Patrick Ball is opening up about The Pitt alongside Paul Anthony Kelly.
The 36-year-old actor and the 37-year-old Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette actor discussed their respective hit shows as part of Variety‘s Actors & Actors series.
During the conversation, Paul spoke about his role as John F. Kennedy, and the two discussed nearly giving up after years of auditions.
Patrick also spoke about the finale of The Pitt, what’s coming next, and fan theories and discussion online.
Paul on his role as John F. Kennedy Jr. in “Love Story”:
I had three weeks to prepare from when I was hired, which was not a lot of time. But Ryan Murphy and his team took all the thinking away. Once they hired me, they got me a dialect coach because I’m Canadian — I have a totally different speech pattern to John F. Kennedy Jr. I had to learn everything about him — the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he walks. It was so cool to put the blinders on and focus a thousand percent on one thing. I’d never had that experience of breathing life into an idea; I just wanted him to be a regular guy.
On almost giving up after years of auditions:
Paul: It was 13 years of auditioning. A lot of noes, some close-to things, never really locking it in. I was thinking about giving it up, and then this opportunity came.
Patrick: What did that 13 years look like?
Paul: A lot of auditions, a lot of silence. I always knew this was what I wanted to do. I knew that if I stuck it out, eventually something would hit. But after about 13 years, you’re like, “Maybe this isn’t for me.”
On the finale of “The Pitt” and if he knows what is coming next:
Patrick: We don’t get any information. So now that I saw the finale and thought it was amazing, I’m left hanging on the same cliff as everybody else. I have no idea what happens with Baby Jane Doe. Does Robby adopt Baby Jane Doe? That would go against a lot of the advice that he has given to Whitaker early in the year.
Paul: Does he take his own advice though? He rides a motorcycle without a helmet, as a doctor.
Patrick: He doesn’t make a habit of taking his own advice.
Patrick on working with Noah Wyle:
He’s an incredible mentor — I want to say quarterback, but he’s more like a player-coach. In Season 1, he was the guy surrounded by a bunch of us that were completely new to this. I showed up Season 1 not knowing how to read a call sheet. And he has been so patient and so generous, offering all of us advice and guidance through this incredible moment.
Patrick on having an ER nurse mother and a paramedic father and their take on The Pitt:
They love it. I happened to be with my parents when I got asked to come to L.A. and do the screen test, and I got to read through some of the pilot episode with them. The first thing they said was “Oh, this medicine checks out. This is real medicine.” And they haven’t always felt that way: Oftentimes in hospital dramas, the demands of entertainment take precedence over the authenticity of medicine.
Paul on living a normal life outside of being an actor:
Where I live, it allows me just to be home and regular. We’re in the Pacific Northwest. It’s just my wife and our new child — she’s like four months. It’s nice to be able to focus on family.
Patrick on the online fan interactions and show theories:
It’s been a journey for me. Coming out of Season 1, there was a lot of temptation to engage. People are paying attention for the first time, and they have all of these spinoff theories — I want to engage and have fun. And then as that public swell continued to grow, it got intense. I realized the necessity of boundaries and putting up walls and maintaining privacy. It can get really scary out there.
Paul on the initial backlash from early photos of him as John F. Kennedy Jr.:
When we started filming, we did a screen test to see the coloring; those images were released, and there was a little bit of backlash over it. But that was kind of a good thing because it then showed how much people care about these two individuals. It tightened the grip on us to get it right.
On Patrick being exclusively a theater kid prior to starring in “The Pitt”:
Patrick: I did theater almost exclusively for about 15 years, traveling across the country, doing regional theater and learning how to tell a story with an audience. It took until about a year and a half ago, when The Pitt came along, to get my first swing at television.
Paul: What was it like for you when you got it?
Patrick: It was a series of panic attacks for a while. The first time walking onto the Warner Bros. lot — they have these little plaques on the side of each soundstage that tell you all the historic things that have been filmed on that set. I walk onto the set and see that On the Waterfront and Giant were shot here.
Paul: Cool.
Patrick: It took about three weeks for me to breathe. And then, as I’m sure you know, after three weeks, it just becomes the place that you work.
Click here to watch their full discussion, and read the feature here.
An actor on The Pitt recently addressed being written out of the show.
Posted To:Love Story Patrick Ball Paul Anthony Kelly The Pitt
