This article contains spoilers about the season-one finale of The Pitt.
The first season of The Pitt introduced dozens of characters who work at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, but none have broken out quite like Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Melissa “Mel” King. The second-year resident is highly capable, emotionally attuned, and somewhat insecure as to whether she has the “special sauce” to become a great doctor. But in Thursday’s season finale, she makes some bold choices that prove she’s well on her way—specifically, fast-tracking a life-saving spinal tap operation for a child with measles, even though his anti-vaxx mother disapproves of the procedure.
Mel has also resonated as a nuanced portrait of a neurodivergent professional in large part thanks to Dearden, who herself is neurodivergent. The Pitt subtly pushes back on some clichés while allowing the actor—previously best known for her turns in American Vandal and Sweet/Vicious—to flesh Mel out over 15 episodes, each of which covers an hour in a nightmarish ER shift that culminates in a mass-casualty event. The endeavor was not always easy, given the way The Pitt was developed by creator R. Scott Gemmill, writer and star Noah Wyle, and the rest of its producing team. In conversation with Vanity Fair, Dearden looks back on the “anxious” making of season one and ahead to what she hopes to get out of season two—which is coming sooner than you think.
Vanity Fair: Are you in production on season two yet?
Taylor Dearden: No, we start bootcamp June 1. We know literally nothing, which is making me very, very anxious.
Tell me about bootcamp.
For season one, it was two weeks, and it was going over everything standard when a trauma comes in: “Here are the things that happen. We’ll just randomly assign you to scenes that will take place, like you’ll do the ultrasound.” So we knew what ultrasound meant, where we go, how you hold it, and all of it so that they could just do shorthand with us and not have to teach us every single time. They went over the first half of the injuries that were going to come in. But I really wish there was another bootcamp in the middle of the season to do the last injuries, because then we had to learn again. I heard season two bootcamp is only one week. We all were like, “Can we please have two weeks?”
Dearden in The Pitt.
In the finale, your character performs a spinal tap on a child who’s contracted measles. Did you feel prepared for that? How did you do it?
I stayed after shooting to learn how to do it in one day. I was like, “It sounds scary,” but all the doctors went, ’You do these all the time.” And I went, “Really? Because it sounds terrifying.” What a great rig they had there. Our makeup department is insane. It was a fake back that had IV packages inside, and so you’re puncturing the fake skin, and then you could literally feel the second puncture—which is great, because there are two puncture feelings with a spinal tap.
Mel is performing this quickly, against the clock, because the child’s mom is against the procedure.
It’s definitely the first time you see Mel be sneaky for a patient’s benefit. At the beginning of the shift, I don’t know if she would’ve been this sneaky. By the end, having seen what happens, I think she’s like, “Sometimes you’ve got to break the rules.” I thought it was really fun to show that.
