The Pitt Season 2 star Sepideh Moafi knows a thing or two about holding it in.
In the second season of the Emmy-winning HBO Max drama, Moafi — who joins the cast as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi — has the difficult task of playing a character who doesn’t let anything show, that is, until the final moments of the finale, where she finally gets to exhale. Now, an Emmy nominee herself, Moafi is opening up about having to convey everything her character is feeling through silences and pained looks, which she is hoping helps her score the hardware at the Emmy Awards next month.
“There’s one moment in Episode 7 where she goes to the bathroom and she feels sort of the ground cracking and crumbling beneath her and is trying to keep it together. So there’s this moment where the volcano is about to erupt and she has to hold it together because she’s got a whole other half shift to get through,” Moafi told DECIDER of her trickiest moments for her in Season 2. “And then there was a moment after she had her second seizure in Episode 13, and Dr. Robby saw her where they’re in the hub, and she’s walking, and he basically is poking around and being like, ‘Is there anything else you wanna tell me?’”
For her, the second moment marked an even trickier scene to play as it marks a turning point for her character, who is experiencing seizures on the job, which could put her patients in danger. While she initially opts not to clue Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) in on what’s happening with her, she eventually changes course and shares her diagnosis, which goes completely haywire.
“She’s kinda just like, ‘No, no.’ So convincingly. And that was the best I’ve ever had to lie to him. Because I’d never felt like I was under the microscope in that way and when we’re under the microscope in that way, it feels like life or death. You have to lie or you’ll feel like you’ll lose everything,” Moafi said of the first scene with Wyle. “But that lie had a short shelf life because that’s not who she is and she recognized that that’s who I am and I have to tell them the truth.”
In the end, Moafi’s character seemingly regrets opening up to Wyle’s character as he tells her that she cannot continue to work in the emergency department, drive, and do other everyday functions while she is experiencing these interruptions. It causes her character to have an even more direct breakdown moment in her car in the final moments of Episode 15, “9:00 p.m.”
It’s the exact type of role that Moafi — who says she is beyond honored to be nominated in the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category alongside her co-stars Katherine LaNasa, Taylor Dearden, and Fiona Dourif — has wanted to play for years. Even if it did take everything out of her and go against her better judgment as an actress to have to play under-animated rather than over.
“The reason why we get into this is because we’re expressive, emotive people and being able to sort of contain that and hold that and surf the volcano beneath the surface all season and earn those last two episodes was a challenge and it was intensely gratifying,” the actress explained on the carpet of Televerse 2026. “I think it’s harder to contain the emotion than it is to express it. Throughout the season, there were times where I’d be at work all day and I’d go home and I’d want to scream into a pillow or I’d want to cry, and then come back to set and have to like put the lid on again, so being able to explore such a complicated, multifaceted woman with such rich inner life was intensely gratifying.”
She added, “It’s exciting and such a cherry on top that people relate. I think part of the reason why they relate is because we’re all holding so much in, and we all kind of hide in our lives, depending on where we are and who we’re talking to. And so I think that might be one of the reasons why she struck a chord with some people. But anyway, it’s always just the cherry on top to have that sort of appreciation for your work.”
The Pitt Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on HBO Max. The Emmy Awards air live on NBC on Monday, September 14, at 8 p.m. ET.
If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.
If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.