When Dr. Jack Abbot enters the high-BPM chaos of the fictional emergency room in The Pitt, heart rates settle—but not for long. Shawn Hatosy, nominated at Monday night’s Emmy Awards (and a winner last year), plays the attending physician with something of his own cool, coquettish competence.
“I wanted to bring as much of the essence of me into that role as possible,” Hatosy told me the morning after the ceremony, where his show won six of its whopping 25 nominations, including a second consecutive award for Outstanding Drama Series.
Who’s Shawn Hatosy, then? “Somebody you would go to the bar and have a beer with,” he says.
He also happens to be gracious in defeat. Though Hatosy missed out on his second consecutive Emmy, he was as impressed by Tom Pelphrey’s performance in Task as the Television Academy. “It could have won the lead actor award, in my opinion,” gushed the 50-year-old, who’s busy filming the HBO drama’s third season, in which he gets to direct the fifth episode. “Once Tom Pelphrey came out, I had to go give him a hug because I’m just proud of him and his work.”
Later on, Hatosy, his wife, and a few-too-many plus-ones headed to an after-party at San Vicente Bungalows, where he ran into trouble at the door. “Even if you’re wearing Louis Vuitton, they might not let you in,” he joked, before we got to talking about his starry night, an upcoming project with Olivia Colman, and life as an ER heartthrob.
How are you feeling after last night?
Oh my God. I’m not actually working today on The Pitt, but they started at 11:00, which is much later than we normally start. And we just had a little get-together celebrating last night’s win. It was amazing.
It was so sweet to see the entire cast up there.
It’s nice also to see us all out of scrubs, which I was commenting on last night.
Totally. You were in Louis Vuitton last night, right?
I know. You can’t beat that. I mean, I couldn’t imagine a kid from Ijamsville, Maryland who’s suddenly wearing this brilliant designer. I felt pretty special. I still have moments at these events where I look around and feel like a kid from a small town who somehow ended up in this room. Fitting in has never necessarily been the most comfortable thing for me, but there was something about putting on that Louis Vuitton suit: it’s classic, it’s understated, it’s completely my style. The second I had it on I was like, “Okay, I’m ready for the Emmys.”
Evan Mulling
