The Most Targeted Man in ‘The Pitt’: How Lucas Iverson Embraces Everything That’s Shot at Him
From the subtle strength of Shakespeare to flying feculence, Iverson’s young career is a journey full of interesting ebbs and flows.
Not since Sir Patrick Stewart sardonically provided his dulcet tenor to voice the poop emoji in ‘The Emoji Movie’ has a classically trained actor been so synonymous with that particular substance. Anyone watching this second season of HBO’s megahit ‘The Pitt’ knows the work of Lucas Iverson, and the now infamous scene involving a disgusting and explosive incident with an elderly patient. Iverson is a recent graduate of the prestigious David Geffen School of Drama at the even more prestigious Yale University, and can be best described as a staunch supporter of the performing arts, but within that support lies a specific love of the stage. On his website, he speaks of his hope to reinstate the importance and vitality of theatre in America, and his young career has reflected that goal extensively.
Since graduating not that long ago, he has already had stints within the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Williamstown theatre festival, Premiere stages and the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and if you’re like this writer, and you were not even aware that Texas had its own Shakespeare Festival, that perhaps speak to the lengths Iverson is willing to go to embrace opportunity and embrace the Bard.
But in many ways, ending up on The Pitt was bound to happen for an actor like Iverson, not just because of his passion and drive, but because his perfect mix of work ethic and the relative freshness of his young career is a much sought after blend for the casting wizards who work for the show. The young actor has a theory as to why the casting for major players, recurring characters and even guest stars has been brilliant from top to bottom.
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“I think [casting directors] Cathy Sandrich Gelfond and Erica Berger are just excellent at their job. They're incredible, and they're always down to play.” Iverson gushes. It seems like there is almost a formula to the casting though, as Gelfond and Berger look not only to classically trained actors, but those who aren’t necessarily household names, and those who have quite a bit of theatrical stage experience.
“I think they understand that there's major appeal in somebody who maybe isn't so much of a name, but is interesting and intriguing and has trained and is ready for something like this.” Iverson continues. “It's really hard to get an opportunity like The Pitt, and so just the fact that they would consider [casting like this] is so handy. There's also the dynamic of it being really helpful to have theater training on a set like The Pitt, because there is overlap. There's no time off. You have to commit, commit, commit, and give yourself to this thing fully. It feels like for something that moves as fast paced as The Pitt, the stamina of a theater actor is incredibly valuable.”
That love of theatre helped Iverson to bond with a few of the other ‘new kids’ on set, most notably Laetitia Hollard, who plays fresh faced nurse Emma Nolan, who spoke of how she and Iverson would often prepare scenes together, having come from similar conservatories. Iverson also bonded with controversial but well-rounded new character Dr. Al-Hashimi, played by Sepideh Moafi, who in all fairness, is not a ‘kid’, as she is an extremely experienced performer of the stage and screen, but her youthful exuberance and love of the bard certainly created a bond with Iverson none-the-less.
“I adore Sepi. She also went to grad school, and so we shared teacher overlap in that way that all grad schools sort of know each other.She came on to set one time and she was like, ‘Do you know the Hollow Crown speech from Richard II?’ I was like, ‘Obviously I know the Hollow Crown speech.’ So we were quasi-warming up together, in the middle of the set, holding each other's arms and going through the speech, word by word.”
But what of the key dynamic between his often on-screen partner Joy Kwon (Irene Choi). Choi is no stranger to comedic television, having a recurring role in arguably one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, ‘Community’, where she similarly played foil and straight-man to the comedic timing of others. The tall slender Iverson and the petite Choi make an almost iconic duo akin to Abbott and Costello in terms of just pure visual aesthetic, but their quibbling dynamic on screen goes much deeper according to Iverson.
“We're both there to serve the pre existing characters. We offer something to Whitaker's [Gerran Howell] world and then to the other various people throughout the season.” Yet even Iverson cannot help but recognize how the dynamic between the eager and often rude Ogilvie plays perfectly off the dessert-dry cynical nature of Kwan. “Irene is so funny in real life, so I think that bleeds in, and I get tremendous joy, no pun intended, working with her and figuring out all the little jabs and stuff together. It feels like a lot of the time it's like volleyball. My job is to figure out how I can set her up to make this line delivery, or make the ‘spike’ land. And she always does. She's incredible. She's a joy to work with.” Pun certainly intended that time.
Part of the intrigue of Ogilvie this season, however, has not simply been the awkward chuckles that can come from him, but perhaps the chuckles audiences get in seeing a rather cocksure character get his occasional comeuppance, even if that’s at the end of flung-feculence. Ogilvie has certainly served as an antagonistic figure for most of the season so far. The character has upset fan favorites Perlah (Aimelynn Abellera), Whitaker (Howell) and had a rivalry with The Pitt’s shall-be-protected-at-all-costs baby girl Javadi (Shabana Azeez), and therefor has a pretty big fan made target on his back. Fans can get so wrapped up in their hatred of this character, who often says the wrong thing at the wrong time, that they even forget it’s Iverson’s pitch-perfect portrayal of the character that elicits that response.
Iverson defends the character by saying “I think the thing that he's missing is based on a standard to which he holds himself as well as the people around him. There's an ideology that's prominent in parts of the world today, that of you being directly responsible for the state of your own life. I think that's why sometimes he lacks sympathy at first, or empathy or bedside manner. If somebody comes in who's a chronic alcoholic, well, no wonder you’re sick, right? You're doing this to yourself.”
What was a great insight into arguably The Pitt’s greatest antagonist this season is that the performer has created a character that doesn’t unfairly hold himself to a different standard to those who may come in with vices such as alcoholism or obesity. This will undoubtedly lead to some interesting developments within the character the further the season goes on. “I think he views that for himself too.” Iverson continues. “Ogilvie thinks ‘I have to be great. I'm responsible for how my life turns out,’ and I think the thing that he's slowly learning is he realized through the story that [these people] were trying their best the whole time. I think Ogilvie sees that very plainly and clearly, and that ideology that he had coming in at the top of the day, he slowly realizes is not quite compatible with reality.”