Noah Wyle Explains Why He Directed ‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Episode 6: “I Would Have Directed Any Episode They Offered Me, To Be Honest”

Where to Stream: The Pitt Powered by Reelgood The Pitt Season 2 Episode 6 “12 PM” sees Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) steadfastly leading his team through yet another terrible tragedy. This time, one of the ED’s most beloved patients has passed away, sending a ripple of shock and grief throughout the staff. However, Noah Wyle wasn’t just leading The Pitt this week onscreen. The actor, writer, and executive producer also directed this week’s touching new installment of the HBO Max hit. **Spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 6 “12 PM,” now streaming on HBO Max** Yep, Noah Wyle wasn’t just throwing down yet another acting masterclass this week on The Pitt; he directed the episode where poor Louie Cloverfield (Ernest Harden Jr.) dies. When DECIDER spoke with Wyle in December, he explained that he didn’t choose to direct this episode for sentimental reasons, but practical ones. “I would have directed any episode they offered me, to be honest,” Wyle said. “It wasn’t that I specifically chose that one. It just worked out well.” “Sometimes when we’re looking at the schedule, it’s what award shows are falling on what weekends, what weekends would I have to prep? What’s the episode before it? How heavy am I in it? How much time would I need to be away?” Wyle also shared that he ironically was afforded more valuable prep time than other directors because he was already pulling his own fifteen-hour shifts as an actor on set. Photo: HBO Max “Oddly enough, directors that are about to come onto our show only get access to our set during our lunch hour, because the rest of the time we’re filming,” Wyle said. “So a prepping director gets exactly eight hours of set prep time, whereas I — because I’m there for fourteen, fifteen hours a day — get all the department heads, all the crew and all the cast, and the whole set to myself whenever I want it. So in some ways, it’s a lot easier for me to direct than it is other people in terms of the prep.” Something else that helped Wyle was the fact that Robby and the other doctors take a slight backseat to the nurses in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 6. “The nurses become the connective tissue between the scenes and we get a little bit more of a detailed glimpse at some of the palliative care that they engage in when they treat patients, whether it’s just providing a warm blanket or changing a bedpan or holding a hand or cleaning a body,” Wyle said. “This is the messy work. This is the personal work and the dedicated work.” In one storyline, Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) teaches new nurse Emma Nolan (Laëtitia Hollard) how to clean a dead body, one of the key tasks nurses have that aren’t usually depicted onscreen. “It’s a really sad scene,” Laëtitia Hollard told DECIDER. “And it was just really helpful to have Noah and Katherine, two actors that I really respect and love, be there, mentoring and grounding the process.” Hollard wasn’t the only actor who shared with DECIDER how much Wyle’s acting experience affected the cast during the episode. Katherine LaNasa revealed to us that Wyle was emphatic that Dana not “baby” Langdon (Patrick Ball) in a scene they share in the staff lounge. “I think his idea was that she’s going through her own stuff,” LaNasa said. Photo: HBO Max Brandon Mendez Homer, who plays NP Donnie Donahue, said that Wyle offered the whole cast advice ahead of shooting the episode’s moving “debrief” scene. “I do remember Noah in all his actor wisdom saying to the room, like, ‘Listen, you know, the crying choice is there, but you don’t have to go to it. You know what I mean? Like, there’s a whole bunch of choices and reactions there to be had,'” Mendez Homer said. “And then, you know, cameras start rolling, and just the nature of the scene, everybody starts weeping.” Mendez Homer laughed. “Everybody just felt it, you know? So something really took over.” Wyle humbly told DECIDER that he was able to be so present simply because his character had less to do. “Robbie was not a primary character in that episode, which afforded me a lovely opportunity to sit back a little further and and direct that one while we were doing it,” Wyle said. “It worked out great.” “You know, the crew was so lovely and receptive and supportive and so was the cast. I was worried it would be distracting. I was worried it might be an impediment to the creative process. I’m happy to report that I don’t think it was and I really would like an opportunity to do it again.” Something tells us that if Noah Wyle wants to direct another episode of The Pitt in the future, he’s going to.

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