that,” he continued.
In this sense, Howell felt there were “mirrors” between himself and his character, as both were relatively trained and prepared individuals given the chance to throw themselves into a new fast-paced environment. “I felt very lucky to be playing a med student because it gave me a lot of leeway to be like, ‘Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m doing, so maybe it kind of works for the character,’” he said.
For Briones, embracing Santos meant tapping into a completely new side of herself that initially felt foreign. Of her character’s much-talked-about brashness, she told IndieWire, “She’s showing up and she’s being confident because that’s her way of cooking and that feels so different than me because I’m like, ‘Oh I don’t know anything, so I’m just gonna be quiet.’”
Like Howell, Briones has grown up in the acting profession and often found herself “being the youngest person in the room,” causing her to “shrink” around others and question herself even though she continued to rack up credits. Thankfully, “The Pitt” has helped adjust her outlook.
“Going into this process,” said Briones, “and people saying, ‘No, you have a lot of experience,’ was kind of a nice moment to be like, ‘Why do we keep telling ourselves that we know nothing and you have to reach a certain age before you can take up space or be confident?’”
It’s a good question.
Earlier this year, a number of think-pieces revolving around why members of Gen-Z were getting fired so quickly began to circulate. Fortune, U.S. News, and even Vice angled it as an issue only on the side of young folk and offered advice for correction, never once positing that their superiors might benefit from adjustment as well.
In contrast, “The Pitt” seems to embrace the fallibility of the emergency department’s long-haulers, while also highlighting the value of having newcomers around to fill in the gaps. Not just in the grand scheme with plot points like Santos discovering her boss’ drug abuse, but in little moments, like Javadi realizing to correct the use of a dead-name in a medical file when her resident did not.
“There’s so much going on that [Dr. McKay], who’s like the empathetic one, hasn’t even noticed and learned something from Javadi in that moment,” Azeez told IndieWire in recalling the scene. “Those soft skills are really important. It’s really interesting that that’s what the audience is learning from the show as well.”
Azeez also feels that this empowerment of young professionals isn’t narrative-exclusive. At one point during production, she let slip to Wyle that she wanted to direct one day and he insisted she learn about all the production departments while on the job. “He bought me two books on directing in a week,” she said. “Gave me a bunch of advice, talks to me about it. It’s so supportive.”
At the same time, “The Pitt,” like many workplaces, wasn’t always easy to balance for everyone. “I had a lot of trouble adapting,” said Dearden, who had years of experience going into the series, but wasn’t accustomed to how fast the pace would be between learning lines and choreography, then being expected to perform it seamlessly. The type of character she was inhabiting was also not really her style.
Dearden explained that she “would normally go out for Santos,” but instead was handpicked to play fan favorite Mel King. Executive Producer John Wells and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill were seeking to make Dr. King neurodivergent and, considering Dearden has ADHD herself, she was able to infuse some of her own quirks and habits into the role.
Despite this ability to translate a piece of her identity into the character, Dearden still feels odd watching her performance now. “It definitely is stranger to see myself as Mel because it’s not really what I see myself doing usually,” said Dearden. “I didn’t know my face could look like that.”
But one thing she did really relate to with King was the need they both shared to separate from the work whenever possible. Though the “first-dayers” would all hang out initially, Dearden eventually found it difficult to want to do anything other than sleep after shooting scenes all day. It ultimately led her to realize that this process was likely “harder” for her due to her ADHD.
Nonetheless, she still looks forward to another crazy day in Season 2, as the environment of the production has made her comfortable enough to speak up when something isn’t going right; a rarity in many work cultures. “It kind of excites me to actually have the ability to go, ‘This didn’t work last time for me, so I’ll talk about how it could work better next time.’ I know my boundaries now,” Dearden added.
Creating this environment takes not only compassion, but a mutual respect from co-workers who may have much more experience compared to their younger counterparts. Just as those young professionals should be working to learn from those above, those at the top should also be working to adapt to new ways of thinking. This was how Wyle behaved and it went far in getting the most out of his co-workers.
“We’re all just learning,” said Briones. “Even Noah, when he’s there, he’s always writing in his journal and he’s asking us about art that we liked and talking about movies and he’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, I never thought about that before, you learn something new every day.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, someone who is at the top of their game like him can be still learning day by day.’”
Having Wyle to point to and seek for guidance also had echoes on why the dynamics between each character felt so authentic and lived-in. When Robby has his breakdown toward the end of the season, it’s not Abbot or Nurse Evans (Katherine LaNasa) pulling him out of it and getting him back in the game, but rat-killing, stain-prone newbie Whitaker. This could have very easily come off as contrived, but the impact we’ve seen Robby have on his students over the course of only a day makes it feel natural that Whitaker would be able to relay some of the lessons he shared back.
“Another mirroring, I suppose,” said Howell of Wyle’s ability to make space for others like Robby does, “he’s a mentor for all of us as cast, and we really followed his lead. He really set the tone, and that works so well as a bunch of sort of wide-eyed interns looking for someone to take them through this experience. I felt it all really came naturally to all of us.”
“The Pitt” is not only unique for portraying young professionals to be competent and capable of growth, but framing positive mentorship as a necessity, not a luxury. And that goes far beyond what we see on the small screen.
All episodes of “The Pitt” Season 1 are now streaming on Max.
