Spoilers for the premiere of The Pitt’s second season are ahead! Read with caution, and watch the show with an HBO Max subscription.
When Season 2 of The Pitt opened with Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby riding his motorcycle without a helmet on, I was shook. How could a doctor not practice standard safety while riding his bike? Well, that’s a question I’ll be thinking about as the critically acclaimed second season of The Pitt continues. However, while we wait for the answer, I asked the show’s cinematographer about how they filmed this polarizing and controversial choice Robby made.
I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking about how opening The Pitt’s run on the 2026 TV schedule with Robby riding by an ambulance on his motorcycle with his helmet sitting behind him on the bike was bold. It also says a lot about where Noah Wyle’s character is this season. However, when they were shooting this sequence, the choice about the helmet hadn’t been made yet. Director of photography Johanna Coelho told me all about that during an interview for CinemaBlend, explaining:
It was a decision that was not made yet on the day, [whether] he should wear a helmet or not. So we shot it both ways. We did a pass with helmet, and a pass without helmet.
The cinematographer did tell me that they’d been “thinking about it for a while,” but when they shot the scene, they wanted both options. She also explained that they filmed the sequence on both “a process trailer” and “just following” the bike; that way, they had multiple types of shots to work with.
Coelho broke down how they shot the scene with both Noah Wyle and a stunt driver, as well, saying:
Sometimes we had a stunt driver, and sometimes it was Noah. So with the stunt driver, with the version without the helmet, obviously, that was a little more challenging, because then they had to do a face replacement. As you fully – there's nothing to hide.
So, with the takes where Robby wasn’t wearing a helmet, they had to use facial replacement in post to make it look like Noah Wyle was driving instead of the stunt driver.
The other aspect of this process that Coelho recalled was how they filmed it both with a process trailer (which is a piece of equipment that pulls both the vehicle and the cameras) and freely, meaning the bike was on the road. Speaking specifically to why they loved those shots that were “freely moving,” the cinematographer told me:
But we really love, you know that shot as the motorcycle freely moving without being attached to the process trailer, because then you could go from the wheel, which you see at the beginning, you go from the wheel, and you tilt up, and that reveals Noah, right? Which, if it's attached, you can’t do that. So that's how we use that shot, you know? And you do the face replacements here. So we could get that version that is really riding, and that was really important.
Overall, this entire shot created a dynamic and visceral opening sequence that caused the formation of another big question The Pitt needs to answer. I need to know why Robby wasn’t wearing a helmet, and I need to know why he’s lying about it (considering he had a helmet with him). To that point, Coelho told me that this will be a detail that impacts the rest of the season. She said:
But, yeah, that was really interesting, you know. And I love how much talking there is about him not wearing a helmet. And I'm really excited for everyone to keep watching the season for these reasons, because obviously, it's setting up for something.
Listen, we know a “monkey wrench” will get thrown into the hospital this season. It’s also clear that Robby is not in the best place mentally as he works his last shift before his sabbatical. And, to be frank, that choice to drive recklessly without a helmet feels like it will play into all this somehow.
So, to find out how that happens, you can tune into new episodes of The Pitt on HBO Max every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
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