Adam Patla
Isa Briones left an indelible mark on the first season of The Pitt as Trinity Santos, a strong-willed and assured medical student always armed with a quip or two. She went on to be the subject of much conversation whether it was her fraught relationship with Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), her new roommate Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell), or the way she handled her cases.
In Season 2 of the hit series, though, audiences meet a much different version of the character. With ten additional months of experience under her belt, Santos, in theory, should be at her most braggadocios and confident. Briones certainly showcases this increased experience, but peels back the layers on something deeper and more interesting for the character.
“I can’t really make up a whole lot of what happened in between, but what you can tangibly see is like, ‘Okay what have the writers written for us,'” she explains. “And I think, I just noticed she still had some of that spunk that she had before where she’ll…make her jabs at people but it was remarkably less…. I just felt like a sadness and I think that was kind of the biggest difference. You’re no longer seeing her so ambitious and chasing every case…. She’s lost a bit of that fire.”
As the season progresses, we learn that it goes much deeper than Santos’ fire dwindling. Amid everything she’s already juggling during this shift, it is revealed that Santos is self-harming, a plot point Briones felt responsibility to get right.
“Especially knowing that we were going to explore her self-harm tendencies this season it was like okay, this is a very specific story to tell that can be handled very poorly….” she says. “I felt very strongly about like mak[ing] sure this is…accurate, it doesn’t feel like it’s exploitative or anything like that. It made a lot of sense that it’s like…this person who seems like the strongest one in the room, who is actively punching at other people…of course that’s the person who is turning that pain onto themselves…. It’s her way of quietly trying to heal but it obviously is a very fraught way of going about it.”
In the quiet moments alone with Santos, Briones allows us into the weight on her shoulders that’s suffocating her. She presents a dynamic dance between Santos’ steelier exterior and her more malleable center that is yearning for someone.
“I think she’s just trying to look for belonging but also look like she’s not looking for that,” Briones muses with a chuckle. “She wants to stay cool. You’re not cool and that’s okay!”
One person that does look out for Santos, though, comes in the form of Whitaker. Howell and Briones don’t take the easy way out, though, and portray the unlikely duo with a lot of history and compassion beneath a coat of reluctance.
“You guys could be like kikiing, you guys could be besties if you just let yourself talk for real,” she says. “I think for her she has a really hard time getting close to people. As she’s talked about in Season 1 in the last episode she lost one of her best friends and her best friend took her life and we also know her history with abuse and I think that her view of the world has become ‘people either leave through whatever means or they hurt you.’ She just feels like this scared kid who has turned into the schoolyard bully…. But she clearly wants connection.”
Of course, the person occupying most of Santos’ brain space is Dr. Langdon who returns to the hospital after Santos exposed him. Every time the two so much as glance at each other, Briones packs a powerful concoction of fury and anxiety. Without seeing the last ten months, we still know the toll it’s taken on Santos because of Briones brilliant subtleties.
“This is something she’s had to live with for ten months,” she explains. “And yes, he is going and getting help, but it’s like, that’s almost more infuriating. It’s like, ‘he gets to leave and get help and get better and I get to stay here and live with that and I’m not going to tell anyone because I’m a good person or whatever.’ She didn’t tell anyone. She could’ve, but she didn’t. I think she feels so unsafe and unsettled because she’s holding a lot of things for other people and I think is also, even though she’s putting her faith in Robby, he’s clearly unwell. That’s not a great person to rely on. I think she’s dealing with the fact that there’s no safe space around her that feels like ‘I can hold onto this and I can be supported by this person.'”
Of course, throughout the day, the two are forced to work together. Rather than simply start at a ten, we are subjected to several procedures where the two passive aggressively maneuver their own relationship while conducting procedures. So much is said about how they feel about the other without talking about it at all until they ultimately do in a stunning confrontation.
When asked about building this simmering tension throughout the season, Briones says, “We were talking a lot about that because we were like, we don’t want it to look one note the whole time where we’re constantly scowling at each other or whatever. It needs to feel like they are trying to an extent. I think it’s not interesting if it’s just ‘Santos hates him.’ It’s so much more complicated than that. If you look at it at face value, sure she’s mad. But really what it all is they just don’t like in each other what they see in themselves.”
Coming off a season with a heavy arc, one might think Briones would want to pause. Alas, the multi-hyphenate is now performing on Broadway in Just in Time as Connie Francis. In fact, she has a habit of alternating between the theatre and The Pitt.
When asked whether or not her characters follow her to the stage and back into the Pitt, Briones says, “I don’t know if any of it is like conscious but it’s like, of course. That’s the thing about acting, it’s not something that you learn and you’ve learned it. No one is ever done with growing as an actor and every role you do, also just life experience…everything just deepens everything else. Theater always makes me a better actor but in ways I can’t even fully pinpoint all the time.”
One facet she can pinpoint, though, is the way theatre reminds her to be present.
“Also just getting to play with other actors and only think about the acting and the words and not think about…my song and get my voice there,” she says. “I just got to be in the moment for two hours. I noticed when I came back to work for Season 2 I felt like so much more in myself as an actor. I think theater is such a great check-in for that. It forces you to really be in your body.”
That presence encompasses what makes Briones’ performance so special this season. She fully inhabits every moment with complete authenticity. There’s no vanity or attempt to go big and flashy. She honors what the moment calls for with honesty and stunning vulnerability.
You can see all of Isa Briones‘ work on The Pitt on HBO Max. The second season of The Pitt is available to stream fully on HBO Max now. Be sure to check out our full interview with Isa below!
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