When Sepideh Moafi was summoned to set for her first day on The Pitt‘s second season, she was halfway across town. She’d also gone to pilates and skipped the post-workout shower, a situation with even more dire consequences as usual, thanks to the medical drama taking place over the course of one single day (however the actors look during the first episode is how they will need to look for all 15). “They moved my start date up three days early because they were ahead of schedule,” she says. “No set in the history of the world is ever ahead of schedule.”
It easily would have been grounds for panic, but Moafi was ready for the moment. She’s been acting onscreen for 15 years; she broke out on The L Word: Generation Q, and also co-starred in The Deuce and Blackbird. Plus, she had The Pitt‘s expert crew to lend a hand. “The hair and makeup teams were amazing, they were like, ‘We got you girl,’” laughs Moafi. “The experience helped me get into her shoes even more, because that feeling is what it’s like to be an emergency physician: you never know what’s going to happen.”
On the HBO Max series Moafi, the only new series regular to join the cast after last year’s award-winning season, plays Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, a veteran attending physician who arrives on the Fourth of July to prepare to relieve Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) when he departs on a sabbatical. “I had never been interested in medical shows,” prefaces the actress. “But everyone told me this show is different — and then I got the flu at the same time that I got word of the audition, and I binged the whole thing in a day and a half.” Here, Moafi tells The Hollywood Reporter what it was like to join the show and what we can make of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s new position.
Did the fact that you enjoyed it make you want to go back and watch more medical dramas?
You know what? I might get fired for telling you this, but I went back to watch ER and I couldn’t get into it. Part of that is just because it’s dated now. It’s a great show objectively, I do not deny that. I could appreciate its cultural largesse but I was not ready to dive into 15 seasons. My associations with hospitals are just that I’d rather spend less time there; The Pitt feels different because it imbues so much humanity.
What did you know about the character during the audition process?
They didn’t give me scripts; they gave me sides, and mock sides at that. But those mock sides played with ideas that ended up in the show and helped me understand the arc of the character. Throughout each step of the process, I’d get a little bit more insight into the character. But the reason I wanted to join the show was because of the way it deals with the intersection of power and vulnerability, and the way women navigate systems that weren’t built for them.
Is there a storyline, or a character, who you think embodies the things that women are doing that navigation?
I think about the sickle cell storyline from last season, and how it’s the perfect example of the ways that representation can be more than just cosmetic. It affirms that people from different backgrounds are essential to the fabric of this country. It also showed who is believed and who is not believed. Storylines like this can help shape who feels safe enough to fully use their voice, both on the patient and the doctor side. Samira, being the only one who believes this Black woman who is in excruciating pain, just tore my heart out. Even the best, most well-meaning characters like Whitaker can think that they are exaggerating. Obviously, Supriya Ganesh, who plays Samira, is a South Asian woman, but that solidarity and intersectionality in their identities played into it.
Have you experienced those darker sides of our medical system?
There was an experience in my early life, my sister was very young and almost died from a tonsillectomy that went wrong. The doctor literally said that she was going to die. That shaped my relationship to the healthcare industry. But I also have so many friends across the world who are working as humanitarian doctors in conflict zones, and I see the level of sacrifice people make. I know that things that happen, like with my sister, are not a matter of competency but of burnout and fatigue. It’s why I’m happy about my character’s AI storyline. Me, Sepideh Moafi, I have been so anti-AI and her stance on it helped shift my perspective a bit. And I don’t even necessarily agree with her on everything. But I don’t think she’s advocating for replacement; she’s advocating support and reducing burnout and blind spots so that the doctors can stay present and human. I appreciate that she’s trying to find a solution.
I think something that audiences are going to wonder about Dr. Al-Hashimi is whether she’s a bit of a pain, or whether Dr. Robby is too rigid to let someone new in. Did you have a take on that early on?
I think with any new character, it’s going to introduce a different melody. Sometimes that melody comes into dissonance with Robby’s melody, or the chords of the hospital itself. Anything that is unfamiliar is seen as icky and bad, but the more you lean in you realize you could be compatible. I think that’s the perspective that a lot of people in the hospital have. She comes in kind of guns blazing with her ideas and the things she wants to change. She wants to shake up the culture and the people — she’s met with open arms from some, curiosity from others, and then Dr. Robby doesn’t want her there even though he knows he needs a qualified, competent physician to take his place while he’s gone. It captured what my experience was coming on set the first day, because I had no idea how I would be received. This is a well-oiled machine. They know what they’re doing, and while there are many new cast members I’m the only new main cast. So I’m kind of assessing the situation like Dr. Al-Hashimi. I know who I am as an artist, I’m going to make my big choices and use my voice, but I’m also watching and listening a lot like she does.
There’s a moment in the very beginning of the season where we’re not sure if she’s going to be a watcher and a listener…
Well, she starts off the day with a mock code. (Laughs.) She doesn’t see this as controversial, so much as, this is how we can improve. I think she’s well-intentioned and steadfast in her vision. I admire that. Even though she knows she’s often misunderstood, that never deters her from pursuing what she believes will make a meaningful difference.
How did you find the process of learning the choreography of the ER?
We have an army of technical advisors and a lot of the background actors are real-life nurses, so they’re all there to help you. We choreograph them just like you would a stunt or a sex scene. We run through it at 25 percent speed, then 50 percent, and then full speed. When we’re doing it at full speed that’s when we start setting cameras up.
I assume you’re aware of how dedicated this show’s fandom is? Do you engage with any of the shipping or other theories?
I’m especially close with Supriya and Shabana [Azeez] and they’re very plugged into that world. I try to stay away from it, because there was a really intense fandom around The L Word and I’m not a shy person necessarily but I get a bit uncomfortable. But Supriya sent me a few tweets the other day and now that’s my whole algorithm. It’s also distracting because we’re still making the show, we’re filming the climax of the season, so I need to keep my head in the game. That being said, I enjoy that it sparks conversation and that people are using their imaginations. The fandom will read into eye contact or gestures and that’s fun. Isa [Briones] and I were howling because there’s a scene in episode six or seven where I’m talking to her, and for whatever reason, I think because I was exhausted, all of a sudden my eyes just went down as she walked away. It was like I was looking at her butt and checking her out. I was like, Issa, if this makes the cut, I’m completely dead.
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