‘The Pitt’ Cast & Crew Discuss How They Make It So Realistic

The cast and creators of the new hit Max series “The Pitt” spoke at a recent press day at Warner Bros.  

“Extra’s” Melvin Robert moderated the panel, which included executive producer and director John Wells, executive producer and star Noah Wyle, and creator, showrunner, and executive producer R. Scott Gemmill.  

They were also joined by series regulars Gerran Howell, Taylor Dearden, Supriya Ganesh, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Fiona Dourif, Isa Briones, and Shabana Azeez.  

Melvin and the cast and crew discussed how the show is getting praise from many in the medical community for how realistic it is. “The Pitt” is different from other medical dramas, as it doesn’t go home with any of the characters and everything takes place in a day in the ER.

Gemmill shared, “When you go to the ER, you don’t know those doctors. And the fact about ER doctors is they don’t follow up with patients… They’re on to the next case. So I think that also speaks to the reality of that. And it comes with challenges in terms of how do you tell a… character’s storyline over 15 hours when you only have 15 hours to get to know them?”

Melvin said, “I observed it and experienced it when I was watching back — the way you crafted this story as well, because there are things you're doing here that I think you could be doing if you were on traditional broadcast TV.”

Wells commented, “Well, part of it was we're able to actually show what these incredible physicians and nurses do all day long. So cumulatively, you realize this is what they do. We're showing you exactly. We're trying to make it feel as if you're right on the shoulder of someone. It's the version of a ride-along but with emergency room personnel.”

He added, “And I think what we're trying to do is to gain more respect in the public. Like when you're sitting in an emergency room waiting room for eight hours and you don't understand, you don't understand why you're still there, why can't this be better? We're trying to say this is what these people are doing back there. We're trying to give you that sense. And we can do that on streaming because we can show the procedures. There's a tremendous amount of medical nudity in it, but none of it is salacious. It's just, here are these people who are dealing all day long with these very traumatic experiences… They really are heroes, what they do every day, and the difference they make in our lives.”

A question asked by the press in attendance was, “Where do you get your ideas for the medical emergencies?”

Wyle answered, “The show has a secret weapon named Dr. Joe Sachs, who is a technical adviser and producer and writer for our show who's still a practicing ER doctor. And he goes into what he calls his tickle trunk and pulls out cases and really great ideas. And he's never run dry.”

Wells went on, “And we have three other physicians who rotate on the set full time. And I don't know what is it now, eight full-time nursing professional ER nurses who are there at all times? So, you know, we get a lot of input from the medical community and make certain we're really keeping it authentic to what the experience really is.”

John also talked about bringing production back to Los Angeles, as “The Pitt” is filmed in Burbank on the WB lot.

“It takes organization,” he said. “The show is designed to shoot on a single stage, and so we're able to do our show in a much more efficient fashion. But it also is a terrific production group. There are great crews in Los Angeles. We have some support from the California film initiatives, the credits, which is helpful, but it's mostly because it's written well and managed well. And the aspirations for the show are not the scale of what, it's on a human scale rather than on world building. And that's a huge part of what sort of forced shows into other places.”

He added, “I think there needs to be more shows coming back to Los Angeles. We have great, great crews. It's very possible to do it efficiently and we just have to turn our attentions back to more human stories.”