The Pitt star Patrick Ball revealed a tiny costuming choice for his fictional counterpart that all but the most attentive fans might have missed.
In an interview with breakout Love Story star Paul Anthony Kelly for Variety, Ball, who plays Dr. Frank Langdon on the hit HBO Max show, discussed one detail that allowed him to get more into character.
Ball explained that while there was little opportunity for actors to offer any input on costuming decisions, because everyone on the show, which is set at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, is in scrubs all day, Langdon was able to sport a bracelet that one of his children made him.
“I had a little bracelet that my kid made me. I was like, ‘I think Langdon would have a little gift from his kids. My kid made me a bracelet,’” he explained. “It became this emblem of this guy that, despite his circumstances, was trying to cling to some sense of whimsy.”
“And then you come back in Season 2 and that dad bracelet has been replaced by this recovery bracelet that is wooden and stark and much more traditionally masculine,” he added, noting that “there is this sense that maybe Landon has lost his whimsy in the course of this recovery process.”
Langdon, who was caught by Isa Briones’ Dr. Trinity Santos stealing prescription medication from the hospital in the show’s first season, went to rehab before the events of Season 2, which is set 10 months later.
Ball continued to talk about the fears he felt Langdon was probably experiencing after returning to work, telling Kelly, “Anybody that has gone through recovery, that is a fear. If I give up my crutch, will I be the same? Will people still think that I’m funny? Will they find me interesting?”
“That can be a real fear, that you’re going to lose an integral part of yourself if you give up these habits. And that was something that I talked about all the way down to the bracelet with [executive producer] John Wells and our costume designer.”
Ball added that he was excited to be able to continue to tell Langdon’s story in Season 3, “because I do not think for a second that to get help is to give up your joy.”
“I think the sense of joy that you can have in the healing process of going through recovery is far more profound and far more fulfilling than anything that you could experience hitherto. So I’m very excited for the next chapter of this story.”
