The second season of “The Pitt” cemented its place as one of television’s best dramas and one of the medium’s true must-watch series. While much of the conversation surrounding the HBO Max hit has rightly focused on Noah Wyle’s towering performance as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the show’s success ultimately rests on one of the deepest and most compelling ensembles currently working in television.
Created by R. Scott Gemmill and executive produced by Wyle and John Wells, “The Pitt” follows a single shift inside Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency department, allowing viewers to experience the chaos, heartbreak, and occasional triumphs of modern medicine in near real time. The format presents a unique challenge for its cast. With only one shift unfolding across an entire season, character development often arrives through subtle interactions and fleeting moments rather than dramatic life-changing events.
Few characters embodied that approach better in Season 2 than Dr. Trinity Santos, portrayed by Isa Briones. Introduced as an ambitious resident whose confidence often bordered on arrogance, Santos spent much of the season confronting new responsibilities, lingering emotions surrounding Dr. Frank Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) return to the emergency department, and the mounting pressures that come with life as a young physician. As Briones observed during our conversation, “I think it’s often the throwaway moments and the silent moments that end up being the most impactful and the biggest window into who the character really is.”
That philosophy helped produce two of Santos’ most memorable moments of the season. In one of the year’s most touching scenes, the notoriously impatient doctor comforts Baby Jane Doe by singing the traditional Filipino lullaby “Ili Ili Tulog Anay.” Later, Briones showcased a completely different side of Santos during the now-beloved karaoke sequence opposite Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Melissa “Mel” King, providing viewers with a rare moment of joy after one of the most emotionally exhausting shifts depicted on television.
The lullaby scene also highlighted one of the qualities that has made “The Pitt” resonate so deeply with audiences. Rather than treating representation as a lesson or a storyline, the series simply reflects the world as it exists. Discussing the impact of seeing Filipino healthcare workers represented on screen, Briones noted, “I know that there are Filipinos in every hospital in this country, and yet in all of the medical shows we have, only just now are we seeing Filipino representation.” It is a small detail that feels entirely natural within the world of the show, and all the more meaningful because of it.
During our conversation, Briones discussed bringing the Ilonggo lullaby to the series, the hidden family history that informs Santos’ connection to Baby Jane Doe, why her long-awaited scenes opposite Patrick Ball became some of her favorite work of the season, and her hopes that future episodes will continue exploring Santos’ self-harm history with honesty and nuance. She also reflected on the joys of collaborating with fellow theater actors, the challenge of portraying a character whose confidence is beginning to crack, and why she’d happily spend a day in the shoes of Shawn Hatosy’s Dr. Jack Abbott.
Awards Focus: Nice to see you again. There are a few storylines I want to talk about, starting with the Baby Jane Doe storyline, which is certainly one of the emotional centers of the season. When the lullaby scene came up, I thought, “Oh, we’re finally getting our Isa Briones moment, not just the Trinity Santos moment.” Can you talk a little bit about that song for viewers who aren’t Filipino? Is it a common lullaby? And did you have any input in choosing it?
Isa Briones: Well, when I found out this was going to be part of the plot, Scott Gemmill let me know. He sent me an email and was like, “So we have this idea where you would sing. We thought maybe it would be a Filipino lullaby, but it’s up to you if you feel comfortable, and we defer to you on what you think would be good.”
So I was so excited about it, and I immediately called my dad and we started talking about it and brainstorming. There were a few Tagalog ones that we were thinking of, but then he remembered “Ili Ili Tulog Anay,” and he was like, “Wait, this actually feels really perfect for the storyline of the baby.” Also, we’ve heard Tagalog on the show so far, but we haven’t heard other Filipino languages. So it was cool to have this Ilonggo lullaby and have a little sprinkle in there. Obviously, there are no subtitles, so people don’t know exactly what’s being said.
But in a way, I think that’s kind of cooler. You don’t really need to know. You don’t need to understand the language to understand the heart of what’s happening in that moment. For Filipinos, it’s like, “Oh, this is so cool.” But also for Ilonggos, it’s like, “Whoa, wait, this is not usually a represented part of my culture in mainstream TV.” If there is Filipino representation, it’s usually Tagalog. So it felt like the right thing and also a cool representation of the broader Filipino spectrum.
AF: Can you share a few of the lyrics or explain what some of the lines mean?
Briones: Basically, the whole thing is hushing a baby to sleep, saying, “Sleep now.” It’s saying your mom isn’t here, your mom went to buy bread, but sleep now. It’s usually sung by an older sister or an aunt or someone like that to calm the child, saying, “Your mom is not here, but I’m here.”
And yeah, it felt just right for Baby Jane Doe because it’s kind of heartbreaking when you know what the sentiment of the song is. We don’t know where their mom is. I think for Santos too, the way I saw it was we’ve gotten little bits of information about her backstory and her family. She’s said a few things about her mom that suggest she maybe doesn’t get along with her mom. I know some of those things I’ve talked about with the writers haven’t necessarily been told in the story, but in my mind Santos has kind of a fraught relationship with her mom.
So I thought maybe this could have been sung to her by her Lola or someone else who was taking care of her. We’ve also talked about how Santos is the older sister to younger brothers and had to take on a lot of responsibility as kind of a third parent raising them. So it feels like it’s also a lullaby she would’ve sung to her brothers.
AF: There’s so much interesting depth in that background. You touched on something I find fascinating because this show represents not just Filipinos but Asian Americans so well, yet it’s never on the nose about it. Looking back over the past two seasons, was there a moment when you realized what this show was going to mean to Asian American audiences?
Briones: I mean, obviously it’s evolved, but right away I was just like, “Oh, this is so different.” Because when I was cast, they weren’t specifically looking for a Filipino person. They were great in that I was like, “Hey, can we change my last name to reflect me being half Filipino?” And that worked out great, but that wasn’t a big plot point.
But then once I actually read the storyline, when I read the first episode and I saw that there are two Filipino nurses and they’re two of the first people to speak, and they’re speaking in Tagalog, that was a moment where I was like, “Oh, this is different.” This is not just, “Oh, here we’ve got diversity and here it is.” No, we are actually touching on very specific things without hitting you over the head with it. It’s not like in the first five minutes they’re saying, “Filipinos need to be represented because blah, blah, blah.”
It’s not some big PSA, but it was told to all of us that the goal of this show was to be the most accurate medical show out there right now. And that was a moment where I was like, “They’re doing it.” Yeah, of course I don’t know the accuracy of real medicine, but I know that there are Filipinos in every hospital in this country, and yet in all of the medical shows we have, only just now are we seeing Filipino representation. So that was the moment where I thought, “Oh, this is going to be really, really special.”
And honestly, it made me cry the first time I saw the first episode. I was like, “Oh, I can’t wait for my family to see this. This is going to mean so much.”
AF: That’s a wonderful answer. Because the show only covers a single shift each season, there are a lot of story arcs introduced for Dr. Santos that don’t necessarily get immediate resolution. As an actor, which storyline was the most satisfying for you to play in Season 2? And conversely, which storyline still leaves you wanting to know more yourself?
Briones: Totally. That’s a great question.
I think the most satisfying thing, even though it’s not fully wrapped up, is the scene Patrick and I got to do because I think the audience had been waiting for that. We certainly had been waiting for that. We wanted to finally address this elephant in the room.
It was also such a special scene as an actor because when you’re doing a show like this, which is incredible and showcases these amazing actors, you’re often seeing subtext unfold through the medicine while you’re working on a patient. That’s when the relationships between characters slowly come out. But sometimes it’s also really nice to just do a scene and talk to another person, and that is the connection.
Those moments are very sparse on this show. So when you get one of those moments where it’s like, “Oh, this is just a scene between two people. No medicine involved. Just two people having a scene,” it means a lot. It’s like, “Oh, you need to watch this. This has hit a boiling point.”
As an actor, it’s so exciting because we got to do the thing you love as an actor. It’s just, “Oh, I’m communicating and connecting with this person across from me with nothing in between us.” That was kind of one of the only scenes we had this season where we could do that. It was satisfying both as an actor and as a fan of the show because we were finally giving the audience something they’d been waiting for.
The thing I want to explore more originally was addressed, but then some scenes were cut. I don’t know exactly why. It was probably a timing thing. But we addressed Santos’ self-harm history, and I think it’s really important to talk about that. We didn’t really get to do much with it in the end, so I’m hoping this season will actually get to address it more, not in a hitting-you-over-the-head kind of way, but in a way that gives a little more hope and explores the nuance of it.
I think self-harm is still such a taboo thing to talk about. Unfortunately, a lot of times in TV and film it can be used in a more exploitative way, or it’s romanticized or even sexualized. When I knew this was going to be a storyline, I was like, “Okay, we really need to do this right.”
I think we still need to honor it in the best way possible while also de-stigmatizing talking about it and letting it be this real thing, while also giving hope that it is a mental health struggle that can be worked through. There is a way forward. So yeah, I’m excited for this next season to hopefully explore that more.
AF: Going back to the scenes with Patrick, both of you come from strong theater backgrounds. When you’re working together, does that create a different dynamic or require a different approach compared to scenes with actors who come from other backgrounds?
Briones: I don’t know if it’s preparation. Working with any actor is going to be different just because everyone has their own way of being. But I think the nice thing about working with theater actors is you speak a similar language. Since we both come from that first, I think there’s a lot that doesn’t even have to be said. You’re exploring things at the same time and finding them together, and it doesn’t need to be super prescribed or, “Let’s do it this way” or “Let’s do it that way.” It doesn’t even have to be said out loud.
Even technically, it’s just, “Oh, let’s keep playing.” What was really amazing was that for that scene we had this season, Uta Briesewitz was our director, and she really let us have the floor. It started out as a very different thing than what it became, and I love when that happens. I think theater people love when that happens because that’s the part that’s really hard to lose when you move into TV: rehearsal.
Rehearsal is the most magical part to me. That’s when you’re finding everything. That’s when you throw things at the wall, and if they don’t work, fine, but at least you tried them and then you can keep honing. You don’t really get that in TV. It’s very fast paced. But that was a moment where it felt like everyone knew it was an important scene, and they gave it the time to become what it needed to be.
AF: In Season 1, Santos is often confident, and maybe even a little arrogant. In Season 2, I feel like we see her getting humbled. She’s buried in charts and administrative work, and carrying a lot more weight. Which version of Santos is more fun for you to play?
Briones: I think it’s definitely fun to play her more cocky side because she’s also cracking some crazy jokes, and it’s fun to be more lighthearted in that way. But I also think there’s something more truthful about this season, with her being humbled. You can see a weight pulling her down.
There are the material things right in front of her. She’s got her charts, she’s got all of this responsibility. But there’s also an emotional and mental weight that you can see in how she carries herself differently from Season 1.
I think getting to play an evolution and a change is the most fun thing as an actor. To have an A-to-B journey and really show the arc of that is cool. Especially in an ensemble show like this, you don’t get a lot of time to delve into every single person. You’re given these little moments, and you have to make the most of them.
Sometimes on the page they can look like nothing moments, but in a show like this, where you have very little time to leave your mark, every little moment counts. I think it’s often the throwaway moments and the silent moments that end up being the most impactful and the biggest window into who the character really is. So I really enjoyed playing that difference in Season 2.
AF: “The Pitt” isn’t usually a show that delivers happy endings or wraps everything up in a nice bow, but then we get the karaoke scene at the end of the season. I was curious what led to that decision because?
Briones: I’m not in the decision-making room, but I think it ties into a lot of what we talk about when discussing the show as an accurate medical drama.
It’s showing that it’s not always sadness and death because healthcare workers can’t let themselves go too deep into the sadness they see every day. There is gallows humor. They have to laugh at the little things. There has to be some levity or else no one would show up to work.
We talk about that a lot and how the show walks a really great line between being serious and emotional while also having very funny moments. I think the karaoke moment is another example of that.
The other day we had boot camp for Season 3, and we got to speak to a bunch of current residents at UCLA. They were from all different years, and it was so cool getting to talk to them, especially the R2s and R3s. They were like, “Yeah, we go party after.”
Of course, not everyone does that, and everyone has their own way of dealing with things. But there are people who are like, “Yeah, I’ve seen the worst things imaginable today. I need to go let that out somewhere. I need to do something completely different.”
I think it really is representative of how these lifesaving people have to bring light into their lives while doing what they do.
AF: I discovered you as a singer before I knew you as an actor. I think it was one of your videos with AJ Rafael. So I already knew what kind of singer you are. Which is harder: singing badly on purpose for a scene like this, or singing at your best on Broadway?
Briones: I love singing off-key. That’s one of my favorite things to do. My mom hates it, but pretending to sing badly is really fun.
I also think it takes a pretty good singer to believably sing badly. But with what we did here, I don’t know if I was trying to sound bad. I was trying to sound really drunk. I don’t sound great when I’m three or four shots in. At that point they’re singing “You Oughta Know.” She’s had a rough day. She’s scream-singing. She says it’s primal scream therapy. I think there’s very little attention being paid to pitch in that moment.
But I do think it takes a very well-trained ear to believably sound bad.
AF: Well, I think it ended up being one of the standout scenes of the season. You mentioned Season 3, so I have to ask: from a timeline standpoint, and only sharing what you’re allowed to share, should we expect Santos to make the jump from R2 to R3?
Briones: Well, I think it’s out there now. We’re only jumping ahead to November. So I think everyone’s kind of staying where they are because it’s not that big of a jump.
Obviously, I don’t know all the ins and outs, but I think it’s kind of cool to have more gradual jumps between seasons because so much happens. When we jumped to Season 2, I was like, “Ten months is a long time. So much has happened. I need to know.”
With this, it feels like we’re going to get to play with things that happened in Season 2 while they’re still fresh in Season 3. I don’t know what the season is about because they don’t tell us, but yeah, I think I’m still an R2.
AF: If the producers came to you and said, “You can play any other character on the show for a day,” who would you have the most fun playing?
Briones: Abbott. I think Abbott would be fun because Abbott and Santos feel very similar to me. Abbott just has more time and wisdom on his side, but I think they give off similar energy. It’s kind of giving Santos’ dad.
But also, he gets to be this renegade and say all the things that I think Santos likes to do and say, but she gets in trouble for it. He can kind of get away with it. So I think that would be fun.
AF: I’m sure there are plenty of people on the internet campaigning for a night-shift version of “The Pitt” as well.
Briones: I want it too. Everyone’s so good, and it’s such a different energy, but it’s so fun. I’d watch that.
AF: We’ve talked about several scenes throughout the season. Outside of the storyline with Patrick, was there another scene that you feel moved Santos’ character arc forward the most this year?
Briones: Unfortunately, the one I wanted to say got cut. But I think a close second would be the episode where she’s working with the Haitian family whose parents were deported.
I think you get to see, even though we haven’t explicitly told the audience that she’s an older sister to younger brothers, the connection she has with that kid and how she cares for him. It shows the type of caretaker she is and who she might be in her own family life.
So yeah, that was another really special storyline for me.
AF: Well, it’s been wonderful talking with you again. Before I let you go, is there anything in the theater world you’re working on right now, or did “The Pitt” pull you back into production too quickly?
Briones: I just finished something, “Just in Time,” but now we’re back in full swing with “The Pitt.” There are a lot of things to be explored at a later time. I can’t really talk about them yet.
But theater has not seen the end of me. It can’t. Mark my words.
AF: It’s been a pleasure. Congratulations on a wonderful season, and thanks again for taking the time.
Briones: Thanks, Ben. Have a good one.