If it’s a contest for who most deserves to finally go home after the world’s longest hospital shift in Max’s “The Pitt,” few have a better case to make than Dr. Cassie McKay.
Played by Fiona Dourif, McKay is a skilled, empathetic doctor whose personal drama has outmatched even that of her patients, culminating in this week’s 14th episode, aka “8:00 P.M.,” when she is arrested. But let’s back up.
Already this season, McKay has weathered a few crises, including the whispers about her court-mandated ankle monitor and the arrival of her deadbeat ex-husband Chad (Ron Heaps), who shattered a few bones playing the part of skateboarding dad for their son, Harrison (Henry Samiri). Add in the chaos of the mass casualty event, and McKay decides to call in reinforcements to rescue Harrison.
In this week’s episode, the cavalry arrives with the introduction of McKay’s dad, played by Dourif’s real father, Brad Dourif. Of course, this isn’t the first time the two have shared the screen. Since 2013, she has played an integral role in the recent TV series and film installments in the “Chucky” horror franchise, for which her dad has provided the voice and human character since the killer doll’s debut in 1988. While Dourif was delighted to have her dad on set of her own project this time, she can’t take credit for the clever casting.
Courtesy of Max
“My suspicion is that it was Noah Wyle’s idea,” Dourif tells Variety. “He has talked to me about my dad’s career in great detail before, so I know there needed to be a device to get Harrison home, and it was probably thrown out in the writers’ room as a very cool idea.”
Immediately, it’s clear where McKay gets her empathetic bedside manner –– and her edge. First, he consoles his daughter, hugs his grandson and then takes a jab at his former son-in-law. “Chadwick Harrison Ashcraft III,” he says with disdain. “A douchebag name for a douchebag guy.” He calls them like he sees them.
Simultaneously, McKay’s decision to defy Robby (Noah Wyle) earlier in this never-ending shift also comes back to haunt her this hour. She previously expressed concern after a teenager named David (Jackson Kelly, who also recently starred in the “Chucky” TV series) exhibited signs of anger and possibly intended violence toward girls in his high school while in the ER with his mother, Teresa (Joanna Going). Robby suggested they not get involved, but McKay called the police anyway when David ran away. Since the mass shooting at PittFest, McKay has questioned whether David was the shooter, something exacerbated by his bloodied return to the hospital in last week’s episode.
This episode confirms the shooter was someone else, who has since been killed, leaving Robby, Teresa and McKay to confront a hostile and hurt David. It doesn’t go well, and it’s made all the more difficult by Robby’s directive to McKay that “you made this fucking mess, you’re going to have to fix it.”
If her day weren’t bad enough, the cops have been constantly calling McKay, who disabled her malfunctioning ankle monitor with an IO drill during the chaos of the PittFest trauma. After she ignores their calls one too many times, they show up to arrest her in front of the entire emergency room.
Speaking with Variety, Dourif addressed the humiliation of the climactic arrest for both her character and herself, whether McKay feels like she made a mistake with David and why having her dad on set made the character feel more like herself.
McKay has been through a lot in just a matter of hours. How do you think she’s holding up by hour 14?
I think she is having a very, very long day. There is a humiliation that is at play with the ankle monitor, and then the confrontation with Chad happening at my workplace is kind of her nightmare. That she could get herself in a position and then lose it to the point that I would be wearing this thing, and then for this manchild to show in front of everybody I think is quite humiliating for her.
She also has her son to worry about in the other room. But thankfully her dad comes to get him, and he’s played by your father, Brad Dourif. How did that all come together?
My suspicion is that it was Noah Wyle’s idea. He has talked to me about my dad’s career in great detail before, so I know there needed to be a device to get Harrison home and it was probably thrown out in the writers’ room as a very cool idea. I was approached by [executive producer and episode writer] Simran Baidwan, and she very respectfully wanted to get my permission before they put an offer out to my dad — and I was delighted. We were both delighted. It was a gift, really, and a very tender moment to shoot.
You have obviously worked with your dad several times in the past, most notably in the “Chucky” movies and TV series. You even played a version of his “Chucky” character on the TV series. But what was it like acting opposite each other in this medical environment, which is also new for you?
Everything about McKay feels very close to home for me. All of it feels like a new thing. I mostly have worked in sci-fi and horror and genre stuff, which is my first love and I will always love that stuff. But those are wilder, kind of feral characters. This person is so close to actually Fiona that it gives me confidence, but also it is kind of scary because you either like me or you don’t. There is nowhere to really hide. And then to bring my actual father into the context of my father, we just performed the scene that very much felt like it was just Brad talking to Fiona. The whole thing and really this whole show has felt surreal. I didn’t expect it to happen. I feel very lucky.
Which is harder: spouting all this medical jargon or trying to master your dad’s “Chucky” character?
It was probably easier to master my dad’s voice. Well, and the secret is, that is done mostly through makeup! There is actually quite little lifting.
This episode marks a culmination of a few of the stressors of McKay’s day. We see the confrontation between her dad and Chad, and the exit of Harrison from the ER. Then, we see her have to face the situation with David, who turns out not to be the PittFest shooter. Knowing this now, do you think McKay regrets calling the police?
I think, in the end, McKay doesn’t know if she made the right call. All she knows is that she did the very best that she could under the circumstances, and I think she gives herself a little bit of credit for doing the brave thing. It was probably harder to go against Robby when the path of least resistance was for him to make the call. But I think in the end, she is saving face for herself. McKay is a character who has made a lot of bad decisions, especially in those late teens and early 20s where you feel like you are invincible. You can see those people who made a bad decision and never quite can recover. So she is looking at David as somebody who is part of her tribe, and tries to help him, ultimately.
In the second attempt at talking to David with his mother, McKay is visibly shaken by the encounter. Why do you think it really hit her in this moment? Because she is a mother whose son has literally been feet away for the past few hours?
Yeah, and it’s because she knows how easy it is to make the wrong decision. I think of it as kind of like your heart is walking around outside of your chest. She is also a single mother, and so is Teresa. There are just a lot of parallels to her own life. Watching those performers on the day, that scene was really quite difficult. When he is screaming for his mother, you could really feel it on set. That often happened on “The Pitt,” actually. The whole set would acclimate to what is going on. It was heavy stuff.
We have seen Robby be a firm but ultimately a guiding hand for the staff. Yet, in this moment, he tells McKay to fix her own mess. What do you think she feels about this very blunt directive from him?
I think she appreciates it. I think of McKay as someone who was not coddled, and appreciates directness, and looks up to Robby. He is the backbone and heart of the hospital. I think there was a frustration in her that he was kicking the can down the road with making a decision about David initially, and I had to go behind his back and do it anyway. But he has enough integrity, which I think is the most impressive moment in this storyline, where he cops to it and takes responsibility for it. He’s an impressive person. He’s an impressive guy too, Noah Wyle is. Very gracious, just an incredible team leader. It’s true, and it doesn’t always happen.
She seems to be looking for a place to put her feelings about David and do some good at the end of the episode, going up to the nurses asking if there are any cases she can jump in on.
McKay doesn’t really know how to deal with her life that well. I think she has a pretty poor personal life, actually. She has made really bad decisions with men. I think her life is basically taking care of her kid and work, so this is the one lane where she feels like she knows how to give back and function. All of her life experiences have kind of culminated into this moment, and they weren’t always good. They were kind of harder than other people who are her peers. But they culminated in this one skill, which is the ability to connect and have empathy for people in pretty difficult situations because she has been there. She’s been at the party where the person was shot.
You mentioned that her ankle monitor is a source of humiliation for McKay, so what does it do to her to have it called out so publicly in front of everyone when she is arrested for disabling it?
It was a reminder for her. Even filming it was humiliating, because it was this flood of remembering that you are not good enough. It was that, and then very quickly it became rage at the situation and the injustice of it. Still the inner thread of it is that it was my fault. Mostly, it’s just utter humiliation that it is happening in front of everybody.
But we get a very brief glimpse before the episode cuts to black where some of her colleagues like Dana (Katherine LaNasa) and Langdon (Patrick Ball) jump to her defense. That has to mean something to her when we pick back up in the finale?
Yeah, I think so. And it very much feels that way when we are filming. Everybody likes each other, which also doesn’t always happen. The hours are long, and everybody works every day, so especially after the mass casualty, it felt like we had coalesced into this collective organism that I think lends itself well to what would happen in that circumstance. It stops being about you and starts being about making sure this thing is functioning because the stakes are so high.
Did it feel like “Groundhog Day” going back to the same clothes and stories every day as you filmed this real-time season?
I started to really hate my hair by month six! I just wanted to take that ponytail out so badly.
This interview has been edited and condensed.