Emmy Nominee Patrick Ball on His Rollercoaster Journey to ‘The Pitt’ and How His Own Addiction Battle Has Informed His Performance
Actor Patrick Ball, who plays Dr. Frank Langdon in HBO Max's acclaimed ER drama "The Pitt," has earned an Emmy nomination for best supporting actor in a drama series for the show's second season. In a Hollywood Reporter interview, Ball discussed his winding path to acting and how his own struggle with addiction has shaped his portrayal of Langdon, a resident secretly stealing painkillers from the hospital to manage a back injury.
Ball, 36, is now four years sober, and he described how that experience, along with an extensive theatre background and early uncertainty on his first major screen role, has informed his performance. "The Pitt" reunites "ER" star Noah Wyle with writer R. Scott Gemmill and showrunner John Wells, won five Emmys including best drama series for its first season, and has now landed a field-leading 25 nominations for season two. Ball also revealed he kept performing in theatre in Los Angeles and on Broadway even while filming the show's second and upcoming third seasons.
- Patrick Ball earns Emmy nod for supporting role in "The Pitt"
- His four-year sobriety has shaped his portrayal of Dr. Langdon
- "The Pitt" leads this year with 25 Emmy nominations
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Patrick Ball is an actor who plays Dr Frank Langdon, a hospital resident, in "The Pitt," a drama set in an emergency room on HBO Max. The show is notable partly because it reunites people who worked on the classic medical drama "ER," including actor Noah Wyle, and it has been widely praised, winning several major television awards for its first run of episodes.
Emmy nominations are a set of American television awards, and Ball has just been recognised in the best supporting actor category for his work in the show's second season. His character secretly takes painkillers from the hospital to cope with a back injury, a storyline that has drawn attention partly because Ball himself has spoken openly about his own past struggles with addiction and being sober.
This matters both because it reflects on the wider success of "The Pitt," which has received a large number of nominations this year, and because it touches on how actors sometimes draw on personal experience to shape a role, particularly one dealing with a sensitive subject like substance dependency.