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‘The Pitt' director Amanda Marsalis faced ‘a wall of death and destruction' in Emmy-nominated episode
'When I first walked onto the set of The Pitt, it was so realistic,' recalls director Amanda Marsalis. She continues, "I was going, 'I'm not sick, I can go home.'' Watch our full interview above with Marsalis joining our Gold Derby "Meet the Experts" directors panel.
The medical drama for HBO Max stars Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch. Each of the episodes chronicles a subsequent real-time hour of a shift in the emergency room at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Marsalis compares the role of director to being an ER doctor, adding, 'I'm not saving anyone's lives to be very clear, but it is a lot like an orchestra. You are leading and you need to be aware of all pieces at all times. I mean, I do feel very close to Noah, you know, as the leader of our world there."
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This year The Pitt received 13 Emmy nominations. Marsalis received one of these for Best Drama Directing. It was for her work on the "6:00 P.M" episode where the ER has to deal with a slew of patients after a nearby mass shooting. The director describes it as 'like a wall of death and destruction coming at you.' She also says, 'The biggest challenge was making sure that the emotion of what was happening stayed in the episode. Because a lot happens. There's a lot of gore and medical technical work that has to be in there. But it's really important that we care. That was the balance of telling the technical story and also what it felt like.'
On telling a story in a hospital, Marsalis reflects, 'People don't know how to deal with things. So, there is a wonderful messiness to the humanity in The Pitt. There's something about a bunch of people just trying to do good work. It's watching life struggles of people who have decided to spend their lives in service of other people. I think it's a really special show. And it's not like a medical drama is necessarily something I thought that I would find this much meaning in, but I do.'
This article and video are presented by HBO Max.
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