From left: Noah Wyle as Drs. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch and Shawn Hatosy as Jack Abbot in The Pitt. Warrick Page/MAX Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment In 2006, Shawn Hatosy guest starred on an episode of ER, directed by executive producer John Wells, as a patient with dissociative identity disorder. "You have to take big risks when you're playing that type of character, to show the contrasting personalities, and John was very open to me trying things and letting me fail at times; he was patient and helped me get there," Hatosy recalls. After they wrapped, he delivered a handwritten card to Wells' office with a heartfelt message: "I really enjoyed this collaboration, and I really hope we get a chance to do it again." Since then, Wells and Hatosy have made 100-plus episodes of TV together. The writer-producer fought to include the then-little-known character actor as a lead in Southland and Animal Kingdom. Then last year, around the time that he enlisted Hatosy to direct and recur in Rescue: HI-Surf, Wells offered his longtime utility player the role of Dr. Jack Abbot, a combat medic turned emergency physician at a beleaguered Pittsburgh hospital, in The Pitt. Related Stories TV 'Only Murders in the Building' Casting Director Tiffany Little Canfield on Her White Whale for the Comedy Series TV Hollywood Flashback: Won Two Emmys, 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' Did Although Hatosy admittedly struggled at first to see himself as a TV doctor, the creative team knew they wanted him to play an equal and foil to Noah Wyle's Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch. "Noah is a deceptively extraordinary actor in the sense that he's unbelievably powerful and yet reserved. It takes a lot to go head-to-head with Noah all the time, and we knew that Shawn could do it," Wells tells THR. "He just has command presence; he can step into a room and take charge." Wyle and Hatosy had crossed paths numerous times over the years - they shared an agent and a publicist early in their careers and would often catch up at Wells' holiday parties. "That history and affinity shows in the bromance we have onscreen, which is great," says Wyle. "I think the world of him." When he joined The Pitt, Hatosy received a two-page backstory that showrunner R. Scott Gemmill created about the character, something the actor describes as "a treasure chest filled with hidden trauma." From the outset, Hatosy knew that Abbot was an amputee - his prosthetic leg is only revealed in the final minutes of the finale - who would be clocking out from the night shift in the pilot and then voluntarily return for a mass casualty event later in the season. "I knew that he's the sort of guy who is very measured, very confident and very calm in the face of chaos," he remarks. Abbot's to-go bag and tendency to listen to the police scanner while off-shift only helped Hatosy better understand his character's addiction to the adrenaline rush of saving lives. "Early on, [Abbot] leans over the edge and says [to Robby], 'I don't know why I keep coming back here.' By the end of the day, when the roles are reversed, he says, 'I know why I keep coming back - we're the bees that protect the hive,' " Hatosy explains of the bookending rooftop scenes. "That line is pure Abbot. It's not just something he says; it's who he is. There's a deep comfort in playing a character who understands his purpose, and that clarity really shaped how I approached him." After years of embodying morally complicated men, Hatosy admits that playing a character who is "across-the-board likable" is a nice change of pace. But he laughs sheepishly at the suggestion that Abbot has made him a heartthrob in his late 40s. "The part that's most flattering is I see Abbot as an extension of me in many ways, both in his personality and just how he holds himself physically. I wasn't too worried about what I looked like when I filmed it," he says. "On other shows, I've spent a lot of time killing myself trying to get the body and figuring all that shit out. And with this one, I was just like, 'No, just let him be ... me!' And the idea that it's landing is wonderful." Although Wells insists that Hatosy's future involvement with The Pitt will boil down to his own availability as an increasingly in-demand actor, Wyle flat out confirms in a separate conversation that Abbot will appear in season two, which takes place during another 15-hour shift during a Fourth of July weekend. Wyle, Wells and Gemmill all tell THR that the second season will inevitably tackle the current social and political climate, including the "Big Beautiful Bill" and other cuts President Trump has made to Medicaid spending and veterans' agencies. Hatosy believes that Abbot would "of course" take those attacks on his own people personally. "He's a guy who believes that if you serve your country