Instead of giving its doctors and nurses several seasons to evolve, the second season of “The Pitt” jumped 10 months into the future. This allowed the actors the unusual opportunity to explore new facets of their characters. For Shawn Hatosy, Gerran Howell and Patrick Ball, each nominated for an Emmy for supporting actor in a drama series, that meant very different performances.

At the end of Season 1, Ball’s Dr. Frank Langdon was forced to depart the hospital after Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) discovered his drug addiction. Season 2, set on the Fourth of July, marks his first day back after rehab.

“It was a great dramatic problem for me,” Ball says, speaking with Howell and Hatosy over Zoom from Los Angeles. “He’s been out of the Pitt and going through this profound spiritual transition and hasn’t seen anyone for 10 months. He has to come back and reestablish these relationships. He realizes over the course of the season that, actually, everybody here has changed.”

Hatosy, who plays night-shift attending Dr. Jack Abbot, remembers getting a call from [creator] R. Scott Gemmill about Episode 7 and worrying that his character might be in peril. Instead, Gemmill outlined a storyline that revealed Abbot’s work as a SWAT medic.

“It’s not too different than Robby’s self-diagnosis of taking a motorcycle journey across the country without a helmet,” Hatosy says. “Abbot is seemingly doing this work, but there’s a lot of red flags there. I started the first episode [of the show] on the roof, literally about to jump, so I’m never sure when he’s going to come in and not make it.”

Being part of “The Pitt” has helped Hatosy let go of the need to know everything about his character or the story ahead of time. “There is something incredibly freeing about not knowing and being present,” he says. “I’ve given up asking because I don’t really want to know. Instead, I accept it and go with the flow.” [More at Source]