Shawn Hatosy revealed that he was at a “low point” in his career right before he booked the part that won him his first Emmy Award.
The 50-year-old actor, who plays night-shift heartthrob Dr. Jack Abbot in the hit medical drama The Pitt, said he was auditioning for anything and everything, but just couldn’t catch a break.
“After the strike, I was at another one of those low points,” Hatosy said on Obsessed: The Podcast. “I can remember there were so many projects that were happening at once. One of them was Suits. I must have put, like, 40 self-tapes together right after the strike because I just needed to work. With a family, I was financially in a place where, bring me Suits, bring me NCIS Origins. I was really fighting for those roles. And if I had gotten one of them, you know, I would have had no choice but to do them.”
But he didn’t get those roles. Another project getting buzz at the time was The Pitt, which was originally conceived as a reboot of the ‘90s megahit E.R. Hatosy said “every actor in town” knew about it and wanted in. The volume of characters—and the coveted Warner Bros. shooting location in Los Angeles—meant the show was “very sought after.”
Hatosy had worked with director and E.R. creator John Wells on several shows, including Southland, Animal Kingdom, and Rescue High Surf, so his team reached out. The initial reply was disappointing.
“As I remember it, the response was there really isn’t anything in there for me,” Hatosy said. “I’m not sure they understood what the Abbot role was going to be.” In the show’s series premiere, the character has just one pivotal scene where he hands off the shift to Noah Wyle’s Dr. “Robby” Robinavitch. “So it’s, like, three minutes of screen time.”
Over the course of two seasons, though, Abbot has shifted from a recurring guest star to audience favorite. Hatosy’s powerful portrayal of the wounded warrior-turned-trauma specialist won him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. But, like the show’s creators, Hatosy had no idea what the role would evolve into.
“I wasn’t sure that Abbot was gonna have this sort of impact,” Hatosy said. “I’m very excited that it turned out the way it did.”
Despite the stress of the time, Hatosy is glad other shows didn’t cast him. He said he would have “absolutely” been a part of any project that took him. But then he would’ve had to pass on The Pitt.
“It’s amazing to look back and think of what you desire, and how those things sometimes don’t come to fruition, how it could affect something else,” Hatosy said. “Because, of course, now knowing in hindsight what The Pitt is and what that character grew into, I would choose this. Man, I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
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