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It’s the biggest TV drama in the US. The Pitt has already swept the boards with 13 nominations and five wins at the Emmys, and recently won Golden Globes for Best Television Series and Best Actor in a Television Series Drama (Noah Wyle). As season two airs in the US to further acclaim, it now stands as the greatest TV show that no one in this country has (legally) seen. But that all changes soon.
The Pitt has incredible pedigree. It is led by two former ER showrunners, R Scott Gemmill and John Wells, plus ER star Wyle, who also takes the central role as Dr Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch. Its setting in an inner-city emergency room means the echoes of ER are unavoidable.
But this series goes deeper and harder. It adds elements from 24 and even a dash of Adolescence, aiming for maximum authenticity and realism in its depiction of the life of an underfunded, modern urban hospital.
The Pitt medical crew get to work. Image: Warrick Page / MAX
Each series of 15 episodes is set in real time across one long, dramatic shift from 7am to 10pm in the ER department at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Centre. We see medical procedures in intimate detail, follow the minute-by-minute, life-saving decision-making that is part of everyday life on the healthcare front line, and witness the cracks in the system and consequences of decades of underfunding, as well as the impact of the US system’s two-tier, insurance-based model.
It became appointment viewing in the US – with each episode drawing more viewers as word spread. And post-awards season, its audience grew and grew.
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Young British actor Zack Morris joins the cast for season two. It is the latest stop on an acting journey that began in Brentwood, Essex, continued at performing arts school in Bromley, took in West End musicals and theatre work before five eventful years in EastEnders as Keegan Baker – including a hard-hitting gang violence storyline – established him as one to watch.
“It’s a new take on your classic hospital procedural,” is Morris’s verdict on The Pitt.
“You follow Noah Wyle through the chaos of the day-to-day working of a hospital ER – and the amount of stuff that happens in that day is insane. For season two, it’s all set over the 4th of July weekend. People are partying, having a good time, so naturally things can go wrong.”
And they do, in a big way, for Morris’s character. He plays college student Jackson Davis, brought in during a serious psychotic episode. “He definitely arrives with a bang,” says Morris. “He lets his presence be known. He’s completely whiting out, and the cause of his psychosis is something you find out through the show.”
Filming for weeks to capture a single day presents its own challenges. “Continuity has to be on point. Looks, performance, the set, everything has to be the same. And it’s credited as the most medically accurate series ever made. You feel that on set. A lot of background artists are nurses or doctors who have done a bit of acting. The director and medical advisor work in tandem. I was able to ask where Jackson would be at, hour by hour, during his psychosis.
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“This show is not polite. It’s fast-paced, it’s loud, it’s in your face – and it’s waking you up, you know? It’s speaking about the things we are seeing in society.
Morris (front right) as Isaiah in Goosebumps
“It’s a medical drama, but everything has to have a purpose. So it highlights the struggle with funding and shows what these heroes have to deal with each day. Speaking to the real nurses and doctors, they were like, that injury where there’s loads of blood everywhere? That happens every day. They are such heroes. And we shine a light on that.”
Although it has not been seen yet in the UK, Morris knew he was onto a winner from the start.
“On my first day there was just me, Noah Wyle and a couple of other actors in the green room. And Noah is making his notes on the script,” he says.
“It’s cool to pick up these nuggets of wisdom from him. Because for this he is wearing a lot of hats – starring in the show, he wrote episode three, which I am in, and directing episode six.
“So I got to see him do everything. He even got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame while we were there. And he handles it all with such grace. There was no ego. On my third day of shooting, the producers from HBO came on set and announced we had been nominated for 13 Emmys.”
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Morris grew up, he says, with “American music and film and TV everywhere”. So to be on the Warner Brothers lot – where every sound stage has a list of iconic films or series filmed on it outside – was a dream come true.
“You can see where the Batman movies were filmed. There’s a Big Bang Theory soundstage, a Friends soundstage. All these monumental landscapes in our game were made there. It’s really inspiring.”
But Morris is the first in his family or friendship group to do anything like this. And there is no easy route from Essex to filming on the biggest US TV drama in Hollywood. So he wants to use his experience to create a pathway for others to enter the industry in his wake, with fewer barriers to overcome or fresh ground to navigate.
“I’m from Basildon in Essex – and the area I grew up in, if you’re a boy, you play football or you do boxing. Boy, football, boxing. That’s it,” he says.
“When I was younger, they never clicked with me. But I found my way into performing arts through dance, then singing, then drama when I was seven or eight. My parents and grandparents were so supportive of this journey, but I was the only one doing it. I was experiencing a lot of firsts.
“So much of this was a journey between myself and my mum. Getting to this point, there’s been a lot of me out in the big wide world trying to figure it out, sink or swim. It’s lucky I got good at swimming!”
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And even luckier that he got EastEnders in early 2017 – a show where he was able to learn on the job.
“I’d auditioned, I’d made it onto the show, but I also remember them saying all this technical stuff to me – there were more cameras than I’d worked with before – and I didn’t really know what they were talking about,” he says.
“I got the gig when I was 17 and I was there for five years. I learned so much about craft, performance, character, being in the limelight. It gives you a taste of everything, then it’s down to you to absorb it.
“Then I shot [Disney+ teen horror series] Goosebumps which was seven months away in Vancouver. I loved that experience and being Number One on the call sheet, which comes with a lot of responsibility.”
Morris (left) with EastEnders co-star and Process Drama Club co-founder Stevie Basaula
Alongside his former EastEnders co-star Stevie Basaula, Morris is taking action. The duo have set up the Process Drama Club, with the express intention of smoothing the transition into the creative industries for other people who may not have a route in via a family member or easy access to advice, guidance and knowledge.
“I guess we are trying to somewhat even the playing field,” says Morris, who cites working-class British actors who have conquered America, Idris Elba, Stephen Graham and Damson Idris as inspirations.
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“We have been around a lot of actors who trained, spent all that money and then after a year or two of things not going the way they hoped, they stop. And that dream dies a little bit. With a bit more insight, a proper useable toolkit to help with what is needed now – not 15 years ago – maybe we can stop that happening for the next generation of talent.
“Initially it’s a four-step programme that covers everything that we think you’re going to need if you are interested in acting and want to take it seriously.”
Morris outlines the fundamentals: character breakdown, script analysis and improvisation. The auditioning process – from finding the information to self-taping and chemistry reads. There is the tricky business of navigating a film set – visits are arranged to working sets to experience the unique atmosphere “so if they book a gig, they know what to expect”.
And the last part, says Morris, “is the business. Which is never talked about. Ever. You just have to figure it out.”
Morris is an actor who is going places. And he wants to take people with him. “No more gatekeeping,” he grins. “If I win, you win. That’s the ethos I want to live by and the vibe I want to bring forward.”
Seasons one and two of The Pitt will be available on HBO Max when the platform launches in the UK in March.
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