Newly minted Emmy Award nominee Shawn Hatosy has consistently injected heart and humanity into complex, often perplexing characters who thrive in the grey area throughout his career.
From starring as a serial killer on Dexter to a troubled police officer in Southland and Chicago P.D., and most famously, the mentally unstable and violent family man in Animal Kingdom, Hatosy looks for specific qualities in a character before taking on the role.
“I enjoy characters that have a lot of layers,” shared The Pitt actor with Deadline on Thursday while celebrating his first Emmy nom for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series on the critically acclaimed HBO Max medical drama.
“I think even when you’re portraying a character who may be perceived as the bad guy, such as Pope [on Animal Kingdom], it is important to identify the quality within him that is real. He doesn’t set out to ruin everybody’s day; he comes from a real place. So I always try to find a way to love my characters, no matter how awful the things they do are, and Pope certainly has a lot of those hidden in a closet,” he continued.
Hatosy revealed it was “really easy to find something to love” about Dr. Jack Abbot, the combat veteran and attending physician in emergency medicine at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, the setting of The Pitt. The series, created by R. Scott Gemmill and executive produced by John Wells, received a total of 13 Emmy nominations on Thursday, including Hatosy’s nom.
“The qualities that are inherent in him, like his ability to improvise in the face of chaos. And then when I saw him with that blood bag donation in Episode 12, while he was working on this procedure, I just knew exactly the kind of guy he was. It was very easy to fall in love with him,” he said.
Adding, “It’s interesting playing these characters, because you become, weirdly, me as Shawn, identified as them when I’m walking down the street. Pope is kind of an iconic character, and now the show is finding a new life on Netflix. It means so much to me when you see people who say, ‘Well, I hated [Pope] so much at the beginning, but by the end of the series, I was really rooting for him.’ That’s a well-written character. When picking a character, they have to have many layers and a lot of dimensions and things to sink your teeth into, or it can get boring doing 75 episodes of the same thing.”
The Pitt is the fifth series collaboration between Hatosy and producer John Wells; the other four are ER, Southland, Animal Kingdom and Rescue Hi-Surf. Season 1 of The Pitt took place across one day, while Season 2 is set 10 months after the events of the first finale on Fourth of July weekend. It was revealed in the first finale that Abbot is an amputee with a prosthetic leg, but no background information was revealed, leaving it for viewers and Hatosy to wonder about.
“I’ve been asked before about what I want to see [happen on the show], and it’s those little nuggets of information that you get through the other characters, too. With Abbot, we know he has so much hidden trauma, just by the way he carries himself. It’s also inspiring to see a guy on TV who is working on himself, and not afraid to talk about seeing a therapist because I have some shit that I have to deal with. We don’t get to see that on TV a lot, you know?”
Adding, “[Abbot] is just such a wonderful character, in the way that he leads, and how he talks to people. He and Robbie [Wyle] are a lot alike, but they’re also so different. The opportunity to dig in and see more about how he got there is very exciting. I hope to be carving into that for 150 more episodes.”
This interview is edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Natalie Oganesyan contributed to this report.
The post New Emmy Nominee Shawn Hatosy Reflects On His Biggest Career Roles, Says His ‘The Pitt’ Character “Was Easy To Fall In Love With” appeared first on Deadline.
