The post-credits scene at the end of The Pitt’s second season finale on Thursday wasn’t only created as a surprise for fans.
Taylor Dearden, who plays Dr. Melissa “Mel” King on the hit HBO series, told Parade that she didn’t even know they were going to shoot the scene, and only found out from a casual conversation with co-star Isa Briones between takes.
“In the last episode, it’s me, and Supriya, and Isa, just kind of sitting on our computers the whole time,” Dearden told the site during an appearance at PaleyFest. “And one day, Isa goes, ‘They fit me for a karaoke scene that’s coming up, right? When are we shooting that?’ And I went, ‘Sorry, what?’”
Dearden said that’s when Briones told her, “‘We’re doing karaoke together.’ I go, ‘In what world is that happening?’”
The Pitt creator R. Scott Gemmill added that the post-credits karaoke scene, which shows Dearden’s Mel and Briones’s Santos rocking out to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” blowing off steam from a tough shift, wasn’t planned from the beginning.
“That was sort of a last-minute thing,” Gemmill said. “I thought it would be really fun for the fans.”
Gemmill said that even though he’d chosen “You Oughta Know” for the characters to sing, he ultimately put it to Briones and Dearden to choose the song.
“I put the Alanis Morissette song in the script because I thought that was a banger song that those two could crank out,” he told the site. “And then I left it up to Taylor and Isa if they wanted to pick a song. I didn’t have to sing it; they were gonna have to sing it. But they stuck with it, and I thought it turned out super well.”
Dearden said she felt comfortable performing the scene because of Dr. King’s quirks. “I’m uncomfortable singing, but it’s a weird thing where I’m OK doing it if it’s Mel,” she explained. “I don’t know what that means. But it’s weird, and I escaped myself.”
What could have made the scene more uncomfortable to film is that Dearden’s co-star, Briones, is a Broadway singer, currently starring as real-life crooner Connie Francis in the musical Just in Time.
Upon discovering Briones’ musical talent, Gemmill wrote an opportunity for the actress to show off her pipes in Season two, in a scene in which the usually brash resident sings a Filipino lullaby to an abandoned baby. “I thought it worked,” Gemmill told Vulture, “because you didn’t expect to see a soft side to Santos.”
Dearden said that instead of being intimidated, she enjoyed shooting the surprise scene with Briones. “It was so much fun,” she said, “We had such a blast that day.”
