Supriya Ganesh is getting candid about leaving The Pitt — and the online reaction that followed.
“I tried to take a step away, because it’s just been so surreal,” Ganesh, 28, told Variety in an interview published on Sunday, May 10, of the reaction. “The day that news broke, I saw my name was trending on Twitter, and I was like, ‘Gotta put the phone down and go outside.’ So, I haven’t really been keeping track of it, to be honest, but I’ve been getting such sweet, lovely messages from people, and I’ve honestly just been surprised at how much people love the character and saw so much of themselves in her, and that’s what I’m going to miss.”
Ganesh, who couldn’t confirm any future projects yet, shared that there are a “couple of things in the pipeline.”
News broke in April that Ganesh’s character, Dr. Samira Mohan, would be written off after the emotional season 2 finale. At the time, it was reported that Ganesh’s exit was a “story-driven” choice, since the show is set in a teaching hospital.
While speaking with JoySauce later that month, Ganesh was asked where Mohan might end up in the future.
“I hope [Samira] goes somewhere where she has an attending that thinks she’s fit to be in the ER,” Ganesh said at the time, suggesting that Mohan be paired up with Sepideh Moafi’s character. “Maybe if Dr. Al-Hashimi takes over. It’s been really interesting thinking about how different her experience of the ER might have been if she had a different attending.”
That same month, Ganesh spoke out about experiencing “discrimination” as an actor and opened up about gender dysphoria in an essay with Vulture. Now, Ganesh shared that the piece led to people reaching out and has resulted in a “validating” experience.
“It’s definitely a scary thing to put out there, because it’s such a complex experience and something that’s so personal that I remember when I was writing it, I like, ‘I don’t know if anyone’s going to get this. But that’s OK, because even if one person gets it, like, I’m writing for that person,’” Ganesh told Variety on Sunday. “I get DMs from people being like, ‘I’m taking your essay to my queer theory class and discussing it in class tomorrow.’ That’s just so surreal to me, because I remember being in women’s and gender studies classes, and discussing and debating ideas. It’s just great that it’s part of the conversation.”
