Shawn Hatosy just pulled off one of this Emmy season’s riskier gambles, and it paid off. The “Pitt” actor scored a nomination Wednesday for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series, one of 25 nods the HBO Max medical drama collected for its second season, nearly double the 13 it earned for its debut run.
The nomination caps an unusual category jump. Hatosy won last year’s outstanding guest actor Emmy for playing Dr. Jack Abbot in the show’s first season, and he remained eligible to compete there again after appearing in six of season two’s 15 episodes, just enough to stay under the 50 percent threshold. Instead, his team submitted him as a supporting actor, a move that forecloses any future guest-category run for the role but pits him directly against castmates Patrick Ball and Gerran Howell, who play fellow doctors Frank Langdon and Dennis Whitaker.
Hatosy, working on set for season three when the nominations were read Wednesday morning, called the honor overwhelming. He plays a combat medic turned emergency physician whose bluntness and dark humor mask a man he describes as running on borrowed time. Asked about Abbot’s bond with Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby, the show’s lead, Hatosy pointed to a shared irony: two doctors who can handle any medical emergency but struggle badly with their own wellbeing. “When it comes to their own mental health, they’re complete idiots,” he said, noting that one of them recently opted to ride a motorcycle cross-country without a helmet.
The actor also directed season two’s episode “3:00 P.M.,” marking his directorial debut on the series, and said he’s set to direct again in season three. He described the show’s demands as unlike anything else he’s worked on, citing its rapid-fire medical dialogue and tightly choreographed camera work.
Before “The Pitt,” Hatosy spent years cycling through auditions with little to show for it; he has said he went 0-for-60 on self-tapes after his series “Animal Kingdom” ended in 2021. Now 50 and a three-decade veteran of film and television, including “Southland,” “Dexter” and multiple “Law & Order” entries, he says the sudden recognition hasn’t changed how he approaches the work. He still considers himself a “working-class actor” who has to keep fighting for roles.
“The Pitt” led all drama series in nominations this year, with Wyle also up for lead actor and directing, and Katherine LaNasa returning to the supporting actress race alongside co-stars Sepideh Moafi and Fiona Dourif. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards air live on NBC and Peacock on September 14.
