Supriya Ganesh of ‘The Pitt’ has high hopes for Dr. Samira Mohan

Don’t let that overshadow her work. As Dr. Samira Mohan, Ganesh provided an empathetic anchor and continued examinations of the crumbling American health care system. I spoke with her ahead of the season two finale to get her thoughts on the season as well as its unfortunate relevance to modern times. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Devan Suber: Between The Pitt premiering and the second season finale, you’ve had quite an interesting year.
Supriya Ganesh: It's been really crazy. I was out with Lucas (Iverson, who plays medical student James Ogilvie) and Laëtitia (Hollard, who plays new nurse Emma Nolan) at Attaboy (in New York) trying to get a drink and joked to Lucas, “Oh my god, you should talk to this bouncer, because you're the most recognizable of all of us.” And this lady near us said, “Yeah, it's definitely true for you. I don't know about the rest of your friends.” [Laughs]. I’m usually recognized when I’m on my way to the gym or hungover in a CVS. My hair is almost like this disguise I have right now, at least.

DS: You’re one of the cast members who’s most active on Twitter (X) other than Shabana Azeez (who plays Dr. Victoria Javadi). Have you felt the need to adjust your online presence?
SG: She’s so funny! I want to study her brain. I've had to take more breaks compared to season one, and I've had to learn when to mute certain things because it's really weird to see your face pop up on your phone. I get more good out of it than not. I’m grateful for my education and intellectual curiosity, because it keeps me from doing and saying dumb things online.

DS: How did your performance change from season one and did you suggest anything to the writers?
SG: (Show creator R. Scott Gemmil) wanted me to speak something to my mom. I decided that Samira speaks Tamil to her mom, because she spoke it to her deceased father and because I'm also Tamil. It was a kind of intergenerational translation that was really fun to add. 

She’s very reserved, which presents a challenge for an actor to make sure that your internal imagery and story are really clear for yourself. She feels more confident and validated from proving herself in the ER during the mass casualty incident, but it unravels as the shift wears on.

DS: How would you describe your arc? She seems to be having the worst day of her life.
SG: I don't think anyone's having a good day. Her dad died of a heart attack due to mismanagement of care, which she feels was racially motivated. This day is particularly devastating because the audience can see that she did everything she could to make (her patient) Orlando stay. But there's systems and structures in place preventing care, which makes her sympathize with that doctor. Were there staffing shortages, a time crunch? Is it unfair to feel betrayed now that she’s in a similar position?

DS: You see that with Robby; he goes from kindhearted doctor to abusive boss. How does she view her relationship to him?
SG: Definitely as a boss, but also a father figure. All she's ever really wanted at PTMC was to feel, at bare minimum, that this person respected her. She’s projecting onto him as a father figure because of her trauma. By the end of the shift, she gets some form of that respect, but it’s a messed up relationship overall.

DS: What was your feeling on her state of mind as she gathered on the roof with everyone in the finale?
SG: We actually filmed that scene in September before knowing the ending. (Writer and director) John Wells told us to just imagine really bad things happening to all of us as a group because he didn’t know what they were yet, but we wanted to take advantage of the weather. 

DS: How did the ICE plotline relate to your own background?
SG: My parents are naturalized immigrants. I was lucky enough to get citizenship here, but I also feel like an immigrant because I lived in India for most of my life. Now they're trying to get rid of birthright citizenship, which really upsets me. I just don't think we should get to delegate who deserves to be here based on ambiguous criteria. I want America to be a cultural melting pot of languages and identities. It's really frustrating to see how rights are even being rolled back. 

DS: My brothers and I were born in the U.S., so I’ve never had to deal with the process. I feel like it's a catch-22 where you can't do anything unless you have a ton of money.
SG: Totally. Seeing the hoops that my international student friends jumped through was really disheartening. I'm proud of the ICE storyline. We couldn’t have known what would happen in Minneapolis, but it's only an hour and I hope it's a conversation starter that people will see and look into just how mistreated immigrants are in this country.

DS: Where do you see Mohan going after this season?
SG: I hope she goes somewhere where she has an attending that thinks she's fit to be in the ER, maybe if Dr. Al-Hashimi takes over. It's been really interesting thinking about how different her experience of the ER might have been if she had a different attending.

DS: Do you generally like watching yourself, and will you be watching now that you’ve left?
SG: I actually don't watch the show. I watch some bits of other people's work and sometimes I'll watch my own work if I have notes. But I don't really watch the show because I run through it so much from table reads and other people’s scenes. I’m not sure if that will change because I don’t generally like watching myself.