It can be hard to predict which TV shows will become major hits, not just through their ability to reel in viewers but also by becoming the subject of online watercooler conversation with every new episode. When The Pitt first premiered, word-of-mouth led to more and more people tuning in week after week — and now, it’s become one of the biggest streaming successes of the year, with a highly anticipated second season already in the works. The HBO Max original series, created by R. Scott Gemmill and starring Noah Wyle, follows the overworked and understaffed doctors and nurses of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, specifically those who work in the high-stakes emergency room. As the story unfolds in real time, with each hour-long episode corresponding to an hour of the day staff’s shift, viewers get a front-row seat to every single moment, ranging from everyday accidents to major mass traumas. In the wake of The Pitt’s groundbreakingly successful first season, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Tracy Ifeachor, who plays senior resident Dr. Heather Collins, about some of her character’s biggest moments. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Ifeachor discusses what the response has been like, both from the medical community and via random encounters in passing, as well as how Collins’ surprising non-medical background informs her approach in the ER. She also reveals why she wants to leave the truth beneath Collins and Robby’s (Wyle) ambulance conversation up to the audience, why she thinks Collins would have returned to the hospital for the season’s mass-casualty event, what she can tease about Season 2, and more. COLLIDER: What has the response been like from viewers, especially as the show was growing in buzz? Do you find yourself being recognized now for The Pitt? TRACY IFEACHOR: I spend a lot of time in New York, where I was working on the project I did immediately after. I remember I had been away from New York for a little bit, so you know when you get on a fast train instead of a local, you’re like, “Oh, great!” [Laughs] I got off, and I was in my running gear, and there were three men staring at me. I thought, “I’m going to just keep my eyes forward. Don’t make eye contact.” Then one of them was like, “Hey! Hey, you!” I was like, “Oh, hello, sir. How are you doing?” He’s like, “You’re on The Pitt!” “Oh. Yes. Yes, I am.” He went, “Good job.” [Laughs] Getting off the subway! There was something about the way that they were dressed, the way that they were standing, once I finally looked at them, that I finally realized they weren’t going to try and do something. I thought, “Yeah. They’re doctors.” The response from the medical profession has been overwhelmingly good, and that was something that we were already keen to make sure we would portray really accurately, every procedure. The real doctors on the show would have so much grace for me. I would be like, “Can we go over this at lunchtime? Can we do this?” They were like, “No, you’ve got it!” I’m just really glad that it paid off, that I look like a real doctor on the show. I started to think like one, too, because I got really good at intubating patients. I said to one of the doctors, “I think I could do this for real. What do you think?” He went, “Um…” [Laughs] I remember just feeling devastated. I was like, “But if there’s nobody else on the face of the earth, and it was just me and this person who needs intubation, could I do it?” He was like, “Only if everyone else on the planet had just disappeared.” I was like, “Yes! I’m taking it.”
Tracy Ifeachor Explains How Dr. Collins’ Non-Medical Background Informs Her Approach to ‘The Pitt’

“She didn’t follow the conventional route.”

Image via Max

In terms of what the show does with revealing information about your characters, you’re not having to do this big backstory infodump. We’re getting these breadcrumbs that are doled out over the course of the shift. Your co-stars have shared that before filming started, there were conversations with Carly Lane R. Scott [Gemmill] and [EP] John [Wells] about helpful backstory information. What did you learn about Collins, apart from what we see on screen, that really helped you when it came time to start filming? IFEACHOR: So much. Obviously, we didn’t get into it this season, but I learned that she came from finance, and that was her background. She actually came to medicine later in life. She didn’t follow the conventional route; she did a kind of fast-track version because she was at the top of her field in finance, and then she came into medicine when, I guess, she became disillusioned with some of the things that were going on with some of those institutions. So, she lands in this hospital, saving people and working on people. In finance, there’s a precision there, isn’t there? Two and two can’t make 4.3. It has to be exact. It needs to be precise. You need to measure trends and things like this. For me, playing Dr. Collins, I really took on board this pursuit of excellence and wanting and needing the result to be what she hoped it would be. When it isn’t, we see her disappointment. We see her feeling like she’s a failure. We see her blaming herself. Even the scene in the bathroom, which was so well directed by Silver Tree, we played around with the idea of, “What does it look like when you feel like your body’s failed you?” Even though we know a miscarriage isn’t your body failing you, this is what people think sometimes. I played around with that, and [Silver] was amazing. She was like, “Whatever you want to do. Whatever you feel like.” I spent the time watching and listening to over 300 hours of testimonials from women and their families who had miscarried, and what that was like, and seeing the hope and the expectation go, seeing the blame, the endless feeling of hopelessness, and trying to get all of that into this small moment. And it carries on because it’s all set in one day. That was such an amazing challenge as an actor to carry that for all of those months, and just wanting to be excellent at something, but it failing every time. It really took me to some interesting places, creatively.
Tracy Ifeachor Trusted Noah Wyle During Their Most Emotional Scene in ‘The Pitt’ Season 1

“We both have very different ways of approaching a scene.”

Image via Max

I really love how it finally comes out in the moment between Collins and Robby in the ambulance, where she opens up to him — and talks about her previous experience, where she did choose to have an abortion. The show has established that they did have some level of a relationship before, even though they’re not together now. Did you and Noah [Wyle] have any conversation or rehearsal in advance, or did you leave room to surprise each other in the moment? IFEACHOR: I love what I do now, but my roots are theater. I’m a classically trained actor here in England. I love what theater gives you, and when you learn through theater, what that gives you, and how it can translate onto the screen, is so wonderful. It’s a different way of working completely, and it’s a different process, and it’s a different way of interacting with your fellow scene partner. I don’t want to speak for Noah, but from my experience, we both have very different ways of approaching a scene. Neither right, neither wrong. Just different. For Noah, he’s very focused on the whole piece because he’s got so many hats he’s wearing with the camera angles, and is the director carrying the vision? Is the writing? Sometimes he is the writer, and sometimes he’s directing all of the medical scenes, and sometimes he’s doing this. I feel like for him, it’s an overarching piece, and then he’s the scene partner. There are so many hats to wear. For me, I just give space for the other artists. If they want to engage on that level, if they want to talk, if they want to really get into it, if they want to do that before a scene or along the road, I really remain open to that. If not, then we just see what happens in the moment and just trust that each of us knows what we’re doing. We can trust the moment, and we can trust each other in this moment — that we, despite different styles of working, both really love this show and love these characters and want this to succeed. That’s what we ended up doing, just trusting the writing and trusting that we both know what we’re doing and that we’re just going to be really available to each other in that moment, and let anything else go. It ended up really working.

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She also discusses getting the Pittsburgh accent right, the experience of filming the mass-casualty three-parter, and more.

There’s a look that Noah gives you, when Collins is talking about her abortion, that led a lot of viewers to wonder if she’s referencing a decision that she made while they were together. Was that your interpretation of the scene as well? Was there any deeper insight that the writers gave? IFEACHOR: I don’t know if you ever saw the English version of The Office. One of the characters goes in, and he says this stuff to her and declares his love, but we never hear it from the outside. Someone asked one of the actors, “What did he say?” And she went, “I’m not going to tell you because it’s really private.” I was so happy because I always feel like if the person who’s playing it answers it, then that becomes the thing. I’m such a huge fan of inviting an audience to make their own decision, make their own mind up. It’s a bit like reading a book, and then the book becomes a movie, and you go, “Oh, he’s got green eyes now?” It takes away, especially if you loved the book, most of the time — even though I would watch it if I hadn’t read the book, and go, “Oh, it’s amazing!” But then you read the book, and you go, “Oh, I would have put this.” For that reason, I feel like I’m going to continue in that vein to invite the audience to decide for themselves what that moment means. Then it becomes more exciting, I think, rather than saying it’s this or it’s that, because I think that is what The Pitt is like. You never know. Nothing’s ever really certain unless a person has actually passed away.
Tracy Ifeachor Has Thoughts on Whether Collins Would’ve Come Back to ‘The Pitt’ After Going Home

“Would she not hear the sirens?”

Image via Max

On the heels of everything that Collins has been dealing with, she’s gone home by the time the mass casualty event happens. As someone who has inhabited this character and knows them as well as the writers, do you think, if she had turned her phone back on and seen any messages, she would have come back to the hospital? IFEACHOR: Dr. Collins had the miscarriage around hour seven, and then hour 11 into 12, goes home. I feel like once the worst has happened — you’ve been suspecting, “I think it’s happening again, I think it’s happening again” — once you see it, I feel like a decision has been made. She’s made this decision to stay. There are some practical things. You would need to go and take a shower. You’d need to go and do some things, some personal care things. But I feel like Collins is always someone who puts other people first, and would’ve continued to do that 100% through that. It’s the way they decide to break a story in a writers’ room. They’ve got such a tough job. I don’t envy them at all, putting this piece together and putting it together so well. I once tried turning my phone off for an hour. It didn’t work at all. I couldn’t do anything. So I was like, “How would this be? I don’t understand. Would she not hear the sirens?” Because she would live close by; she’s a shift worker. But we always have our own… where we write a scene in our heads 10,000 different ways, but there’s a whole piece that they’re putting together. They know how they want the story broken. Season 2 is preparing to start filming soon. Is there anything you can tease about what’s in store for Collins? IFEACHOR: There is nothing I can say for many different reasons. I have a family member who I call a ruiner. She will literally tell you, “Oh, the scene where so-and-so dies?” I’m like, “That’s like the main part of the whole movie.” I think there’s even a Netflix joke about that. I’m determined not to be a ruiner, because I really do give them some stink about being a ruiner. I am not going to ruin or tease anything. But I will say, just as in Season 1, we have a fantastic cast. I always continue to look forward to amazing things, like the next thing coming up for me that I got to shoot during the time I was at home. I can’t wait to speak about my upcoming project that comes out before. That’ll be the next thing that comes out for me, and I’m so excited to shout out when I’m allowed to speak about it. We always just keep on moving forward to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next, and supporting whatever else comes in the meantime.