Shawn Hatosy on ‘The Pitt,’ Becoming a Sex Symbol and Quinn

“The Internet’s Newest Babygirl.” “Silver Fox.” “Sex Symbol.”

Shawn Hatosy is aware of his newfound fame on the internet. But he has no idea how he got there.

A busy actor for the last three decades, Hatosy became a celebrity in projects like “The Faculty” and “Outside Providence.” He earned a spot in millions of viewers’ homes when leading TNT crime drama “Southland,” followed by “Animal Kingdom.” Both of those TV series have something huge in common with the project that Hatosy is now in the headlines for, “The Pitt.” And by something, we mean someone: Producer John Wells.

This time last year, Hatosy told me how “full circle” talking about “The Pitt” felt, since he once had a guest spot on another little Wells project: “ER.” Little did he know then that his part on another massive Wells medical drama would win him an Emmy for his guest role of Dr. Jack Abbot.

Viewers fell in love with Abbot from his first appearance in Season 1, both for his charm and dry wit (something that Hatosy believes comes from creator R. Scott Gemmill), and his undeniable chemistry with Noah Wyle’s Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch. The pair have a history and connection that doesn’t need heavy dialogue; the comfort felt in a silent look exchanged is powerful enough. In the final two episodes of the second season, Abbot reminds Robby, who is struggling with his mental health and admits he’s not sure he wants to be alive, that he’s his emergency contact. “And I don’t want to be contacted,” Abbot tells him — in a tone that’s not funny or harsh but reassuring and loving.

“We’ve just been kicking around for so long. We’ve seen each other at the John Wells holiday parties for 20 years now,” Hatosy says now of his bond with Wyle. “There’s something about that chemistry when you just have a level of trust and understanding of each other.”

Hatosy applauds the way Wyle arrives each day, both prepared and spontaneous, something vital to the way “The Pitt” operates. “When you have a leader like that, it brings out the best in everyone,” he says. “Being in a scene with Noah, I never stress about those scenes. I feel very free. I feel like I have no inhibitions about choices and I can take big risks.”

Their relationship is extremely important to the story “because it’s not about medicine in those moments, it’s about survival,” Hatosy adds. “By the time you get to the end of Season 2, that release hits in a different way than the rooftop scene in Season 1. This is time, pressure, everything going unchecked, finally reaching a breaking point that demands something real. And what comes out of that is actually pretty moving.”

Although the show doesn’t go home with its staff, viewers immediately picked up on the flirtatious nature between Dr. Abbot and Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh). Despite not sharing a ton of screentime, the Season 2 scene they did have featured her helping dress his wound and Abbot without a shirt on — which immediately became internet memes.

Hatosy explains that the Mohan-Abbot connection “wasn’t made up,” but also wasn’t guided in detail by the writers.

“Supriya and I were told we don’t know exactly what it is, but there’s something there, and you could see it in the writing,” he says. “We didn’t explore it and having something behind it really energizes this attraction, or whatever you call it.”

Ganesh recalls being told by the writers in Season 1 that Mohan and Abbot would be good together — something she hadn’t thought of. “I just remember being like, ‘There’s no way,’” she recalls. But Hatosy saw it, too. “He’s like, ‘No, I’ve been saying that too since the beginning.’ The more I thought about it, I thought, I do kind of see it. They’re both really lonely, they’re both really stunted in their own ways. They both pour a lot of themselves into work. I think they really understand each other because of that.”
He’s also a vital person at work for Mohan, she says. “He really does support her in a way that you don’t see a lot of characters supporting her,” she adds.

Unfortunately, Ganesh won’t be returning for Season 3, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be some sort of romance for Abbot in the future. In a recent interview, Sepideh Moafi, who plays Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, joked that maybe she and Abbot have some sort of history — maybe a one-night stand. Hatosy hadn’t seen the interview.

“Abbot seems to have a relationship with everybody, because he’s just a bit of a flirt,” he says with a laugh. “At least in my understanding of Abbot, I think he’s still dealing with the grief of losing his wife, so that he hasn’t really gone there yet. But sure, maybe it’s Al-Hashimi. Who knows?”

Part of the reason he didn’t see the interview was because he’s taken a step away from social media — something that felt necessary this season as some of the commentary became too intense.

“I’ve had to kind of step back. Because sometimes it goes into these weird places where if fans disagree about a character, they start to turn on each other. That is not what this is supposed to be,” he says. “All through my career, I’ve had a pretty good relationship with social media, but now, seeing how all this is unfolding, I’m kind of reevaluating what that looks like.”

Both seasons of “The Pitt” have ended with the night shift coming in, giving audiences a peek at a new group of doctors, led by Abbot. That, of course, has sparked a conversation online about the possibility of a night shift spinoff — something Hatosy would jump at, if it made sense.

“I love the character, and I really would love to see more of him and how he operates, but ‘The Pitt’ is its own thing,” he says. “If it made sense creatively, for sure. I would love the opportunity to see more of Abbot. It’s a fun character. I think tonally, it could be a different kind of show. It doesn’t have to follow those parameters. It could be different. But I would never want to take anything away from the success of what’s happening with ‘The Pitt.’ So, down the road, if that was an opportunity, I’d be all for it. It seems to be something that people want. Down the road, I think it’s a possibility.”

But Hatosy is very busy. For this cover shoot, he’s flying in and out of Los Angeles in the same day, as he’s filming FX’s thriller “Cry Wolf” with Olivia Colman and Brie Larson. And before that, he was playing a psychopath in “Ready or Not 2” alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar. While details are being kept under wraps for “Cry Wolf,” he says, “it can be pretty heavy”; as for the latter film, well, he was “a caged animal,” Hatosy says.

But his approach to every role remains the same: “I just find out what his emotional center is — what makes him tick, how he looks at the world.”

That said, it would be nice to do something a bit lighter next. And he’s open to quite a bit.

In fact, in April, Hatosy narrated an audio erotica drama for the Quinn app, titled “Yes, Chef.” The app, created by women for women, was his way of leaning into the newly cemented title he never saw coming: sex symbol. (There was even a billboard on Sunset Boulevard featuring him removing his shirt; he received many texts from friends about that.)

“I don’t know how this happened,” he says. “I’m starting to blush! I’m surprised by it, to be honest. I really am, because I just never would have thought that that guy that walked in to do ‘The Pitt’ … it just doesn’t compute. But look, the opportunities that I’m seeing now because of all of it, are different and exciting. I’m in different rooms talking about projects that are really, really exciting. The only thing you can do is, first of all laugh, because that’s important, and then embrace. You have to embrace it.”

And he’s trying to. “Quinn was a step in that direction,” he says. “I was nervous to do it too, because it requires vulnerability and trust in a weird way. But then I understood the philosophy and the company, which really is so inspiring. I feel really good about it. What they’re doing is important to a lot of people.”

Location: The Preserve LA; Styling: Jessica Paster/Uncommon Artists; Grooming: Darbie Wieczorek/Tracey Mattingly Agency