Noah Wyle on the authenticity of 'The Pitt' and what makes it successful

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: The new medical drama “The Pitt,” streaming on Max, has its season finale this Thursday.

The show tackles urgent issues, like the impact of gun violence, hospital staffing shortages, and the lasting effects of the pandemic, earning praise from both audiences and critics for its raw, realistic portrayal of life inside American hospitals.

I spoke with Noah Wyle, who executive produces and stars in “The Pitt,” for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Noah Wyle, welcome to the “News Hour.”

Noah Wyle, Actor/Writer/Executive Producer: Thank you very much for having me.

Geoff Bennett: “The Pitt” plays out over the course of a single shift inside the emergency department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, with each episode representing a single hour on the job.

What’s remarkable about this show is nearly every moment plays out on the E.R. floor, and that format really adds to the urgency. What was the creative intention behind that approach?

Noah Wyle: To give that exact desired effect. We wanted to come up with a device that felt intimate and created a sense of tension, analogous to doing kind of a ride-along with a police officer in the back seat of a cruiser or being embedded with a combat unit as a journalist.

Actress: What’s going on?

Actor: We were discussing the options for treating your son.

Actress: He already looks better.

Noah Wyle: He is not. And by refusing the spinal tap, we don’t know how to help him.

You can turn your head, but you can’t really leave. And you’re going to be sort of stuck witnessing everything in real time while these practitioners go about their duties and get a sense of the aggregate toll that a day can take on a practitioner and, extrapolate that over decades, a career can take.

Geoff Bennett: I understand it was during the pandemic where, as you described it, you were feeling pretty useless, that you decided to embark upon this project. Is that right? Tell me about that.

Noah Wyle: I wasn’t working. Nobody was working. And I get a lot of my sense of balance from going to work every day and being creative and working with creative people and telling stories.

And I didn’t realize how much I really needed that until I didn’t have an opportunity to do it. And at that same time, I was getting a lot of attention or mail from first responders who were thanking me for inspiring them to go into a career in medicine or thanking me for continually keeping them inspired.

And I was sort of overwhelmed by that. I was sort of overwhelmed by old work having resonance and poignancy in a way that I didn’t feel like I was able to contribute anymore. And so I thought maybe there’s another story to tell here that’s more contemporary that reflects what these guys are going through now. And that began the conversation that got us where we are here.

Geoff Bennett: Is it true that you shoot “The Pitt” hundreds of feet away from where you shot “E.R.” on the same Warner Bros. lot?

Noah Wyle: It feels like farther than 100 feet. It feels like a million miles and a million years and about 25 pounds.

(Laughter)

Noah Wyle: But, yes, geographically, it couldn’t be closer.

Geoff Bennett: How does the experience of filming the first season of “The Pitt” compare to filming the first season of “E.R.”?

Noah Wyle: Well, the difference is, I’m not 22 anymore doing this for the first time. I’m 53 doing it for another time. And I’m watching all these young performers come in and have their John Carter experience. And it’s been amazing. It’s been amazing to just have the perspective of longevity and to be able to be a resource to them.

Actress: Yellow. We’re good.

Actress: How did you do that?

Noah Wyle: Bubble intubation. You gave the compression. I followed the air bubbles. More than one way to tube a cat.

But mostly just be kind of a good team leader, cheerleader, player-coach and friend and collaborator.

This place will break your heart. But it is also full of miracles, and that is a testament to all of you coming together and doing what we do best.

Geoff Bennett: The character you portray on “The Pitt,” Dr. Robby, he is really the calm, steady, empathetic center of chaos, even as he battles his own internal struggles.

How do you go about crafting that character and ensuring that the depth really comes through?

Noah Wyle: Well, this is a different animal entirely than usually a normal working experience. Telling a story in real time and shooting in real time and shooting in real time affords you a lot of interesting opportunities.

Oftentimes, you’re shooting out of sequence and you have to remember where you were and where you want to be in a certain moment. Shooting in sequence allows every moment to build on each other. Big open set, no marks on the floor, two cameras, no dolly, no dolly track, no lights, no flags, no C-stands.

Everything is preset. So we come in and we rehearse and then we shoot and we have a freedom to move that I have never experienced before working with a camera. So it feels more like doing a play. It feels very live.

On “E.R.,” it was a very egalitarian set. There was no foreground, background, cast, crew. We were just a sense of company trying to go and do really good hard work. And that’s what I wanted to build this time around too. And I think we were really successful on that front.

Geoff Bennett: And the thing that sets “The Pitt” apart from other medical dramas is the way medicine is practiced on the show. I mean, the authenticity is unmatched.

How do you go about scripting a show like this?

Noah Wyle: Well, we’re in the process of writing season two now. And the process begins with a lot of interviews, talking to experts from every vector of the health care system.

We talk to people that specifically help practitioners get back their medical degrees after they have gone on a road of recovery for a drug and alcohol substance abuse problem. We have talked to people that deal in human trafficking, people that deal with ICE and immigration and how that’s going to affect emergency rooms, which are no longer considered safe spaces, sanctuary spaces.

And the last question we ask of these people is, what do you want to see on TV? What’s not on TV that needs to be, from your perspective? And we write all the talky-talky stuff, and then we give it to the doctors and say, how would this work? And then they write all the technical mumbo jumbo and what the procedures are and who would be doing what. And we take that and marry it together and somehow end up with a show.

Geoff Bennett: What do you think it says about the times in which we live that “The Pitt” is finding so much success almost entirely by word of mouth?

Noah Wyle: Well, it’s funny. I’m in New York right now, and I went to go see George Clooney in ‘Good Night, and Good Luck” last night. And I got a chance to see him afterwards. And he was being very congratulatory about my show and I was being very congratulatory about his show.

And we both acknowledge that, if the election had gone the other way, we would be in very different shows. Right now, “The Pitt” is standing out as almost a lighthouse, reminding everybody of the hard work that these experts and practitioners are doing, reminding of the heroism of these everyday walk of life individuals who work in the service industry.

Let me go check on triage.

Actor: We will save a spot for you.

Actress: A wheelchair.

Noah Wyle: Hey, Ahmad, what number are we up to?

Actor: Eighty-five patients so far.

Noah Wyle: Similarly, George is doing a show about Edward R. Murrow and the speeches that he’s making. Couldn’t feel more contemporary, relevant today. And him standing there center stage and delivering it to an American audience eight times a week is an act of protest.

Sometimes, stars align to reframe what you’re doing in a totally different context than what you even imagined it would be. I think that everybody’s feeling a sense of hopelessness and feeling really scared. And it seems like things that we used to be able to rely on are crumbling before our very eyes.

And then you turn on a show like “The Pitt” and you go, oh, OK, well, at least there’s still smart people out there who are dedicated that are helping those who can’t help themselves or finding that it’s really hard to get resources available to them.

Geoff Bennett: Noah Wyle is the star and executive producer of “The Pitt” streaming now on Max.

Thanks so much for your time.

Noah Wyle: Entirely my pleasure. Thank you.