The Australian actor on posing as a patient for medical schools, having multiple birthdays on The Airport Chaplain and the song ‘nobody likes’ by the Strokes
What is the most disgusting thing you saw on the set of The Pitt?
I mean, American coffee. It’s bad over there. The de-gloved leg was gross. I saw a full vaginal birth. I drilled into a skull!
I did like that. I really liked that. But, actually, I broke the rig. I haven’t spoken about this publicly, actually. It was, like, a US$75,000 rig.
When you shoot, you shoot the same thing over again … and we’re shooting my coverage on my face. We’re not looking at the rig, so I have to fake it, right? So I faked it a bunch of times. And then we were shooting the rig’s coverage, and they went: “Do it.” And I only knew how tough it is to drill through an actual human skull because I’d talked to a bunch of doctors [about] how much force I should be putting on it. So I start doing it like I would a human skull. But this thing on the inside is made of styrofoam or something. So I go clean into that guy’s head. And it’s just silent.
So it looked like you’d torn a human head apart?
It was horrible. In a car crash, I wouldn’t have that much adrenaline. I regret everything.
You run an airport in your new show The Airport Chaplain. Who would be the worst two people to be sat in between on an airplane?
Sorry, Elmo. I love Elmo, I really do. But imagine that guy laughing for 15 hours straight from one side of you. Kermit on the other side – no no no no no. Kermit and Miss Piggy. And they’ve just had a divorce.
What has been your most cringe-worthy run-in with a celebrity?
When we started shooting The Pitt season one, I’d never been to LA before. I didn’t know celebrities were real … It was post-strike, post-Covid. It was empty. Then Abbott Elementary started shooting, and I love Abbott Elementary. Quinta Brunson makes that show, she’s amazing. She just worked really hard and she represents really good stuff to me. And she walked past me one day. I came out of the sound station, she walked past me and I went “AH!”, I screamed and I fell to my knees. And Jalen [Thomas Brooks, who plays Mateo] came running out of his trailer and was like, “What happened? Who died? Who’s hurt?” And it was just Quinta Brunson walking past me.
If you could shrink any person to have them sit on your shoulder for the rest of your life, who would you pick?
No, they are a willing companion. They want to hang out with you!
If they’re willing, it could be somebody I don’t know. Martin Scorsese. And then I start directing, and I’m really good.
Tell us about your most recently played song.