Supriya Ganesh, The Pitt‘s Dr. Mohan, talks to The Contending about filming that panic attack scene in Season 2, what she hopes for her character’s future.
Supriya Ganesh didn’t realize how many Dr. Mohan fans there were online until news broke that she wouldn’t be back for The Pitt Season 3.
“I feel really grateful for all the love that I’ve been receiving from the fans,” says Ganesh, “and just like a bunch of really sweet messages. It’s just been really, really lovely to hear how much the character resonated with people.”
In Season 2, Dr. Mohan is quietly burning out. After the high of working through Pitt Fest in the Season 1 finale, now reality has settled in, and we’re seeing a character running on fumes.
“She started Season 1 in a bad place. She starts Season 2 in a better-ish place. She at least feels more confident as a doctor, and then she ends up in a place where she feels not so great about her work. I knew she was gonna be grappling with a lot of just ‘Where is my life going?’ type of things.”
Since actors receive scripts “hour by hour,” Ganesh didn’t know until Episode 9 that her character was going to have a panic attack. But not knowing and focusing on the physicality helped with the scene.
“As a person, you don’t really know ever really why [you have a panic attack]; it just sort of like happens. And I’ve had my own experiences with anxiety disorders. I wanted to also make sure I was safe mentally and not feeling like I was having a panic attack on set. There were certain physical things I was doing to let my body know that that’s not what’s happening. This is, you know, not fully real, even though it felt like kind of real. But it was definitely a challenge.”
I loved talking to Ganesh about Dr. Mohan, including where she sees her character going from here and whether Mohan and Dr. Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) have something going on romantically. Watch or listen below!
