Isa Briones on how ‘The Pitt’ changed how she sees mental health

April 18 ------ Not everyone is meant to be liked and Isa Briones is owning that complexity in her latest onscreen role. After being “girl next door” in the past, the Filipino-American actress has been playing a more layered and polarizing figure in Dr. Trinity Santos on HBO Max’s megahit medical series “The Pitt.”

“I like that she didn’t need to be liked,” she told The STAR in an exclusive Zoom interview ahead of the Season 2 finale yesterday. “I appreciated her being really complicated and not an instantly likeable character. I think I’ve kind of played the girl next door before, and someone who is just kind of, like, more middle of the road. And that’s wonderful, and that’s a character that we often need in storytelling. “But it’s really awesome to also get to have such a specific personality. That’s so fun as an actor to be like — I’m gonna really play into this one zone,” Isa added.

Dr. Santos, she further explained, is far from one-dimensional as she’s a doctor whose tough exterior masks a more vulnerable core. And it’s really this contrast that drew Isa most to the role. “She’s just a real person, and she’s so complex,” she further described her character. “She has so many layers to her. She obviously, at first glance, can be kind of rude to people… giving people nicknames and whatever. But she’s also really good at what she does. She has really wonderful instincts. Also cares deeply about people who are struggling and who are in crisis because she herself has been that and feels that way. “Sometimes, that’s not always a given as an actor, that you’re going to play someone who feels like a full person.”

And a fully realized woman, flaws and all, she went on to observe is a character that doesn’t always translate to immediate audience approval. “Seeing the reaction to her, it’s funny! Because finally, I’m playing a real woman, and people don’t like it. I think that says a lot about just our perception of women in general,” she opined. “But it’s really special to see people see themselves in her and be like, yeah, sometimes, I am not the most likeable person, but I’m still worthy of love. As long as I don’t bully people, I’m still worth loving. She’s a very special character.”

Besides the character work, “The Pitt” also demanded some mental and emotional prep and endurance from Isa. After all, the series set at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital explores not just medicine, but also the high-pressure lives of healthcare workers.

“There’s not really a way to prepare for it in a way that really makes you feel like, oh, I know what this is. It’s such a learn-on-the-job situation. Of course, the production gave us all the right tools. We had our medical boot camp, and we got to speak to all these amazing healthcare professionals and ask them all our questions, obviously, the technical things, but also like, what is it like to be a healthcare worker today in the post-COVID world,” she recalled. “I think that did a lot of the prep for us because the whole point of the show is not just to show the medicine, but to show the mental health and the well-being of these important people in our communities. These people who literally save our lives and provide care constantly, no matter what they’re going through.”

Those conversations with healthcare workers left a lasting impression on the actress. “To really get to speak to these real-life human people who are obviously heroes, (I realized) they are people who are experiencing life just like you and me. It’s really affecting to see what it takes to be someone who provides care constantly, even when they are in pain.”

When asked to name her most challenging and unforgettable scenes, she tried, “It’s hard to (pinpoint)… because I enjoy getting to do the emotionally taxing things. I am a Filipino after all, I love drama. But I think it was definitely a lot to do those scenes. In Season 1, when I was speaking to the patient who tried to take his life, that’s a very heavy scene. But it’s also so rewarding. “That’s the thing. They can be hard to go through emotionally, but it feels so good at the same time, especially when we’re telling a story that’s important for people to hear and to watch. That is not the most fun thing to live out as an actor, but you also remember, oh, what an important story we’re telling,” she reiterated.

Meanwhile, The STAR queried Isa about how working on the series has impacted her both professionally and personally. According to her, “The Pitt” is the most realism-based thing she’s ever done. So, while she’s proud of her past projects, including “Star Trek” and “Goosebumps,” she noted that they were very genre-based so the acting approach was different.

“Because sometimes when you are doing a genre-based thing, you have to kind of live in a heightened state and give a heightened version of something, depending on what kind of thing you’re doing,” she explained. “With ‘The Pitt,’ they were so adamant about (how) this just feels like real-life people, real-life actors you would meet. And we got to meet the actual doctors that we work with, we got to take things from those people, like, how they carry themselves in just a normal day at the office. So, I think as an actor, I feel like it’s taught me to kind of ground a little bit and to relax a little bit.

“There’s something about it, also being that the whole season takes place in one day. It’s not like you have to do so much storytelling in one moment. It’s like you’re just watching people live for 15 episodes, and I think that lends itself to the realistic nature of it.”

Off-screen, the experience has also reshaped her perspective on the healthcare profession. “I’ve always known, I think as we all do, that healthcare workers are amazing, they are superheroes. But getting to see the other side of it and see the humanizing of these heroes — those people are just normal people doing these heroic things — how much more impressive that is.”

On a more personal level, Isa said “The Pitt” also resonated with her own experiences, particularly when it comes to mental health. “Getting to see the mental health storylines of all, I think, as someone who has struggled with my own mental health issues, getting to kind of live it out through different lenses, through the lens of healthcare, is kind of a fresh perspective on these conversations that need to be had. “But we are also having more and more nowadays. I think we have started to be a little better about talking about mental health in recent years. But getting to see it through healthcare is a really cool new way of looking at it.”

Source: philstar.com