{"id":705652,"date":"2026-07-22T18:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705652\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:01:09","slug":"shabana-azeez-the-most-disgusting-thing-ive-seen-on-the-pitt-american-coffee-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705652\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabana Azeez: \u2018The most disgusting thing I\u2019ve seen on The Pitt? American coffee\u2019 | Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is the most disgusting thing you saw on the set of The Pitt<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I mean, American coffee. It\u2019s bad over there. The de-gloved leg was gross. I saw a full vaginal birth. I drilled into a skull!<\/p>\n

Did you enjoy that?<\/p>\n

I did like that. I really liked that. But, actually, I broke the rig. I haven\u2019t spoken about this publicly, actually. It was, like, a US$75,000 rig.<\/p>\n

When you shoot, you shoot the same thing over again \u2026 and we\u2019re shooting my coverage on my face. We\u2019re not looking at the rig, so I have to fake it, right? So I faked it a bunch of times. And then we were shooting the rig\u2019s coverage, and they went: \u201cDo it.\u201d And I only knew how tough it is to drill through an actual human skull because I\u2019d talked to a bunch of doctors [about] how much force I should be putting on it. So I start doing it like I would a human skull. But this thing on the inside is made of styrofoam or something. So I go clean into that guy\u2019s head. And it\u2019s just silent.<\/p>\n

So it looked like you\u2019d torn a human head apart?<\/p>\n

It was horrible. In a car crash, I wouldn\u2019t have that much adrenaline. I regret everything.<\/p>\n

You run an airport in your new show The Airport Chaplain. Who would be the worst two people to be sat in between on an airplane?<\/p>\n

Sorry, Elmo. I love Elmo, I really do. But imagine that guy laughing for 15 hours straight from one side of you. Kermit on the other side \u2013 no no no no no. Kermit and Miss Piggy. And they\u2019ve just had a divorce.<\/p>\n

What has been your most cringe-worthy run-in with a celebrity?<\/p>\n

When we started shooting The Pitt season one, I\u2019d never been to LA before. I didn\u2019t know celebrities were real \u2026 It was post-strike, post-Covid. It was empty. Then Abbott Elementary started shooting, and I love Abbott Elementary. Quinta Brunson makes that show, she\u2019s amazing. She just worked really hard and she represents really good stuff to me. And she walked past me one day. I came out of the sound station, she walked past me and I went \u201cAH!\u201d, I screamed and I fell to my knees. And Jalen [Thomas Brooks, who plays Mateo] came running out of his trailer and was like, \u201cWhat happened? Who died? Who\u2019s hurt?\u201d And it was just Quinta Brunson walking past me.<\/p>\n

Azeez with Noah Wyle and Supriya Ganesh in The Pitt. Photograph: Landmark Media\/Alamy<\/p>\n

If you could shrink any person to have them sit on your shoulder for the rest of your life, who would you pick?<\/p>\n

Is that like a punishment?!<\/p>\n

No, they are a willing companion. They want to hang out with you!<\/p>\n

If they\u2019re willing, it could be somebody I don\u2019t know. Martin Scorsese. And then I start directing, and I\u2019m really good.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your most recently played song.<\/p>\n

I get really obsessed with songs. I\u2019ll just listen to one song for two weeks straight. Right now, one of my favourite songs from my childhood is Machu Picchu by the Strokes. Nobody likes that song by the Strokes. It\u2019s not one of their most popular songs but, for me, it tickles a part of my brain.<\/p>\n

What is the strangest job you\u2019ve ever had?<\/p>\n

I was a simulated patient for medical schools. It was different every day. Some days you have appendicitis, so you\u2019d have reflex pain or tenderness. When they figured out I could cry on cue, they\u2019d give me a silicone baby and my baby would be sick and I would just cry. You\u2019d be in a room with a one-way mirror, like an interrogation room. All the students would sit in the tutorial room and I would sit in the other room, and students would come in three at a time and try to navigate the situation. Everybody thinks they can handle it, and then you start crying in front of them and they panic. It was really fun.<\/p>\n

What is your secret talent?<\/p>\n

[Azeez tries to juggle using our camera lens caps and some scrunched-up pieces of paper. She does not necessarily succeed but must be commended for the valiant effort.]<\/p>\n

Do you have a nemesis?<\/p>\n

Honestly, me from five minutes ago. It\u2019s so hard being alive and I have to live with me. Do you know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n

If you had to appear on a reality TV show tomorrow, which would it be?<\/p>\n

Nothing. I would never appear on reality TV. Oh, actually, why am I lying? I would love to be on a British show like Bake Off. I can\u2019t bake though. I\u2019d learn to bake and then I\u2019d go on Bake Off.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you lied?<\/p>\n

I lie all the time. I love it. I think it\u2019s so fun. Never genuine lies. But I\u2019ll just be like: \u201cI\u2019m 45 years old.\u201d And I\u2019ll double down until they believe me. I actually had three birthdays on the set of The Airport Chaplain. That was fun. That was a good week. I had three birthdays in one week. And eventually I was the boy who cried wolf. By the time it was actually my birthday, nobody cared.<\/p>\n

What is your most controversial pop culture opinion?<\/p>\n

I think we should care less about pop culture. I\u2019m so sorry but what is it contributing to us? There\u2019s war, there are things happening in the world that matter. And then there are people being like, \u201cWho wore this dress better?\u201d Who cares? Who actually cares?<\/p>\n

Comedy has a place. Art has a place. I don\u2019t want to do pop culture a discredit by being like, \u201cIt\u2019s all vapid\u201d, because it\u2019s not. Pop culture can illuminate our culture in a way. It\u2019s like holding up a mirror to who we actually are. What do we care about? What are we doing? We can have genuine conversations about this. But, \u201cWe like this girl because she is pretty\u201d, is a waste of everybody\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

Do you see your work as part of that pop culture that illuminates?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been very lucky. My bigger projects have been really impact-driven. My first film was about coercive control and gendered violence in domestic relationships. My second film was about queer joy. It was really fun and silly, and a different way of having impact. My first big TV show is about gun control in season one, and then violence against healthcare workers in season two. So there\u2019s a real political impact-driven statement there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is the most disgusting thing you saw on the set of The Pitt? I mean, American coffee.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}