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ISA BRIONES: I’m someone who doesnt usually read things.
I’m a very sensitive person, and I don’t need all that noise.
Image by Zanda Rice
You know how the internet can be.
Some people are like, Oh my god, I love her.
I can fix her!
Image via HBO
[Laughs] But then there’s also the people who are like, I loathe her.
She’s obnoxious, and I’m like, That’s great.
I think that’s what the show does really well.
People want to discuss.
That’s my favorite part of taking in art, is talking about it with other people.
It just makes you want to talk about it.
Image via Max
We’re getting the breadcrumbs about each character bit by bit, piece by piece.
Because it’s a pretty heavy piece of backstory.
BRIONES: That was definitely talked about.
Image via Max
There were a lot of things I didn’t know specific storyline-wise.
We all know this girl.
We all know that there’s something deeper going on.
That just doesn’t happen.
Of course, this affects you.
Of course, death affects you.
Of course, different things are going to hurt.
Yeah, I think they’ve done a really good job with that.
Are her instincts correct?
That was the genius of that storyline, too; you didn’t know who was in the right.
Also, Santos is putting herself out there on a professional limb.
If she’s wrong about this, she could lose her job.
So, early-ish on, I got to know what that was going to be.
I was like, Are people going to think, This is too thin?
I just started to kind of go through what the audience would be thinking in that moment.
What does that say about me and what I was thinking of her and of him?
But even I, as the actor, was like, Are people gonna really hate this?
Because we all do.
BRIONES: It’s a lot.
For me,I’ve never been a super squeamish person.
Usually, if I get my blood drawn, I’m watching it.
I want to see.
Also, when you’re doing it and you know it’s a prosthetic, it’s OK.
The foot was hard.
The foot wasnt so much like [gags].
It was more just like, Wow.
I cannot believe these makeup artists do what they do.
It’s amazing.The nail in the heart was one thing that I was surprised really got me.
They’ve got this heart, and they have someone at the bottom of the bed pumping the heart.
There’s blood and, like, creamy things, and this thing with the blood coming out.
But it’s amazing.
Our makeup and effects artists are so insanely talented.
They really make it very, very realistic.
BRIONES: We definitely were like, OK, something has to happen.
We’re not quite sure…
But we could all kind of infer, OK, something tragic is going to happen.
There’s going to be some mass casualty of some sort.
We weren’t sure if it was a shooting.
We didn’t know for quite a while.
We had to do the helipad stuff and all sorts of things.
But unfortunately,mass shootings happen way more often than anything like this should ever happen.
Why not talk about it?
I think it’s in theme with the whole show.
Don’t look away.
This is what it is.
Stay on the journey with us.
The show invites you to be along for the ride of a 15-hour shift.
You are in the E.R.
BRIONES: We definitely rehearse things, and we give a shot to get the general shape of things.
Of course, when it’s very intensely medical, we rehearse a lot.
You are going to be running into each other.
At the beginning, they were like, It should feel like a documentary.
It just really adds to the very realistic nature of the whole thing.
Taylor also told me that in the midst of this, Mel is very laser-focused.
Obviously, she has some other motives, but thats still at the center of a lot of things.
It’s very cool.
It’s an emotional scene, too, that speech.
I remember watching it and seeing how many of the nurses and doctors were tearing up.
Did some of that stem from real emotions about wrapping Season 1?
[Laughs] I have to really keep myself in check because he’s such a moving performer.
Santos inviting Whitaker to move in with her is such a sweet moment.
That’s just her sense of humor, and that’s the pop in of person she is.
Also, its something to hold over someone’s head.
[Laughs] Now, he’s forever in her debt.
It’s just about two people.
And Gerran [Howell] is so fun to work with.
We had a lot of fun with that.
All episodes ofThe Pittare available to stream on Max.
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