The Pitt slowly hinted that Patrick Ball‘s character, Langdon, was stealing drugs from the hospital — but somehow it still came as a surprise when the show confirmed his addiction.
During the Thursday, March 6, episode of Max’s hit medical series, Dr. Santos (Isa Briones) expressed her concerns to Robby (Noah Wyle) about missing pills and a tampered bottle of Lorazepam. Robby confronted Langdon about the discrepancy, which led to the senior resident being dismissed from his position at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital.
“All credit goes to our creator R. Scott Gemmill and the writers because it’s never who you think when it comes to addiction,” Ball exclusively told Us Weekly about Langdon acknowledging his problem. “Addiction is a disease and it’s a disease that a lot of people fight with — including a lot of people I know.”
Ball noted the intention behind making Robby’s right-hand man the one secretly struggling, adding, “People don’t come out and tell you that they’re an addict. The person might not be the one hunched over in a chair. It might be the quarterback of the football team. You don’t know what the person across from you is going through.”
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According to the actor, the writers’ room was “really great about being really measured” in the hints and clues leading to the reveal.
“[It was also about] making sure that we depict this addiction as accurately and humanely and responsibly as possible,” he continued. “It’s just been an incredible pleasure and honor to get to be part of telling that story.”
The Pitt, which premiered in January, introduced Us to a group of employees at a fictional hospital working a single 15-hour emergency department shift. While Langdon quickly formed a professional bond with Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden), he wasn’t as receptive to mentoring Dr. Santos. The intern subsequently came to pick up on Langdon’s questionable behavior — but the signs were there all along for viewers, as well.
“He refers to having hurt his back while helping his parents move and that is frequently the case. He goes to a doctor who gives him pain meds and then those are habit-forming pain meds. This happens all the time. This happens with people that I know that are very, very high functioning,” Ball explained. “You see this opioid problem that is just riddling itself all across this country. It’s really sad because it’s not people that ever set out to become addicts. It’s people that trust and that get caught in a trap. That’s part of what happened with Langdon.”
Off screen, Ball used his personal connection to the story line to help build upon Langdon’s characterization.
“I’ve got someone in my life who is the star of the family, ran the family farm and then blew out his knee working one day. He goes to a doctor, gets put on pain meds and then it’s just a slippery slope and it just really takes control of your life,” he detailed. “There’s also an element that this sort of self-medicating is something that is not uncommon amongst emergency workers. Every day they deal with a lot of trauma and a lot of unprocessed feelings of their own. It’s not uncommon for people to self-medicate when put in that situation.”
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He continued: “So being able to raise awareness to that in a way that isn’t like, ‘Oh, this is a junkie doctor.’ It’s like, ‘No, this is your doctor and this is your neighbor and this is your sister that may be going through this.’ It’s been really cool [to represent that].”
The reveal about Langdon also vindicates Dr. Santos. Before Thursday’s episode, Briones, 26, spoke to Us about how viewers may be judging her character too quickly considering she was correct in her concerns regarding Langdon.
“Not everyone is going to like Santos. But it is funny that when I’ve talked to people — even on set — they would be like, ‘Oh, you’re such a tattletale.’ At the end of the day though, this was something wrong that was going on and she exposed it,” Briones told Us. “Obviously she has a very aggressive way about her and can be pretty arrogant. Her carrying herself that way leads people to being kind of like, ‘What the hell are you doing? Stay in your lane.’ But at the end of the day, it was something that was wrong and needed to be reported. It is illegal.”
Briones was relieved to see that Santos was right, adding, “It’s a cool moment for the audience to be like, ‘OK, maybe that was right of her. I don’t like her. I don’t like what she did but maybe she was correct.’ It will also make the audience ask themselves what was their bias there? People wanted to really like him but then if Langdon is doing something wrong then why are they choosing to cover up for a man instead of believing a woman. That’s what made that story line very interesting.”
Regardless of what side of the conversation each viewer falls under, Ball’s performance has received praise by critics and fans alike. Ball was excited to have The Pitt be his first TV role — aside from a quick Law & Order guest spot.
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“It was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t dream of a better first TV show. I’ve spent a little over 10 years doing theater, doing plays and this is the perfect place for a theater person. We move fast. And I’ve been told that the way it normally goes is actors go back to their little trailer and then the crew set up the lights and they set up the dolly and they set up all this,” he explained. “Then they go fetch the actors, who come out and [after they film their scene they] then they go back to the trailer. But with this, there’s none of that.”
Ball highlighted how there was “no backstage” on a show like The Pitt.
“We are all in all the time. All the crew is on set with us and it creates just this mass. You’re just part of the world. Once you’re in it, you’re just in it and everybody’s in it with you,” he gushed. “There’s no time to get in your head. We will rehearse, then we’ll shoot, then we’ll go straight into rehearsal, then we’ll shoot again and there’s no break.”
New episodes of The Pitt premiere on Max every Thursday.
