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‘The Pitt' Star Supriya Ganesh on Wanting to See More of Samira's Personal Life in Season 2 and Using She/They Pronouns: ‘Hey, I'm Queer. See Me'
'The Pitt' star Supriya Ganesh was close to quitting acting before she booked the role of Dr. Samira Mohan on the hit Max medical drama.
She was seriously considering going to medical school. Yes, before playing a doctor on 'The Pitt,' Ganesh almost became one in real life.
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'I always wanted to be an actor. That was something that I really wanted to do,' she tells me during a Zoom from San Diego, where she's starring in the world premiere of the comedy play 'House of India' at the Old Globe Theatre. 'But my parents, and bless them, I think I really understand this now, they were just like, 'We support you, but we want you to have a good backup plan.' So I got into college pre-med, majored in neuroscience. While I was in college, I started auditioning, and things started working out a lot faster than I had heard they would. So I took a step back from the medicine and decided to act a little bit.'
But then everything came to a standstill due to the writers and actors strikes followed by some auditions for too many lousy projects. 'I just thought, 'Is this the best use of my talent?' Ganesh recalls. 'You get a lot of stuff when you're auditioning, where you're just like, 'Come on. I'm not a writer, but I think I could write something better than that.''
Before landing 'The Pitt,' which takes place over a 15-hour shift at a Pittsburgh emergency room lead by Dr, Michael 'Robby' Robinavitch (Noah Wylie), Ganesh appeared on 'Blue Bloods,' 'New Amsterdam,' 'Chicago Med,' 'Billions' and 'Grown-ish.'
'I never thought I would get my break in something that would be so artistically and creatively fulfilling as 'The Pitt,'' says Ganesh. 'When it worked out, it felt like everything in my life had led up to that moment, honestly. Even the week that I was auditioning and getting called back, it felt like something was watching over me or. A bird pooped on me, which if you ask any Indian, is good luck.'
Oh my gosh. I'm glad you're doing OK.
I'm not surprised at all. I had the exact same thought when I got the script when I was auditioning for it. I have some background in medicine.
Nothing compared to the doctors on set. But when I got it, I remember thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I can suspend my disbelief for this because there's actually a logical flow to this intubation. Someone with a medical degree was involved.' I think this maybe sounds conceited to say, but I'm not surprised at how well it's doing either because I knew in that moment that there was nothing like this on TV before.
What's so funny is that before 'The Pitt,' whenever I auditioned for doctors, I would do a big song and dance. Sometimes I would add a clip where I was explaining something really medical, or I would solve the medical mystery that was in the script and be like, 'This is what makes the most sense.' But no one really cared. So by the time I got to 'The Pitt,' I was just like, 'All right, I'm just going to say I got a really great score on the MCAT. I'll just tail that to the end of my slate, and if they notice, they notice.'
I love that she's such a great patient advocate. I feel like she was written in response to a lot of trouble that's brewing in the medical system these days, and I think she's really trying to push against it in her own individual way. It is an act of optimism to go, 'I know the system's not going to change, but I am still going to give this person my 100%, and I might get shit for it, but that's fine. I'm still going to give this person as much as I possibly can.' I think that's just so beautiful about her.
I have not seen anything. I'm learning about everything the same way that you are, which is through the grapevine. The only thing I know, same as you, is that it's set on a July 4th weekend and it's Langdon's [Patrick Ball] first day back. That's the only thing I really know. I mean, obviously, I have hopes and desires and dreams of where things go
Maybe something a little bit more into Samira's personal life. I think they explored how lonely she was in Season 1. Does she socialize a little bit more? Is there something going on with her mom? Does she reach back out to her after this, or does she not? I think looking a little bit more into what her life outside the hospital looks like to the extent that they can, I think, would be so wonderful.
It is absolutely a relationship with my own queerness as well as race. Coming to America [Ganesh was born in the U.S., but was three years old when her parents moved the family back to India], I was very shocked by how restrictive the gender roles are, because in India you have the existence of a third gender. There is a little more fluidity in how men present themselves, women present themselves. So I think coming here, I felt this instinctive need to want to react against it, which I think is interesting because I feel like a lot of the times I do present as pretty femme. But there are a couple of times where I'm existing outside of that, and I don't always totally feel like I'm fitting into what I think is a very white-conceived perception of femininity. So that was a decision I think I made about a year and a half ago, actually influenced by Lily Gladstone in her decision to adopt she/they pronouns in acknowledgement of third-spirit people and some two-spirit people, I think that was a moment where I felt really seen, where I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I don't need to fit into this.' Even though I feel like I identify a lot more with femininity, that doesn't mean I always fit into what is a very Western idea of it. So I think that was why I made that decision. It also feels like a little bit of a shout-out, being like, 'Hey, I'm queer. See me.' I feel like sometimes I pass really well. I also want queer brown women to look at me and know that that's someone they can turn to and relate to.
I think I made the decision before I started this career in earnestness to be as authentic as I possibly could. I mean, it's that same idea of picking someone to write to and writing to them. I feel like I want to make art and exist in art for other South Asian people. And if I'm not being as authentic and true to myself as I possibly can be, then what am I doing? And I just think especially in this generation of Gen Z, which I'm so happy to be a part of, I think that we see so much more queerness and fluidity even with all the restrictions that are happening — and there are so many that I am so frustrated by and angry about — I think people are able to express themselves a little bit more because at least there is this social acceptance, if not a legal acceptance. At least, it's getting pushed a little bit more. And I just think that's really beautiful, and I hope more people feel freer to accept themselves wherever on the spectrum that they may lie.
I still can't believe I got so lucky to do this play and originate the part. I actually got really emotional last night thinking about the fact that this play is going to get printed, and my name's going to be there. The cast is all AAPI people. We have three South Asian people, one Thai person. And it's so gorgeous to be able to debate things about South Asian culture and South Indian culture, even more specifically, within that sort of safe space. And I'm Tamilian, and so when I read this play and there was Tamil in it, I was like, 'Oh my God, I have to be a part of it.' The play is centered around a restaurant. The foods that they mention are so specific. My mother would cook these things for me. It had such a hold on me from the beginning.
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
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