Isa Briones The Pitt The Pitt Season 2 HBO editorial new show new series polyester zine polyester magazine Dr Robby Noah Wyle — In a time where the main way to categorise a TV show is either as “viral” or “flop,” without much notice taken of genre or tone, *The Pitt* stands out. Appearing on American screens for the first time on 9th January last year, the graphic, fast-moving medical drama was an instant, cross-demographic hit, praised for its realism and clear, opinionated stance on the US hospital system - and now it’s back with season two within one year of airing season one’s finale.
The ensemble cast has now started to sweep through award season - but I was able to catch up with Isa Briones, the self-confessed “musical theatre girly” who plays student doctor Trinity Santos, just before the Christmas break. She’s in Ohio, watching snow fall from the window behind her laptop screen at her partner’s house, and pleased for the pause from the high pace of rehearsing, blocking and filming the show.

“It's definitely intense,” she laughs. “And I think nothing can really prepare you for it until you're in it. I will say being a theatre person is very helpful because the way we shoot things feels very theatrical.

“We rehearse things over and over and over before even getting cameras even near us. We make sure that we have all the choreography down - and it does feel like choreography - then marrying that with the acting beats of it all, like, ‘What is the case we’re doing? But also what is the emotional subtext of what's happening and what's the actual medical procedure?’ There are so many layers to marry together before cameras even get in there. So it feels like the rehearsal process of theatre.”

“Being creative was always a part of my life but I definitely had the privilege of always knowing that that was a path, which a lot of people do not”

Briones’ roots on the stage combined with her previous, high profile role in Star Trek: Picard between 2020 and 2023 make her the perfect candidate for a role in the high paced world of The Pitt. Growing up, the actor moved between the cities of London, New York and Los Angeles following her parents’ careers - her mother Megan worked as a musical theatre actor while her father, Jon Jon was making waves in the West End, most notably as a part of the Miss Saigon revival in 2014.

Briones tells me it felt inevitable that she would also pursue a career in entertainment: while there was little pressure from her family to do so, sitting in on theatre productions multiple times a week inspired her endlessly.

“Being creative was always a part of my life but I definitely had the privilege of always knowing that that was a path, which a lot of people do not,” she says. “A lot of people who go into this business don’t come from maybe a creative family, don’t come from people who knew anything about it, and have to dig to be like, ‘wait, this is a path that I can take.’ And I had the privilege of not having to do that struggle of finding what it was.

“But I also think there's an issue of watching other people's creative path, then starting to think, ‘Oh, there's one right way to do it,’ which is the antithesis of creativity. And then maybe doubting yourself and thinking ‘Can I do this? Is this what I'm meant to do?’ I had those moments and thankfully had those moments younger. I got to get them out of the way, and I took a break because I started auditioning younger and then had a moment where I was like, ‘I'm going to stop auditioning for a little bit and just be a teenager and see how that feels.’”

“Filipinos are such a huge part of the US healthcare system and it's never really been addressed before in this way. We haven't seen a lot of Filipino actors in medical shows before, and now we finally have that chance.”

Thankfully for us, after a revelatory moment during a performance of In The Heights when she was sixteen, Briones knew she was on the right path. The twenty-six-year old felt most comfortable in the musical theatre world she grew up ink, but it wasn’t until starring in Star Trek that Briones found the confidence and community she needed to branch out.

“My first big TV job was doing Star Trek. I was twenty,” she remembers. “It was my first time doing anything of that scale before, and I was scared shitless, and I was number two on the call sheet to a legend, Sir Patrick Stewart. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can't believe I'm here.’ And as a young woman, you tend to be like, ‘I'm just going to do whatever anyone asks me to. I'm going to put my all in.’ Which is obviously great, but it can be seen as a weakness and a way to walk all over someone. And it's like, ‘She's down for anything. Meaning she's also down for mistreatment.’ But because I was surrounded by some amazing female actresses on that project, I got to learn so quickly what that world looks like and knowing when you have to stand up for yourself. That it is not being difficult. That it is not being a bitch. That is just you asking for the same amount of respect and asking for what you need to do your job.”

She continues, “It can be so scary. All these men in charge are looking at me and telling me what to do and looking at me in my sexy little space outfit, and it feels like that's the job. No, the job is realising your worth. And then extending that same respect and guidance as well, of being like, ‘You deserve to be here’ to other women in the industry.”

In The Pitt, Briones plays Trinity Santos, a Filipino student doctor who cuts a controversial figure in the show’s fandom. Santos initially comes across as sardonic and overly confident, and while her character arc - which shows her revealing more about the possible reasons for her tough exterior - has made her more digestible, there’s still more than a little hate towards Dr. Santos. Briones promises she loves playing such a complicated character - one that’s “vulnerable and masking with a lot of anger” - but she can’t agree with audience members that dislike Santos for being cocksure. She adds, “If you really just are like, I don't like her, but you like Langdon, you're just a sexist. That's what I've landed on.”

It’s clear that playing the Skyler White of The Pitt is a passion point for Briones, yet her favourite scene that she’s filmed is one of the sweeter of the series rather than the sorts of sticky, high tension shots you might expect.

“My favourite was a very simple one, but it was just between me, Amielynn Abellera and Kristin Villanueva, who are Perla and Princess. It's the moment where they're tsismis [the Filipino word for gossip] and then they don't know that Santos can understand Tagalog. Then I just say a little piece and then walk away. It was such a beautiful moment of, like, okay, we've got these three Filipino actors, we’re being directed by Quyen Tran, an Asian woman.

“There's this kind of inherent magic that you feel and that's the word I choose. I get to write into being who this person is. We all get to live in this version of the world for a moment. Yeah, it feels like magic.”

“Quyen just kept asking if there’s anything we want to add to the scene and Kristen was like, you know, what I would say is like, ‘But she's so white’. And then Kristen asks ‘Is that okay that I say that?’ and I was like, ‘Of course it is. It's the truth. It's an experience that we've all had and that's what I'm told all the time - let's just represent what it is.’ It was so cool to be these four Asian women having a very honest conversation. We don't have to explain to each other what this experience is, we just know.”

There’s been much reporting on Briones advocating for a surname change for her character in the show to a Filipino one and while she thanks people for commending her bravery for even asking, the actor reflects that without the sisterhood shown to her by lauded actors like Alison Pill and Michelle Hurd on the set of Star Trek, she’s not sure she would have had the nerve to request the switch.

She reiterates the importance of knowing why you were hired as an actor and part of that responsibility being providing nuanced representation. After all, as she notes, “Filipinos are such a huge part of the US healthcare system and it's never really been addressed before in this way. We haven't seen a lot of Filipino actors in medical shows before, and now we finally have that chance. It felt like a no brainer to add more ways of being like, ‘Here we are. This is who you hired and this is who's here.’”

Throughout our conversation, Briones’ adoration of her craft shines through and while there’s a variety of reasons that she finds her work so rewarding - a family dynamic, as well as peers who uplift her - one point Briones makes feels particularly poignant.

“I recently saw this video from a Filipino professor, Dr De Leon Jr., where he was talking about how there was a study done which said Filipinos feel the most emotion - they're the most emotional people.” She smiles. “It was this really beautiful interview of him talking about how, because of the study and this Filipino historical figure of the babaylan who are the healers of the community; the witches. They’re part of a broader spectrum of being entertainers, they're the people that bring the community together, and they guide people through feelings.”

“It was just this beautiful thesis on how Filipinos really know how to feel, and I was like, ‘I really love that.’ I think we really do. I think we love to feel, we love the drama and we put it into our art so intensely. The most exciting part of my job is when it feels like magic and I feel like I'm casting some sort of spell. And that sounds so annoying like, ‘This actor thinks she’s casting spells,’ but there's this kind of inherent magic that you feel and that's the word I choose. I get to write into being who this person is, who is very real, but is also fictional, but I'm making her so real in this two hour slot. We all get to live in this version of the world for a moment. Yeah, it feels like magic.”

Isa Briones on In The Heights, Advocating For Herself and Playing a Controversial Character

“Being creative was always a part of my life but I definitely had the privilege of always knowing that that was a path, which a lot of people do not”

“Filipinos are such a huge part of the US healthcare system and it's never really been addressed before in this way. We haven't seen a lot of Filipino actors in medical shows before, and now we finally have that chance.”

“There's this kind of inherent magic that you feel and that's the word I choose. I get to write into being who this person is. We all get to live in this version of the world for a moment. Yeah, it feels like magic.”

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