Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 10.

As Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill‘s hit HBO medical drama The Pitt nears the final third of Season 2, the current Fourth of July shift for the doctors and nurses of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is only getting more intense. Now that the hospital has been forced to take its network offline to avoid a potential cyberattack, rising temperatures have also led to heightened stress, and the show’s latest episode doesn’t waste any time revealing how overwhelming the pressure can become.

The season’s latest hour, “4:00 P.M.,” directed by Damian Marcano and written by Simran Baidwan, sees Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) dealing with what turns out to be a panic attack, but there’s little time for anyone to take a break — or for Dr. Robby (Wyle) to offer any real sympathy. Ahead of the episode’s premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Ganesh about Mohan’s most pivotal moments in Episode 10, why having an intimacy coordinator on set for Mohan’s panic attack sequence was essential, how that Episode 7 moment with Dr. Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) — and Robby’s non-apology for his harsh words — informs Mohan’s decision to ask Abbot for a letter of recommendation instead, and more.

COLLIDER: As far as Mohan’s panic attack is concerned, we see how slowly it builds up to that sort of crescendo moment when, by the time she’s out in the waiting room, everything is just at its most overwhelming. Did you all try shoot it as sequentially as possible so that you, as the actor, were really able to go through the steps of building up to that moment?

SUPRIYA GANESH: Totally. Everything we do is filmed sequentially. Because of one location situation, something wasn’t totally in sequence. There was one point where we just filmed something backwards where we hadn’t… I forget the exact sequence of things, but there was one bit where I essentially had information about where I would end up as opposed to where I would start. It was just because of what location was available at what time, what made sense for production, but almost everything was sequentially shot.

We were getting ready to speak today, and then I saw the meme that was going around on X about you giving yourself food poisoning, and then you chimed in on it, which is really funny. But it did get me thinking about the amount of physicality that’s involved in a sequence like this. Does the body always know the difference between acting and the real thing? Was there ever a period where you actually felt that overwhelmed in the moment, or was it a mind-over-matter situation?

GANESH: Yeah, it was incredibly draining. What really, in many ways, almost sent me over the edge was the breathing, because the breathing during a panic attack is really specific. I did a lot of research; even though I have my own experiences with it, everyone experiences a panic attack very differently. I wanted to make sure I was also incorporating things that other people experience, so I know that I’m not having a panic attack. A big thing for me was making sure my hands were clenching and unclenching several times, because that’s not something I’ve experienced when I’ve had a panic attack, but that’s something that a lot of other people have experienced. I think that was important for me to do, just that reminder of, “Oh, this isn’t actually happening. This isn’t what it feels like for me.” But the breath, especially, there were points where I was like, “I’m going to hyperventilate. I need to be more careful.”

Every patient who’s in an extreme situation gets an intimacy coordinator on our show, so I got an intimacy coordinator for being a patient as Dr. Mohan. One thing I told her was just, “Hey, I need to know when the camera’s actually rolling or when the director’s deciding to roll the camera here, because if I’m doing this too long in the lead-up to it, I’m going to pass out.” That was definitely helpful, to have someone in my corner in those moments.

Supriya Ganesh Reveals What Dr. Mohan’s Biggest Takeaway Is From Robby’s Harsh Words

“She’s shocked by the intensity of it, but Robby’s consistently hot and cold with her.”

Image via HBO

Even the continuation of that sequence, with Joy bringing Mohan into a patient room, Langdon gets involved, and then Langdon realizes they need to bring Robby in. As we’ve seen so far this season, Robby is in a state already, and it feels like he gets pulled in at the worst possible time, and he’s not very sympathetic to what Mohan is going through. Despite him delivering it in the harshest possible terms, is there anything about his reaction that clarifies anything for Mohan or allows her to understand where this intense reaction is coming from?

GANESH: Totally. When he names it as a panic attack, that’s definitely the first time that she’s really considering it. I think subconsciously, she knows. I think Langdon definitely knows. I haven’t seen the cut, but something that Patrick [Ball] and I improvised was him breathing with me, where he’s telling me to calm down. That’s something that was totally improvised, because we were filming this bit, and we kind of were like, “Wait, she is calmer,” in between now and when Robby shows up. That was really great. So I think it’s something that a lot of people in the room know. Robby’s the first one to name it, and Samira only realizes in that moment that’s what it is.

Even though there are signs, I think the biggest sign is [that] they didn’t cut her shirt off. That was something that we definitely discussed as a team, if that made sense for the doctors to do. Because any other patient having some sort of myocardial situation, we’re cutting the shirt off to put an EKG lead on. But I think the conclusion was that Langdon’s getting the sense that this is more psychological than physical. Or, it is a physical reaction, but it is more of a panic attack than a heart attack. And yeah, it’s something that other people can catch onto, but she doesn’t really know until Robby says it.

They leave things on not great terms, at least until the end of the episode, because he does circle back to check on her, and it’s a little frosty at first. What’s great is that she’s willing to call him out on his behavior, and he’s willing to own up to it at the same time. Do you think that there’s any possibility of that interaction lingering over the shift, or do you feel like, from Mohan’s perspective, she just wants to drop it and move on at this point?

GANESH: Yes, he does apologize, but it’s not really the ideal apology. He’s kind of like, “I’m sorry, but also pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get your shit together.” It’s one of those things. I don’t think, as Mo, I really felt held by that apology. But I think she’s not surprised. She’s shocked by the intensity of it, but Robby’s consistently hot and cold with her. It’s a very paternal type of dynamic where you’re not sure whether it’s going to be a good day or bad day, especially with that type of fraught relationship. For her, she just wants to continue to impress him and feel… especially because she’s looking for a place at PTMC next year, and she’s a little like, “Okay, should I ask him for a recommendation?” She just wants to be on good terms with him, so she isn’t really picking at him in the same way as he does in the following hours. I definitely think she’s hoping she can get back on his good side.

Supriya Ganesh Explains How Mohan’s Panic Attack Changes Things in ‘The Pitt’ Season 2

“She’s someone who’s really hard on herself…”

Image via HBO Max

You’ve already touched on it in that moment, when he tells her, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, focus on your patients.” When we’ve talked before about the character, she does feel very patient-focused as far as her approach to medicine, but maybe she’s been getting sidetracked by other things, like the constant calls from her mom. Do you feel like Mohan has internalized anything about not wanting to let herself get to this point again?

GANESH: She’s someone who’s really hard on herself, so I don’t even think she recognizes what Robby did was bad or potentially even a traumatic moment for her until after the fact. Because the entire time she’s trying to go like, “No, I’m okay. I’m sorry. I’m okay.” I think that she’s aware of how many people are in the room and whether that tone was appropriate. There’s a version of what he’s saying that she’s probably saying to herself, like there’s a patient she isn’t able to treat because of this. I definitely think there are gears turning of like, “Okay, what do I need to do to manage this so that it doesn’t affect my work like this again?” But that’s also just not how mental health works. You can’t really predict that you’re going to have a panic attack. What if this is something she’s predisposed to? I think it’s a complicated question that is worth exploring.

You mentioned Mohan wanting a letter of recommendation from Robby, and there is a moment in this episode where she mentions she was hoping to circle up with Abbot to ask him for one. Her decision about what kind of specialty she wants to pursue has been hovering over her storyline this season. Do you feel like she’s any closer to deciding what she wants to do than before, or is this question going to continue even heading into Season 3?

GANESH: If she starts the day with that question, it’s very likely she’s going to end the day with that question. If we wanted to push things along like that, things wouldn’t be interesting. So I definitely think that she’s asking for the recommendation because she would like to stay, but I don’t know if that’s something that initially gets resolved.

I previously spoke with Shawn [Hatosy] about that scene between Abbot and Mohan, but I was curious about your perspective on this, because I was really interested in how both characters come out of that interaction. Abbot’s offer to handle Orlando’s supplies, that sort of gesture, does that change Mohan’s view of him at all?

GANESH: I think it’s just a moment of great support that she doesn’t really get that often. There’s a reason why, when she’s asking Dana if Abbot’s still around because she wanted to ask him about a recommendation letter, she’s talking about him and not Robby. Because she feels very seen by him in that moment. There’s a lot of people who would laugh at her for having that instinct or think it’s silly, so the fact that he didn’t do that and wanted to help her follow through on supporting this patient, it’s really special to her.

New episodes of The Pitt Season 2 premiere Thursdays on HBO Max.