“The Pitt” has become a sensation in the vein of “ER,” with many award nominations and wins under its belt in the short time the series has been on air. Some of the success of HBO’s hit medical drama has come from the show’s commitment to authenticity. One of the ways they’ve managed to nail that element is through casting a practicing emergency room nurse — Ned Brower, aka nurse Jesse Van Horn.
“I do things very realistically on ‘The Pitt,'” he explained to Seattle Magazine in a recent interview. “That was a big reason I got this role — they wanted that authenticity. Most of the time, I’m just doing things the way I would in real life, and that actually helps the acting.”
Brower has been practicing in the ER for five years. In his eyes, though, he and his character have a lot of differences.
“I see Jesse as very experienced, way more than me. I imagine he’s been working there for 20 years. He’s old school, breaks the rules, rough around the edges, but he’s too good to fire,” the actor told the outlet. “When things get intense, Jesse’s the guy they call, so they tolerate his sarcasm and grouchiness. That’s where we differ. I’m actually pretty friendly and upbeat. Jesse’s more gruff. But there are things from me that have started to seep into the character. They’ll throw in little lines like something about my drum set.”
Marrying art and medicine
Brower has had a pretty interesting career over the years, catching the acting and arts bug in middle school. He got a taste of fame as the drummer of the band Rooney, which formed back in 1999 with Robert Schwartzman (yes, brother of actor Jason) on vocals and guitar. When the group broke up in 2012, Brower took a different route in life and started studying at UCLA School of Nursing in 2015. Now, he’s able to marry art and medicine, especially recently, as “The Pitt” put nurses at the center of a Season 2 episode.
And as a healthcare worker, he has high hopes for the show’s impact, both for the general public and for those already in healthcare service. “I love that we’re telling real healthcare stories – not just the wild, rare cases, but the smaller, everyday ones,” Brower said. “Seeing real stigmas portrayed in a digestible way is powerful.”
“Healthcare can make you jaded,” he added. “High patient volume and constant stress. It’s easy to build a shell. I hope the show cracks that open, not just for viewers, but for people already working in medicine. And honestly, I hope it inspires people to enter these professions. After ‘ER’ in the ’90s, there was a huge spike in emergency medicine careers. If ‘The Pitt’ inspires even a small number of people to become nurses, especially ER nurses, I’d be really proud of that.”