Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 10.Damian Marcano has been a part of The Pitt almost since the beginning, but he admits he was hesitant to sign on at first. On the heels of his time behind the camera on shows like Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Emperor of Ocean Park, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, HBO’s medical drama proved to be completely new territory for the Trinidadian director — but it was territory, he says, that was defined by one rule at the jump from leading man and executive producer Noah Wyle via a note left in everyone’s binders before production started: leave your ego at the door.

The Pitt Season 2 Interview | Noah Wyle

That insistence may very well have contributed to the success of the series that later went on to win six Emmys for its first season, but Marcano says it also defines an environment that is rooted in The Pitt’s cast and crew alike simply wanting to deliver more of the show that became such a hit with fans. From Atlanta, where he’s currently deep in production on Netflix’s upcoming television adaptation of All the Sinners Bleed, starring Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù and Nicole Beharie, Marcano sat down with me for an in-depth conversation about his road to The Pitt, shooting the biggest moments of Season 2 Episode 10, “4:00 P.M.,” and which colleague has shot more episodes of HBO’s medical drama than any other (spoiler: it’s not Wyle).
COLLIDER: How do your past projects, like Lawmen: Bass Reeves, compare to The Pitt? It feels like you’re shooting documentary-style. Things are closely contained, and you’re working on a set most of the time. Does that change your approach at all, coming into a show with a very distinct style that really stands out from a lot of what’s on TV these days?
DAMIAN MARCANO: The Pitt just takes me back to my roots, man. I’m from the murder capital of the Caribbean, the Port of Spain, and if you want to make films in Port of Spain, you have to be very quick, and you have to be very efficient, and you have to be very good if it’s going to turn into a career. I was all three of those things, so I essentially get a chance to do that again here with the luxury of The Pitt.
Jojo [Coelho] is my French DP. I always joke with her because I’m such a strong fan of French cinema. I feel like every project is different, every DP is different, but Jojo has brought me back to the type of filmmaking I love. It’s like Paul Thomas Anderson right now, right? This man has such a good time. I remember being at the CCAs and listening to his speech, and I love all the movies. I don’t really like the competition. I feel like the nominees just show us that this was a great year in movies. This is good for the people. But now, as a creator, I can’t deny it, and when he says how much of a good time he has making something, we want to have a good time making something, because for those of us who aren’t just caring about a shot or showing off to show you, “Look how cool I am! I did that,” I do it from the same place that I believe people like him do it from, which is, I want the good vibes, the vibe check that when I’m on set, I want that to flow through that negative somehow. Even though we’re in the digital era, and it’s not going on to organic films, I still see what we put in, and if I’m in a great mood while making this, the thing is going to come out great.
I am an artist, so I also understand the part of our process that are the sadder times and the depression and everything, but I think those are the ingredients when you’re cooking something up. When it’s time to go out and execute the thing? Man, let’s be in the best energy you can be in. Because at this point, it’s really hard for me to deny that that is a magic ingredient. A show like The Pitt is the most celebrated that I have ever had an opportunity to do in this career, but it is also the first thing I’ve done since I left Trinidad that I feel like I’ve fully put my heart into. And every day, I meet with this young woman who is our talented DP, and she meets me with the same energy, and we go like that for nine days at a time for each episode, and it’s always a joy. In Season 2, we’re more like a family now, as well. So, I think the crew knows how I feel about them. I’ve heard some private comments from people on how they feel about me, and this is a good thing, man! It’s a good thing. It feels good, it’s working, and it seems to be coming out really good. So, I am overly thankful, but that’s, weirdly enough, a part of the secret sauce. We’re feeling good.
‘The Pitt’s Damian Marcano Never Thought He’d Direct a Medical Drama
“This really does seem like a good thing. Why not? Let’s try it.”

In terms of the beginning of your involvement with The Pitt, my understanding is that you worked with [EP] John Wells before, and he and Carly Lane Scott [Gemmill] brought the project to you?
MARCANO: I was actually in Chicago shooting Emperor of Ocean Park, which was another job, with Forest Whitaker, that was amazing. Just insane! You grow up watching this movie star, and you’re like, “Okay, great, he’s going to come play on the small screen for me.” I’d just shot a scene with him and the very talented Torrey Hanson, a gentleman from Chicago, who played Jack Ziegler for us. Right afterwards, I remember, John’s brother, [Llewellyn Wells], was our EP, so he said, “Hey, you’ve got to do this call before we switch locations.”
I get on the call, and it’s John and Scott. They had sent me the first episode to read the weekend before, and I didn’t know at the time. I was just like, “Alright, it’s a medical drama. What could I possibly bring to a medical drama?” My knowledge of medical dramas is these are the things that I watch while smoking outside in the backyard, through the window. My wife is on all of them! I’m like, “What is going on in this one? What amazing sickness does this patient have?” I’ve always sort of taken a little creative jab at them. But as we all know, life starts lifin’ sometimes, and life said, “You know what, guy who makes fun of medical dramas? I’m going to bring you a medical drama.”
I think I took this one completely differently because, like I said, I’ve been looking for a really great production environment, and even though this was not The Pitt, Emperor of Ocean Park introduced me to the way that John writes scripts, and it really worked for me. I said, “Well, if I did this medical drama, this wouldn’t be me just going to do a medical drama. This would be me doing a medical drama in the work environment that I love, supported by a guy who’s been very supportive of me.” That made me really want to take the call and take it seriously. Then, when I met Scott on that call, I just really liked his energy, man. There was something about it that I’m like, “Alright!” He was sort of tried and tested with, like, 14 seasons of NCIS, and I’m like, “Okay, this guy knows how to write for what the American public wants to hear.” This is where our show was launching from. We’ve got to hit it out of the park here before anyone else in the world gets it. And on that call, I just expressed to both of them, “This really does seem like a good thing. Why not? Let’s try it.”
But there were no expectations of, “Oh my god, what are we about to do with this? Man, we’re going to kill it.” Instead, what I was met with was a great gentleman by the name of Noah Wyle. Weirdly enough, Noah and I were introduced by Chad Feehan, who was my writer and showrunner for Bass Reeves. They knew each other because I think their daughters went to the same school. I just know Chad said some very kind things to Noah, we met, and what struck me the most after the Scott and John update and all that stuff, was [that] Noah had left this note in our binders when we all started the show, and it just reminded us all to put our egos aside.
From day one, I’ve been like that with Noah, because I’m like, “If we can really keep this up, if we can always come to work, you as an actor, me as a director, and we can make ourselves smaller than real-life doctors that are here to help us tell this story efficiently and correctly, we might just be onto something.” That just sounds like good conditions in which to go to work. But good conditions in which to go to work led us to a lot of success with this thing. So, in whatever else I do, I realize now that it is possible and that we can all have shows that have environments like this and lead us to some kind of success.
The process of TV directing is so fascinating to me, and the way that The Pitt does it, it feels like, at least on the outside looking in, you’re tag-teaming a season with other directors. What is it like for you to pass the baton, so to speak?
MARCANO: It is. I always joke with everybody that island guys are pretty good at relay racing [laughs], so I’m just keeping up tradition in that aspect. But it’s the same thing. Uta Briesewitz was my co-EP this year, handling the directing responsibilities, and she can tell you, I tend to lead with a very soft glove, if you will. I think the crew is such an important part of this — our camera operators, Erdem [Ertal], Aymae [Sulick], Jojo — there’s a joy that we have of having Jojo do every episode for the season because, at the end of the day, she can always protect the image, she can always protect the show. She’s probably the number one person I worry about the most, besides our cast members, just due to the sheer amount of time that she puts in. This woman has shot all 30 episodes of The Pitt. That is not a short feat at all. I just really hope that she gets her shine, her accolades, everything, because without her, we’d be talking about a podcast right now. We’d be talking about the best podcast out there.

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‘The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy Explains What Abbot and Robby’s Episode 9 Conversation Really Means
Hatosy also reveals why he was “nervous” to make his directorial debut on ‘The Pitt’ and the truth behind last week’s Mohan/Abbot scene.

With respect to all the directors who come in and each have unique cases to deal with, the different storylines and whatnot, they’re all doing a great job, but I do believe we are all very lucky to play in a playground that was set up correctly, and the rest of the show kind of just doesn’t let it fall off the gear. Even this season, where I had a large break between my first two episodes and my last two, between [Episodes] 5 and 10, I remember being at home, just having a little moment of, “I hope everything is going alright. I hope we don’t let the fans down.” The fans have propped us up; now we want to keep that going. But thanks to the team and to everyone, I can go back with a four-episode break in between, and we’re still there.
One of the nice things is that the directors do stage walks. As you’re prepping your episode on The Pitt, even when Noah Wyle directed, you have a chance as you’re walking that stage at lunchtime, because it’s the only time that it clears out, to just essentially see the other director and say, “Hey, is there anything? How do you leave in this one?” Even when I began the season, there was a kid, Jackson Davis, that I had two episodes with. He was really arrogant and violent, and was restrained when we brought him in. Behind that was a brilliant performer. His performances were so good that there was a time his shoe came off in the back of the ambulance, and it led Uta and I to sort of have our first real meeting. “Okay, I’m picking up from what you’ve just ended on. What do we do about the sneaker? Do we want to leave the sneaker on the foot, or does he keep the sneaker off?” Because it definitely affects how she starts the episode. I remember us having a conversation, and I was smiling in the back of my mind while we were having it because I’m like, “If these are the things we’ve got to decide on this season, I think we are off to another brilliant start.” It’s Jojo and the camera team, it’s Cody [Birdwell] in props, it’s Miriam and Tom. Man, the people that I get to work with on this show, I’m so lucky to have them because I think if it were any other team, I don’t know if this exact thing would’ve happened.
‘The Pitt’ Director Damian Marcano Had To Check on Supriya Ganesh After Mohan’s Panic Attack
“You’re okay, right? Because that was so good that I couldn’t tell in camera.”

Getting into specifics for [Episode] 10, one of the big events is Mohan’s panic attack. It starts with her seeing a patient, and she starts to get sweaty and overwhelmed. Then there’s that intense close-up on her where you can literally see the sweat coming down her neck, and then she ends up in the waiting room, and there’s that claustrophobic, crushing-body sensation of everything closing in. I would love to know how you approached the choreography of filming that scene, because you really do feel the sense of overwhelm in the moment, and everything that crescendos.
MARCANO: When I talk about my job, I never want to talk about it in a way that the next generation feels like, “I can’t do that.” For me, directing is simple. For anybody else who’s out there that hears what we talk about, it’s simple if you allow yourself to get lost in it. I usually don’t ask actors to do things I wouldn’t do. Our lobby area is on a different stage, so we had to shoot this scene in between two separate stages and connect the world and make it all great. What ends up happening is when you walk into 22, which is where our main set is, where the central desk is, and all that, it’s always cold. We’re always complaining about how cold it is. It’s notoriously cold on stage 22. There are so many bodies on stage 21 that you will never get the complaint that it’s too cold. When you get into that lobby, you feel the humidity change. You feel it.
The other thing that’s going on in that scene is, when we pan through the lobby, you see the waterpark news footage. So there’s all of this news coming at Mohan. There’s a room full of people. I was walking in from lunch that day with my first AD, and I was like, “Hey, what if we had her really go for an actual exit, and we just play the first three people as, ‘Wait, that’s a doctor? I’ve been here all day. I see someone come out in official clothes, I’m going to them.'” That’s the beauty of the American spirit that’s different than where I come from. If you’re an American and you have been waiting in a lobby for what you feel is too long, you say, “You know what? I’m going to take this into my own hands. Screw all these other people that are here!” That was my direction for all three of those people who had come in. “You don’t want to be a jerk to anyone else, but in your own story, you needed to get this checked out.”
Our entire day this year is baked into the day that no one expects to be at the E.R. today, and I think Supriya [Ganesh] is just a very talented actress. She’s the person you have to check on after we do these things, because you’re like, “You’re okay, right? Because that was so good that I couldn’t tell in camera.” And she was. It was all a performance. But when you set everything, when she actually has to walk through I don’t know how many extras we jammed into that stage 21 waiting room… it’s a great performance. I obviously come in with some blocking that I think will work, but I’m walking it myself, and I’m saying, “When people see this at home, I want them to feel as I feel.” I want them to feel like, “The door’s just right there, and I can’t get out.” And then, of course, there’s the brilliant Joy [Irene Choi], who’s been her learning sidekick all day. I love Mohan and Joy this season because they sort of remind me of McKay and Javadi from Season 1. McKay was teaching Javadi the ropes, and she’d be in triage all day. I also like the moment because it, out of the scene, introduces Joy and a little bit of her heroics that we’ll eventually get to.

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Speaking of McKay, she’s obviously dealing with a heartbreaking situation with Roxie, the patient who is essentially in the E.R. to die.
MARCANO: What you realize about the patient is that the patient is very much like her. So for people who watch Season 1, McKay’s got little Harrison, and obviously her and Chad are dunzo, but they’re doing their best co-parenting. What happens in this storyline is that McKay is looking at Roxie as, “This could be me.” Our show is about the doctors, right? So in this case, Dr. McKay begins to think, “My god, am I just dying here in this ER? Here comes this woman, she’s got a husband, she’s got two beautiful children, and what do I have? I’m co-parenting with Chad.”
At the same time, it’s the difference in how she and Javadi handle that. Javadi is overcome with emotion, and McKay has to be the teacher because it is a teaching hospital. Robby reminds us of that all the time. In this scene, I remember working with Fiona, and Fiona Dourif is just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant talent. So, me now working with Fiona Dourif is just working with her on how to hold back, just on the verge. Those tears are about to drop. I think everyone at home is like, “If I were McKay, I’d be bawling my eyes out.” But you watch McKay in this moment, and you see the strength that is in this woman, as well.
I wonder all the time, how do these doctors just do this every day of the week? We have our respective jobs that you and I do, Carly, and I feel like I get a break. I feel like the weekend comes and I’m like, “Alright, it was a tough one, but I’ll relax. I’ll be good by Monday.” Hats off to these people, man. Hats off to these people because they are literally the ushers of our life experiences, if these are our final moments. And the fact that they’re able to still continue and to not have any axe towards another person, right? That’s the thing. It’s not that McKay’s just dealing with Roxie; she’s got other things going on. She’s got names on that board, and it’s just amazing to me, but the performance makes me think: how do the real ones do it?
‘The Pitt’s Damian Marcano Explains Why the Show’s Directors Are Always Open to Discovering New Shots
“… I’m really happy to hear when you guys see that stuff, because these are our little moments that we find special as well.”

There’s a shot that really stands out to me of McKay talking to Roxie’s son, and the scene cuts to the two of them through the window, like the camera’s looking through the door of the patient room while they’re having this conversation. Are you often looking for different ways to frame those kinds of shots?
MARCANO: It happens with us being very open to discovery on the day. Every show that we do, sometimes there’s a shot list, sometimes there’s talk of, “How do we do this? Do we need any special equipment?” The joy of The Pitt is we shoot it like you would shoot it.
When we first started this, my AD, Eric Tignini, mentioned a guy to me by the name of Frederick Wiseman. Me being from the islands, I didn’t know who the hell Frederick Wiseman was, but I got a couple of DVDs, and Frederick Wiseman, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, would go out to institutions, hospitals, and schools, and whatnot. At a hospital, he would have his crew there with the cameras off for three weeks. So, camera guys would be walking around with the camera, boom operators would have the mics — nothing was on. For the first three weeks, to the medical staff, it felt like, “Who the fuck are these guys? What’s going on here?” And people would say, “Eh, that’s the camera crew. They’ll be here for a little while.”
Guess what happened after three weeks? They turned the cameras on, and then no one cared anymore. I love to attack the show that way, where I know what I want to get out of the scene. Jojo and I always have a great chat about how we want to do it, and I take advice from her, she takes advice from me. It is a very, very collaborative scenario. But the joy of that is just being able to have a conversation with the person that you’re making the image with, and just say, “Oh my god, Jojo, on that last pass, I was behind Fiona, and I saw that.” And then she says, “Oh, let’s go take a look.” We joyously take a look, and it’s like, “Oh, we should try that. I know we weren’t planning on doing that today, but we should do that.”
We are the kind of show that is built for us to be able to do it. That is from the performer, that is from operators, that’s from everyone. They’re just game for, “Oh, Damian wants to do 10 things that we didn’t plan to do today.” We’re built for it, and I’m really happy to hear when you guys see that stuff, because these are our little moments that we find special as well. I think the entire crew of The Pitt is essentially trying to pass on to the audience what we’ve seen special in each scene for the day.
Do you have a favorite kind of scene to shoot on The Pitt?
MARCANO: I always love to joke with everyone that’s at central desk: five-page scenes are where I make my money. If we can have Dana coming from outside, Robby checking boards, or Monica, who I am in love with, played by Rusty Schwimmer… we actually just cast Rusty in All the Sinners Bleed, as well, because I was just so in awe of her performances this season. But Monica needing to take a smoke or sniffing the cigarettes, and then there’s the world of serious going on in the moment, as well. Dr. Al-Hashimi comes in, and she’s got a little angst with Noah, and I’m like, “Oh, five and 3/8 pages! Great.” Because that’s where the Damian who did Winning Time, who did Bass Reeves, who did a lot of high emotion stuff, that’s where that part of me loves to come into play.
After that, a trauma scene for me, or a scene in the room, is a little condensed, right? I can’t do as much as I want. But when we are out in the middle of our set, or, for Dr. Mohan’s panic attack, which starts at the central desk, and goes through every bit of stage that Nina Ruscio has designed — that was my way of showing all of Nina’s lovely work.
How much, if anything, can you tease about what’s coming in the last five episodes of The Pitt Season 2?
MARCANO: It picks up. What I can tell you just generally about this season, for all who don’t work on set, there’s a thing that we all say, which is “10-1.” That just means, “I’m taking a break, I’m going to the bathroom. 10-1.” It’s a very kind way of saying, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re going 10-1.” From Episode 10 until the end, I took several 10-1s, because, as you know, you’ve seen it, 10 is emotional, man. If you care about someone… I don’t care who you are, who you love, but if you care about someone, it will get you. Man, even thinking about it right now is choking me up. It’s our love letter to The Pitt, to what these first responders do, and I really hope we don’t let you guys down.
New episodes of The Pitt Season 2 premiere Thursdays on HBO Max.

The Pitt is a medical drama developed by veterans of the television series ER. The series will follow healthcare workers set in Pittsburgh, showing he challenges faced in the modern-day United States by nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals.
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Release Date
2025-01-09

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