Written by Emma Duchesneau
R. Scott Gemmill’s medical drama The Pitt swept last awards season, bringing home 5 Primetime Emmys including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Casting. What sets this show apart from other medical dramas is that each season follows a 15-hour shift at an ER in Pittsburgh, resulting in 15 hours of high-stakes, action-packed quality television. The cast works as a collaborative unit, and the structure of the episodes resembles that of theatre, with each actor performing their tasks simultaneously while the camera strategically ebbs in and out of storylines. The gifted ensemble is the heart of the show and keeps audiences coming back for more.
The Institute is proud to see its alumni among this talented cast. You may have seen alumna Shani Atias in the first season as Laura Fisher, the overbearing boss and possible trafficker. John Getz, who starred in the LSTFI-produced short film “Hawaii”, appeared in the second season as Lloyd Wilkins, the father of Roxie, the young mom with cancer.
Other appearances from Season 2 include NYU Tisch at Strasberg alumnus Eric Easter and LSTFI instructor Dylan Mooney. Viewers can catch Easter in Episode 9 as Kenny Bell, an assistant X-ray technician, and Mooney in Episodes 7 and 8 as Charles Davis, the father of the college student who had to be sedated. Both actors were able to share more about their experience working on The Pitt.
Easter’s Early Training
Eric Easter’s artistic journey began in Washington D.C., where he discovered his love for the stage through children’s ballet. “We were basically just emoting on stage, and like hopping around, but I had the time of my life,” Easter explained. His passion for storytelling evolved as he discovered musical theatre and dove deeper into training at his high school, Duke Ellington School of the Arts. While this provided him with a solid blueprint, he always dreamed of attending a school like NYU to further his craft.
During his time at NYU, Easter trained at LSTFI, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, and the Atlantic Acting School, but he felt the Institute was where he best developed his emotional range. “I think the Institute was a beautiful foundation for me, it helped me really tap into my emotions.”
One of his first memories at the Institute was with Method Acting instructor Tim Crouse. Easter recalls, “he’s able to describe the Method in a way that feels very palatable and is open to any and every question, and it just felt like pure play.”
From Stage to Screen
After graduation, Easter continued to audition and was a part of an off-Broadway play, Sulfur Bottom, at the Theater Center. While working on this production, he received an audition for The Pitt.
He describes the challenge of auditioning for a show like The Pitt: you receive a page of context, but only have one line to embody what is happening in the scene. Easter believes the success for him was all about making a choice. He also mentions a note from Noah Wiley, the show’s lead actor and executive producer, that was attached from casting, which talked about leaving your ego at the door. “This show is very community based. It goes back to the whole idea of being a part of something greater than yourself,” Easter added.
Easter was ecstatic when he learned he landed the part, especially after noting that a role like this receives thousands of submissions. The Pitt would also be his first professional job on screen.
A Doctorate in Acting
As Easter prepared to scrub in and become Kenny Bell, the X-ray technician, he felt confident knowing this opportunity was not based on luck, but rather his hard work and NYU training.
When Easter arrived on set, he was able to observe since he didn’t have any lines that day. It was his first time being on the Warner Bros’ lot, and seeing a trailer with his name on it was a surreal moment. He felt comforted knowing he had a friend on set, Laetita Hollard (Nurse Emma Nolan), who took him for In-N-Out before filming began and helped him settle in.
Due to the nature of the show, all cast members do background work at some point, fostering a stronger sense of community on set. Easter also notes that the set is a phone and sides-free environment.
Embodying Kenny Bell
The Pitt is unique in its execution because of its attention to detail. The series strives to be as medically accurate as possible, and actors playing medical experts undergo training so they look like they know what they’re doing.
For his appearance in Episode 9, Easter went through extensive training with a medical specialist to make his performance an X-ray technician realistic. “I spent an hour with the person from the company that owns the X-ray machine. She talked to me for an entire hour about how to work the machine and make it look authentic. I learned how to flip through the X-rays and the files, lift it up and down, and move it around the hospital,” Easter explained.
When it came time to film his scene with the series regulars, he felt prepared since he’d spent the last day observing the process. The set operated “just like a machine,” he described, “at the end of the day, it’s like, you were a very small cog and a very large machine.” In his scene, Easter snaps at Noah Wiley’s character, which he described as “very funny” since Wiley was “the big boss on set.”
Celebrating Your Wins
When speaking to Easter about his experience, his gratitude shone through. He underlined the importance of celebrating every moment, because it’s not a “normal experience to be on TV,” and recognizing the hard work and training that got him to where he is today.
“I just feel really grateful to my manager for helping me through that whole process, and for everybody on set being so welcoming to me,” Easter shares. “For that being my first job, I feel like I can take over the world now.”
Mooney Before the Institute
Dylan Mooney currently teaches the Business of Acting at the Institute’s Los Angeles campus, but professor is just one of Mooney’s many titles. The actor, producer, and educator had a non-linear start, first training to play basketball for most of his life. Once he got to college, however, he realized that he felt unfulfilled by basketball. Ultimately, he gave up his scholarship at Holy Names University in pursuit of a degree in theater arts and dance from Cal State LA.
Mooney began auditioning for professional jobs and, eventually, booked his first co-star on a show called Brothers & Sisters. There, he met one of his best friends and collaborators, Ben Shelton, who got him into producing, working with the production company SoulPancake and on a TV show called Impress Me. More recently, Mooney has been recurring on the crime drama series The Family Business and now on this most recent season of The Pitt.
Mooney never planned on teaching, but he has found the experience both fulfilling and deeply informative to his craft. “In between that acting journey, I became friends with David Lee Strasberg and a couple other people from the Institute,” Mooney shares, “they hit me up about teaching, and I did it, and I fell in love with it.”
Professions from a Professor
Mooney expressed that The Method has always been a key part of his process, even before knowing what it was; “I’ve been a Method actor my entire life. I didn’t even know what the Method was when I started. I just knew that if I was going to do something, I was going to do it for real.” Finding the truth of experience is a pivotal part of Mooney’s process as he works to discover authenticity in every role he takes on.
He spoke about the importance of training as both a student and an educator, “I’m an actor. And yes, I am your teacher, but because of my experiences, I can give you knowledge and tools and things like that.” Mooney added, “I don’t think we’re ever done growing, or learning, or anything like that, especially as an actor.”
He also delved into his audition process and emphasized the importance of a coach. He explained that he always has another person observing his work, whether that is for a co-star or a principal role in a film, because you can never be as objective as someone else watching your work.
No Small Actors
Before even getting to set, Mooney could sense that The Pitt was different from any project he had worked on before.
“When I showed up, from the moment I stepped foot on Warner Bros., somebody came to me, and was so excited to see me, and was so excited to show me where things were and what was happening. It was just this love and this joy of everybody knowing that there’s something special going on with this show.”
Mooney expressed his gratitude to be working on a show that represented “something so important, which is healthcare and workers behind this amazing industry that we all depend on.”
He described his experience as “mesmerizing,” as so much was poured into the show both on and off camera. In particular, he made note of the extensive background acting team who “funnel in and out, every second of every scene,” as well as being able to watch the series regulars and “their authenticity” in each take.
The Pitt and Real Life
The Pitt works to mirror real life, providing a platform to showcase real and difficult issues. This past season highlighted storylines surrounding consent, ICE, and mental health, to name a few. Mooney’s character, Charles Davis, is the father of a young man suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The show not only depicts the patient experience, but also what their families go through.
When speaking with Mooney about his character’s storyline, he expressed that growing up “mental health was something you just don’t talk about, it just didn’t exist,” and that “The Pitt does such a great job, not just our subject matter and our storyline, but bringing out so many different, prevalent, modern, common issues between families and people.”
He went a step further to acknowledge, “I really think this show does something for people’s mental health, to be honest with you, to help ease their soul.”
What’s Next?
Recently, Mooney stepped into the role of director and made his directorial debut with an independent series, Villa Hollywood. He feels grateful to be surrounded by such talent on set and behind the scenes as he takes on this new role.
It was actually a former professor who first noticed Mooney’s gift for directing. When asked to direct a scene at Cal State LA, Mooney’s attention to detail stood out above the rest. His instructor, Professor Gonzalez, said he would “become a director one day,” to which Mooney replied, “nah, I’m gonna be an actor.” As his career progressed, it was his interest in producing that ultimately led him to want to try out directing.
Be on the lookout for the limited series and more of Mooney’s work in the near future.