Pittsburgh
Trauma Medical Center Making Roxie
Brittany Allen As Roxie For Your Emmy® Consideration
Outstanding Guest Actress in a drama series - Roxie Hamler on HBO’s The Pitt
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Roxie Hamler
Patient Name: Date:
7/4/26
The Pitt is one of the most acclaimed shows of the last few years, and a new tentpole for HBO, who are no-strangers to delivering awardworthy hits. Packed with stand-out performances, brilliant writing and expert direction, it brings to life the ER at a fictional Pittsburgh hospital.
One of the more memorable storylines from Season 2 centres on Roxie Hamler, a cancer patient in the final hours of her life. Beautifully portrayed by Brittany Allen, it’s heartbreaking and affecting, in part because it is so deeply rooted in reality – Roxie’s story is one that most of us have experienced, either directly or through family and friends. Brittany succeeds in delivering a performance that is restrained whilst still showcasing the internal struggle of a mother reckoning with death and having to leave her family behind.
With a performance as strong as this one, it’s not surprising that critics have lauded her portrayal, with COLLIDER saying: “Allen delivers a performance rooted in quiet strength and acceptance. It’s a real and raw portrayal that manages to be equally gut-wrenching.”
As a self-submitting contender at this year’s Emmy® Awards, this booklet seeks to shine some light on a career-best performance.
We hope this booklet delights and informs both Emmy® voters and fans alike.
“The chance to be able to go to such a deep, real place with a character was a gift. That sort of role doesn’t come very often.”
In Conversation with Brittany Allen
I felt like it could be a defining role for me and I’m always looking for characters that I can learn something new about life through. Roxie is in the final hours of her life, facing death and saying goodbye to her family, which was an opportunity for me to meditate on one of the greatest fears and truths of being a human. That’s something that we all pretend is not coming for us. The chance to be able to go to such a deep real place with a character was a gift. That sort of role doesn’t come very often.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE PREP. WHAT DID THAT LOOK LIKE?
I enmeshed myself in everything I could find on the subject of death and dying, as well as terminal cancer. I read memoirs like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and standards like On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. I went deep into spirituality and religion, exploring the ways that cultures have looked at death and the afterlife over time. I wanted to have an overarching view of the philosophical questions Roxie was asking herself at this precipice of her life’s end. I spoke with Gilda’s Club, a community organization which supports people going through cancer. They kindly shared a video from a mother who had passed away, and I remember her dignity and her strength, but also the heaviness and tragedy she carried of reckoning with the fact that it was all coming to an end. I attended a workshop with a death doula in Southern California, and we meditated on our own death, how we might want that to look, and the things we would look back on with love or regret. That brought up a lot of clarity for myself.
On a character level, I built out a whole life of Roxie’s relationship with Paul, her children and her parents, creating memories of love and connection that I could hold onto in the hospital room, knowing they would bring both the joy of those memories and the pain of knowing there wouldn’t be any more.
WHAT DREW YOU TO THE ROLE OF ROXIE?
ROXIE’S STORY IS ABOUT PRESERVING DIGNITY, WHICH IS PARAMOUNT DURING END OF LIFE CARE. TELL ME ABOUT THE RESPONSIBILITY YOU FELT OF CAPTURING THAT FOR THOSE WATCHING THAT MAY HAVE EXPERIENCES OF THIS.
I knew there would be countless people watching this show who had been through something like this or were going through it currently, and I felt a greater responsibility than ever to do the research and step into the story with everything that I had, with as much truth and courage as I could muster, because I wanted to honor people who know this experience.
It felt like something greater than me, and something greater than acting. It felt like an opportunity to actually impact fellow humans in a meaningful way. I really try to remove my ego and just bring utmost honesty to it. It was a daily process of allowing myself to be open to that level of vulnerability, but I knew that it was my responsibility to do that. To not go all the way would be shying away from the experience.
HOW MUCH DISCUSSION WAS THERE WITH THE DIRECTORS ABOUT WHEN TO HOLD BACK VERSUS WHEN TO LET EMOTION SHOW?
The set of The Pitt was a beautiful place of discovery and play. Everyone was willing to believe in this reality with all of their heart and soul, and they gave so much to the truth of the moment in a way that allowed me to do my best work. The writer of each episode is always on set while that episode is being shot, so they are there to offer their thoughts. It’s a very collaborative set, and when you’re first blocking a scene, it’s the actors, the director and the writer having a real conversation about what the scene is about and where each character is at.
For the episode I submitted, I worked with Shawn Hatosy as director, and collaborated with him on Roxie’s monologue to Dr. McKay. That was a moment on set that I won’t ever forget. His openness and vulnerability as a director allowed us to drop into a really meaningful and safe place.
ROXIE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HER FAMILY IS AT THE HEART OF HER STORY. HOW DID YOU AND YOUR ON-SCREEN FAMILY WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE THAT CHEMISTRY?
Banks and Emmett, who played my sons, brought such a fresh, vivacious energy to set. The AD asked if they could spend some time with me so they could get comfortable pretending I was their mom, and I was totally down. We ended up hanging out for hours. I learned about who they are, what they love, and the crazy things they get up to as young boys. We even made a really silly short film together. We just got silly, played, and broke the ice that way. It helped create a history between us.
LASTLY, WHAT HAS THIS CHARACTER AND THIS ROLE MEANT TO YOU?
This character will stay with me for so many reasons. I think the biggest way that she has impacted me is that I learned it was safe to be ripped wide open on screen, and to expose my own fears, rage, sadness and loss in such a vulnerable, open way on a show that I knew would be seen by millions of people. In the aftermath, I think she’s given me a little bit of a superpower. I have a greater sense that this life we’re living is not forever, and therefore we shouldn’t get caught up in the little petty things or pointless worries.
“It felt like something greater than me, greater than acting. It felt like an opportunity to actually impact humans in a meaningful way.”
FOR YOUR EMMY ® CONSIDERATION
BRITTANY ALLEN
As Roxie
Outstanding Guest Actress in a drama series on The Pitt
Created by TCO London