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\n \u201cRobby sees a bit of Whitaker in himself, but in a way that has been quite embarrassing for Robby \u2014 knowing that I\u2019m the one who has seen him at his worst, and has seen him being weak.\u201d
\n Photo: Warrick Page\/HBO Max\n <\/p>\n
Spoilers follow for the second season of The Pitt through its ninth episode, \u201c3:00 P.M.,\u201d<\/a> which premiered on HBO Max on Thursday, March 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n If there\u2019s one thing that first-year resident Dennis Whitaker is probably not going to do, it\u2019s naked yoga at sunrise. On The Pitt<\/a>, Whitaker has proven he can surprise us \u2014 with his undergraduate major in theology, his monthslong stint living secretly in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, his secondary nickname of \u201cWhite Chocolate\u201d \u2014 but if he was housesitting for someone, he\u2019d likely keep his clothes on. And that\u2019s what helps Whitaker beat out night-shift hottie and yoga practitioner Dr. Abbot (Shawn Hatosy<\/a>) for the gig of looking after Dr. Robby\u2019s place while the ER attending is on his much-discussed motorcycle trip. But as is typical in The Pitt, there\u2019s all kinds of subtext in the conversation between the two men about Robby\u2019s trip and Whitaker\u2019s sort-of romance with the widow of a man who died in the ER last season. Does Whitaker actually feel a genuine attraction to Amy, or is his excessive empathy behind the hours he spends at her farm in rural Pennsylvania? Either way, he\u2019s acting a little unprofessionally. Does Robby actually feel trapped by his job in the Pitt, or is he just trapped in his own ongoing grief over COVID and last season\u2019s mass shooting at PittFest \u2014 a breakdown that Whitaker saw in the first season<\/a>? Either way, Robby\u2019s acting a little unprofessionally too.<\/p>\n Robby and Whitaker\u2019s conversation is a rare moment of quiet vulnerability during a frantic shift that allows Gerran Howell to dig into Whitaker\u2019s feelings about his quasi-romantic relationship with the farmer\u2019s wife, his friendship with now-roommate Trinity Santos (Isa Briones<\/a>), and his growing concern about maintaining professional and personal boundaries. The ten-month time jump has helped Whitaker feel more comfortable at work, Howell says, but even he was thrown by Robby\u2019s seeming gesture of trust \u2014 and, maybe, self-destruction. \u201cWhitaker can really see something is going on with Robby. There\u2019s a manicness there,\u201d Howell says. \u201cIt took me by surprise, but I think it takes Whitaker by surprise: Oh, you trust me, that\u2019s great. But \u2026 are you sure?\u201d<\/p>\n When we meet Whitaker again in the second season, he\u2019s now a first-year resident and more of a mentor. When you\u2019re getting the first scripts, what are you reading about how Whitaker has changed or grown?\u00a0 Speaking of his sassiness, I immediately thought of him throwing the protein bar at Joy.\u00a0 What was your initial reaction to Robby asking Whitaker to house-sit?\u00a0 How did you and Noah work together on the scene?\u00a0\u00a0 What do you remember about how you played the scene?\u00a0 When you were reading this, did you fantasize about what Robby\u2019s apartment could actually look like?\u00a0 Santos tells Robby that she\u2019s worried about Whitaker\u2019s relationship with Amy, which sparks Robby offering him the housesitting gig as a way to perhaps draw him away from the farm. I\u2019m curious how you understood whatever is going on between Whitaker and Amy.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing that Santos actually cares about her friendship with Whitaker, although she would never really admit it.\u00a0 Earlier in this season, Whitaker teaches Ogilvy how to do a disimpaction<\/a>, which is gross and wonderful. How did you film that scene?\u00a0 In this season, your hair is longer, a little curlier. Was it your idea, or production\u2019s?\u00a0 Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRobby sees a bit of Whitaker in himself, but in a way that has been quite embarrassing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,12840,156,134468,111,139,69,18673,134416,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-315918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-chat-room","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gerran-howell","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-the-pitt","16":"tag-the-pitt-season-2","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It\u2019s ten months later, and he has the responsibility of these med students. He can\u2019t be like season-one Whitaker anymore because he wouldn\u2019t be here. He\u2019d be fired. There\u2019s no way. [Laughs.] It\u2019s kind of fun to have a guy who\u2019s having the day from hell and is completely overwhelmed, but there\u2019s no way that can be consistent. In a way, Whitaker is lucky he has responsibilities now with these med students because it\u2019s got him a little bit out of his head. Ten months in, he\u2019s had to shed a lot of that kind of anxiety, and now he has a few coping mechanisms. I was kind of surprised how sassy I actually came across in the first two episodes. [Laughs.] I\u2019m leading the med students, but kind of begrudgingly. He\u2019s kind of like, These guys are driving me wild, and if they mess up, it\u2019s on me. He\u2019s not necessarily out here trying to be the best doctor and to impress anyone. Now he knows that the way to go about it is to be as useful as you can be, and more efficient. He\u2019s built up a mask now.<\/p>\n
Exactly. There\u2019s no time for it, you know? Ogilvy and Joy are two characters who appear to not want to be there. You can only encourage them so much. He\u2019s making sure they don\u2019t make him look bad, to be honest. He would be empathetic with most people, but these two in particular \u2026 Ogilvy\u2019s an insane character. It\u2019s great. He\u2019s a real foil to the others.<\/p>\n
It was interesting because we don\u2019t get warned of these things too far in advance. Knowing the Whitaker on the farm storyline with the widow, in my eyes, it is kind of an inappropriate relationship, and it\u2019s building up and building up. Robby confronts me about it, and I was expecting Whitaker to get a real bollocking. But instead, Robby is like, \u201cBe careful. Here\u2019s the keys to my apartment.\u201d [Laughs.] It\u2019s done so quickly and it\u2019s thrown on me, and he can really see, There are some cracks here. I should be getting disciplined. I was expecting more of a firm hand from Robby there and didn\u2019t get it. To Whitaker, that signifies Robby is in a very strange head place right now. He definitely appreciates it, but I don\u2019t think he fully accepts it.<\/p>\n
Noah likes to play, and he encourages play. We\u2019ll mess around and test things out in a scene. He\u2019s very fluid, and that\u2019s how he is with Whitaker. There\u2019s a real casualness with Robby. I think he knows Whitaker looks up to him. In season one, Whitaker was the one to find him in the trauma room, breaking down. Robby maybe sees a bit of Whitaker in himself, but in a way that has been quite embarrassing for Robby \u2014 knowing that I\u2019m the one who has seen him at his worst, and has seen him being weak. He\u2019s less hands-on with me now, and I think it\u2019s shown in that scene. It\u2019s so quick-paced, and I barely get a chance to say anything. He\u2019s kind of, \u201cHere we go, we\u2019re doing this, you have my apartment, and I\u2019m off.\u201d He does that a lot at Whitaker now. He\u2019s warm with him, but, Before you can see my cracks, I\u2019m going to get out of here.<\/p>\n
I came into it thinking, He\u2019s bestowing his keys on me; it\u2019s a big deal. But I remember being so surprised at how brusque and kind of frenetic it was. In the line readings, we played it like a real peace offering. But then when we got to it, it had a very strange tone to it. It was so quick and confusing and surprising, and we ran with it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a complete man cave, I think. it would be very similar to Noah\u2019s living arrangements. Noah collects a lot of things and is a bit of a self-admitted hoarder. I imagine Robby has got some real surprising things from travels in his gap years. Nothing flashy, but impressive. Lots of books.<\/p>\n
Even by the end of the season, it\u2019s still kind of intentionally ambiguous. But it is 100 percent an example of Whitaker being just too empathetic, and potentially being taken advantage of, maybe a little bit. Being on a farm is grounding for him, maybe more so than the relationship. For Whitaker, it\u2019s about being useful. It\u2019s escapism for him. He can find a bit of a home there that he\u2019s missing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big part of this season: How close are Whitaker and Santos? When Santos says she thinks I\u2019m being taken advantage of, she would probably never say that to me in a direct way. She would hint at it and poke fun at me for it. But similar to Robby, I think Whitaker is a person who can really see Santos now, beyond all of the bravado and the jokes. I think Whitaker probably heard an earful about Langdon and about Garcia; I think he gets vented on regularly and has all the juicy gossip. They\u2019re really close now, but there\u2019s an awkwardness. I can tell when she\u2019s having a bad day \u2014 and I definitely can on this particular shift \u2014 and she\u2019s keeping me at arm\u2019s length. But I think they really care about each other at this point.<\/p>\n
Any time there were bodily fluids mentioned, I was like, Uh oh. Is this the one I haven\u2019t got yet? Is it coming for me? It was dubbed the \u201cpoop cannon.\u201d There were multiple mixtures they were trying out and then stuffing into a pressurized tube. I had to get out of the way of it very quickly, and it was quite a surprising bang, actually. It had quite some force to it. It was gross, but Whitaker is very used to those things now. If anyone\u2019s going to be desensitized, it\u2019s him. He has his yellow wings<\/a>; he has all the wings.<\/p>\n
It was my idea. How do you show growth as a character? You grow your hair. [Laughs.] No, it\u2019s just that if there is a bit of a jump, you can show that change in how comfortable he is. The mullet was maybe a signifier of how much he\u2019s missing home. He\u2019s coming into his own personality. Some of that comes from Santos as well, maybe giving him a bit of a talking to. She took him to one gay bar and was like, \u201cDude, you need to sharpen up a little bit here if you\u2019re gonna hang out with me.\u201d<\/p>\n