This is my favourite dream factory: Noah Wyle on returning to Warner Bros lot with ‘The Pitt’

New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) Noah Wyle spent nearly 15 years filming the iconic hospital drama "ER" on the Warner Bros lot and the actor has now returned to his “favourite dream factory” for his new series "The Pitt", which chronicles a 15-hour shift inside a hospital emergency department.

Wyle broke out with his turn as Dr. John Carter in "ER", playing the part till the show's conclusion in 2009. In the classic show, he starred alongside the likes of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies.

The 54-year-old actor said there was something profoundly “synchronistic” about returning to play a doctor again at the very place that shaped his career.

"It's extremely synchronistic playing a doctor again. It's extremely familiar to go to the Warner Brothers lot and drive through gate two the way I did 30 years ago every day for 15 years and drive past Stage 11 where we made all those episodes all those years to Stage 21 and 22 where we're making 'The Pitt'," Wyle told PTI in a roundtable interview.

The actor said it would be interesting to see how the storied studio evolves following its sale to Netflix.

Last month, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix announced a deal valued at over USD 80 billion under which the streaming giant is set to acquire Warner Bros, including its film and television studios, gaming business, HBO Max and HBO. Rival Paramount Skydance has since launched a hostile takeover bid in an attempt to derail the Netflix agreement.

"This is my favourite dream factory. I'm sure that you are aware that it's recently been sold, so it's going to be interesting to see how my dream factory changes, but to get to come back to it and have this second experience in the same old river has been really lovely and gratifying," he said.

In "The Pitt", Wyle essays the role of Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, the attending physician at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center's emergency room (ER), nicknamed "the Pitt".

Set over the course of a single, high-pressure shift, the series follows Robby and his team as they navigate life-and-death emergencies, systemic burnout and moral dilemmas inside the ER, with the narrative leaning into real-time tension rather than melodrama.

The series, whose second season currently streams on JioHotstar in India, is created by R Scott Gemmill, and executive produced by John Wells, who was the showrunner of "ER".

For Wyle, the show's idea was born at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when he was at home and not working.

"I was getting a lot of mail from frontline workers who had felt that 'ER' was really catalytic in them going into their line of work. So they were calling to let me know that they were grateful, or they were calling to let me know that they were tired and overwhelmed," he recalled.

After those interactions, Wyle said he felt "inadequate" and "without purpose".

"All I could really do is write to John Wells and say, 'Hey, I'm getting a lot of mail from people that we used to know, and they're not doing so well. And there might be another story here to tell, even though we probably don't want to be the ones to tell it.' And he agreed that there was, but it was still premature to figure out what that story could be." The idea for the show, however, began to take shape during the American actors' union SAG-AFTRA's (Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike in 2023.

"(I was) walking around with a picket sign and thinking about, 'Wow, if I get the opportunity to work again, what would I want that to feel like?' And if I could make it feel like it used to feel like on 'ER', when it felt like we were one big family coming into a soundstage and telling a very personal story that was reverberating around the world and inspiring people to go into this line of work," he said.

"And suddenly, this show just showed up in a way that felt like an answered prayer for me. Everybody that comes onto our stage usually leaves by saying, thank you for building this beautiful place for us to come and play in. And this was what I needed," said the actor, who has won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the series.

According to Wyle, one of the most striking differences he has observed between his time on ER and his current work on The Pitt is how dramatically the patient–doctor relationship has evolved.

"Which used to be somewhat sacred has become a lot of distrust, a lot of misinformation, and a lot of cynicism. So doctors are having a hard time getting patients to understand that they are really experts in their fields, that they went to school and are educated and are like an expert, more than anything you could possibly Google or read online yourself." The downside of the modern world, Wyle said, is that people question even a "basic medical fact".

"It's crazy. But how do you depict that in a way that doesn't come off as demeaning or prostatising or dogmatic or off-putting to an audience that would benefit from watching a show that's supposed to be universal and has a sense of accuracy.

"So we try to give everybody a legitimate point of view. Even the people that are misinformed come by that misinformation honestly. It's not because they want to be misled. It's because they care a lot or they lost a loved one or are looking for an answer. These belief systems are born in real emotion." While "The Pitt" marks his return to the medical space, is Wyle willing to once again step into the tech world for a follow-up to his acclaimed 1999 movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley", where he portrayed Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple? "Oh, wouldn't that be fun to revisit, to play Steve Jobs a little later in life... I would love to do a sequel to 'Pirates of Silicon Valley'. That would be fascinating," he said.

Based on Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine’s 1984 book "Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer", the movie examined how the rivalry between Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shaped the early development of the personal computer. PTI RB BK RB RB