Before the Emmys, Noah Wyle won the hearts of a Pittsburgh hospital
The star of The Pitt, Wyle captured the Emmy for lead actor in a drama. He earned the admiration of the staff at the Steel City facility where some scenes were shot.
Noah Wyle won his first Emmy for his starring role in “The Pitt,” the acclaimed series set in a Pittsburgh hospital’s emergency department.
But months before, he captured the hearts of employees at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. While most of the show is filmed in Los Angeles, some scenes were shot at the Pittsburgh hospital over a few days last year.
During a press tour to promote the show, Wyle visited Allegheny General and spent hours talking to staff and taking pictures. Dan Laurent, senior vice president of corporate communications at Highmark Health, the hospital’s parent organization, says Wyle warmly interacted with staff.
“Noah Wyle has been amazing, and the producers have been amazing,” Laurent told Chief Healthcare Executive® in a recent interview.
(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)
When Wyle visited the hospital, he met with many of the staff.
“He came down, and he spent several hours at the hospital getting his photograph with every single person who wanted their photograph with him,” Laurent recalled. “Just so, so gracious. And as you can imagine, the staff love him. And it was really fun. So he spent time in the emergency department and then other parts of the hospital that he wanted to visit.”
Wyle comes across as “a genuine, good guy,” Laurent said.
“When we found out we had the opportunity to have him actually come into the hospital and meet with people, the team of the staff, the ER staff, was through the moon,” he said.
The producers of The Pitt held a screening of the first episode at Allegheny General. Wyle and the producers were in Los Angeles putting the finishing touches on other episodes of the show’s first season. But Wyle and others appeared via Zoom before the hospital on the screening day.
Wyle “zoomed in from his home and took questions from the audience,” Laurent said.
The show has received widespread praise for showing an accurate portrayal of the emergency department, and the stress on clinicians.
Wyle and the show’s actors and producers were meticulous in their work, Laurent says. “You hear a lot about Noah Wyle, you know, he's amazing, and you watch him, it's almost like you feel like he could be providing care at one of your ERs, because … you would never know that he's not an actual doctor. And that goes for a lot of the other folks on the program as well. They have really nailed the casting of this program.”
The Pitt captured the Emmy for best drama series, and Katherine LaNasa won for best supporting actress in a drama. The show captured five Emmy awards.
During his acceptance speech Sunday night, Wyle said, “If anybody is going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job. This is for you.”
The second season of The Pitt is slated to debut on HBO Max in January.
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