For the sake of humanity: The Pitt stars Hatosy and Moafi on season 2 and special message to Ukrainians

What challenge were you most excited to tackle in season two as a performer?

Shawn Hatosy: I directed episode nine. I know it doesn't answer the question, but that was my biggest challenge. It was terrifying. John [Wells] sent me a fruit basket with a card that said, "Don't fuck it up". I was scared because the style of the show is very different - very much follows the action. And what we're really trying to achieve is this kind of spontaneous mess, the synchronicity of this unit working together, but it's not always perfect. I said: "John, thank you. I was very scared". He said being scared is good because it keeps you focused, and I said I was very focused.

Shawn Hatosy (photo: Getty Images)

Sepideh Moafi: Entering the show in its second season with such accolades and success was its own sort of challenge - intimidating, but very exciting. I sort of live for that kind of emotion and excitement. I feel like doctors and journalists share a similar quality in what they do, such as selflessness, courage, and generosity toward their work. I think I would have a hard time being a doctor because I don't think I could put my own emotions aside. I would fall on the floor and sort of melt down at the first clamshell procedure.

So I think the challenge for me was having enough expertise, experience, and emotional restraint to keep yourself together in order to put your patients first. That was exciting to me as an actor because many of the roles I've played have been more effusive - they wear their hearts on their sleeves, a lot more. In the ones that are more buttoned-up, like this one that I did, she's a bit of a chameleon and uses her different sides in order to get something. Dr. Al-Hashimi maintains composure even though, in reality, there is a volcanic fire inside.

Sepideh Moafi (photo: HBO Max)

With the show being set in a hospital, is it a very different sort of environment compared to anything you have worked on before?

Shawn Hatosy: This show is completely different. The narrative structure is minute to minute, one-hour shift per episode. We're able to shoot in sequence, which is just such a unique thing to have as an actor and as a director. We don't have lights. They're all sort of built-in. So we move at a pace that we can kind of see 360 degrees. There's not a lot of sitting around. It moves very fast. And as a performer, it keeps your adrenaline up. Yeah, and it feels very real.

Sepideh Moafi: It does. It is this three-dimensional omnipresent. You just require this level of presence and attention to detail, which is what you hope you bring to any job. But as Shawn mentioned, there are very short breaks in between takes. There's no elaborate lighting and set. It's all so immediate, which feels very immersive. And as the actor, actually, there are challenges with that. And then, but for the most part, it's incredibly advantageous because you're kind of once you're on set, you are in it throughout.

What makes season 2 of The Pitt impressive (photo: HBO Max)

There are a lot of viewers from Ukraine who are finding inspiration in The Pitt. What do you hope audiences take away from season 2 of the show?

Sepideh Moafi: I hope they continue to take what they have been taking in a different way with the different storylines and the different sort of revelations that will come with season two. I think one of the reasons why people have connected to this show at this moment is that everything feels very messy in our society, politically, and it gives us this sort of leaders that we sort of crave. We want to see these heroes that are selfless, that prioritize patience, that don't devote their lives to something for fame or novelty. It's for the sake of humanity. And that's what we see in The Pitt.

I mean, they're deeply flawed characters. It's not like these two-dimensional heroes. They're troubled. They have their traumas. But I think what people have really connected to, what they feel tethered to with The Pitt, is what it's unleashed in them, which is, I think, what any good piece of art does. It opens something within us that we didn't know, either we haven't tapped into for a while, or we didn't know existed. And The Pitt sort of helps us tap into that shared common humanity, shared human experience, love, pain, fear that we all experience. And so I'm hoping that season two brings more of that to the audience.

Shawn Hatosy: I'm seeing people who are medical professionals or students who say “I watched The Pitt, and now I want to go back to nursing school”. I'm seeing that every day. And I think that this show does an excellent job of giving medical professionals a voice and showing the world what they're experiencing and how freaking hard it is and what they're going through. So I love that about The Pitt.

Is there a moment from this season that still sits with you emotionally?

Sepideh Moafi: There's one moment in episode 11. It's this one procedure that actually most doctors, if they're lucky, don't have to do. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to spoil it, but I still think about it a lot. I've dreamed about it because it's an incredibly high-stakes procedure, as are most procedures, but this one involves a child. So that always kind of increases the sort of stakes in temperature.

Shawn Hatosy: Picking up from last season, sort of leaving Abbott and Robbie's relationship and understanding the toll that the day from season one took on Robbie, and kind of how that 10 months later, and seeing sort of where Robbie is emotionally, mentally, as a leader, is probably what Abbott is experiencing that lands the most for me.

Noah Wyle in The Pitt (photo: HBO Max)

Joining a show and cast that has already found its freedom can be intimidating, like you said, whether you're coming in as a new series regular or as a guest star. Was there someone from the show, or from the cast, or the crew that made that transition smoother and helped you feel at home right away?

Sepideh Moafi: My first day of work felt like they were treating me as if I was a pro and I knew what I was doing and completely trusted me to sort of nail my shit, you know. I felt very supported throughout the process. It's a Herculean effort to try to catch up to the level that our characters sort of live as senior attending physicians, as educators in medicine, and it's just impossible to catch up. So it's overwhelming, but we had great support. I was kind of leaning into these feelings of uncertainty and fear and all that because that's what my doctor would be going through. It wasn't just me; Sepideh Moafi's first day on set it was Dr. Al-Hashimi's first day at PTMC. So I was trying to lean into the uncertainty and, you know, I'm a pro as an actor, she's a pro as a doctor. We share a lot here. So I tried to just embrace as much of her journey as my own as possible.

Shawn Hatosy: You know, I have a lot of experience with John. This is like my fifth show with him. So I felt comfortable in that and like his trust. And in a position of power like Abbott’s, there’s that expectation of command presence. Yeah, it was there. And I just pretended that I had it. But inside, I was crippled with fear and anxiety.

Sepideh Moafi: I was just going to say something that we forget is that doctors are human too. They have a lot of experience under their belts, but it doesn't mean that if you have to intubate someone, of course, they know how to do it like the back of their hand, but there's always risk. There's always a bit of fear. It's just, they're more familiar with that fear. So the exercise then becomes about embracing that fear rather than resisting it as the actor.

The Pitt will impress with new characters (photo: HBO Max)

Both your characters are at least in a large part defined by their relationship to Dr. Robbie. Although very, very different relationships. So, how did you work with Noah Wiley in crafting that dynamic?

Sepideh Moafi: Noah is such a pro on so many levels. He's so wildly talented. He's so alive in every take. Shawn is the same way. You show up with Shawn, and it's alive, and it's juicy. It's the stuff that you want as an actor to be with somebody who's present and awake and wants to play and not sort of cement their choices. And I think both Shawn and I, our cast, we're just blessed. But Noah's incredible. I feel incredibly lucky because he makes our job so easy. All you have to do is respond.

Shawn Hatosy: It's so true. I mean, we were talking a little before how we shot the rooftop scenes from season one at the very beginning, and I didn't know where all the stuff that happened in between, and it didn't matter because I was working with an actor who was just so present.

What to know about The Pitt season 2

The premiere took place on January 9, 2026, on HBO Max. The season has 15 episodes, released weekly, with the finale scheduled for April 17.

Before the release of this continuation, The Pitt was renewed for a third season, promising viewers even more stories about the lives of Pittsburgh hospital staff.

Earlier, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, the show’s creators revealed behind-the-scenes secrets and teased changes in the lives of the main characters.

Earlier, we wrote about the behind-the-scenes film on Stranger Things season 5.