Noah Wyle, showrunner John Wells, and executive producer R. Scott Gemmell said that after ER ended, none of them had any interest in doing another medical drama. When asked why, John Wells said because they already did it really well. Noah said what changed his mind was first responders reaching out during the pandemic saying that they watched ER to keep them inspired while they dealt with the reality of what was going on.
Scott said they made a deliberate choice not to use any musical score to keep the show as realistic as possible. Noah said they wanted the creation of the show to be immersive for everyone involved so the crew wore scrubs to blend in with the actors. John said they shot each episode from beginning to end rather than jumping around in the script (which is pretty unusual). The only scenes not shot in sequence were the exteriors. Everyone was hired for the full 15 episode shoot, including background actors and guest actors (this is also very rare). Episodes are show with two handheld cameras (a third camera was brought later in the season).
The set was designed before the scripts were written, and the floor plan helped determine the action. They had a huge map of the set and they used post it notes to represent the different patients and little tokens to represent each doctor that got moved around. They originally pitched having 12 episodes/12 hours, but Max wanted 15 episodes so Scott said, “We just had to come up with a mass casualty to stretch out the day.” John pointed out that although doctors work 12 hour shifts, it’s not unusual for them to be there for 13-14 hours because they have to hand over their patients, finish their charts, etc.
The moderator asked if it was a coincidence that last week’s episode had a measles case. Noah said they used a crystal ball and asked, “What would happen if we stopped vaccinating?” John and Scott said that they asked doctors and nurses what they were worried about and what people need to know. They said the storyline about Dana being assaulted was due to the reality of it happening so frequently to healthcare workers these days. They also praised Katherine LaNasa and her character.
Supriya Ganesh (Dr. Samira Mohan) was a neuroscience major and premed. She is still working as an MCAT tutor but the students have begun recognizing her from The Pitt. She said her background has helped her a lot in this role, but she still googles things in the script so she can understand what she’s doing/talking about on the show. She thinks one of the reasons that Mohan moves so slowly is she’s afraid to make a mistake and that Abbott can see that she needs to be pushed. The procedure that she did in last week’s episode is real but there’s only one paper that’s been written about it. She loved working with Shawn Hatosy!
more cast interviews
Gerran Howell talks about Whitaker constantly getting doused with bodily fluids, The Wall of Gerran in the show’s hair and makeup trailer, and which character he is when the cast plays Mario Kart
Amielynn Abellera (nurse Perlah) talks about the significance of The Pitt showing two Filipina nurses speaking Tagalog and how important Perlah’s representation is for AAPI and Muslims (Noah Wyle told her that in 15 seasons of ER, there were no Muslim characters).
Shabana Azeez (Dr. Victoria Javadi) says Noah Wyle is really generous and supportive, advising the actors that acting is just one part of their lives. She said if someone on set mentioned something they liked, Noah would turn up with a book about it two weeks later.
