“The Pitt” actor Patrick Ball broke down in tears while speaking to Cultured magazine and revealing how the Emmy-winning HBO Max medical series helped him get out $80,000 worth of student loan debt. Ball stars on the show as Dr. Frank Langdon. “The Pitt” is currently airing its second season on the streamer.
“I paid off my student loans like three months into ‘The Pitt,’ and that was a really profound moment because I thought I was gonna die with it,” Ball said through tears. “It’s a huge burden to carry, and a lot of people carry it. I was $80,000 in debt and I had been through a series of failed relationships where my financial insecurity was a real problem. I had just thought that was going to be my life forever, and that is a really heavy thing to live with.”
Ball added, “Paying off those student loans and getting back to zero, I remember being like, ‘Man, if this show works, great. If it doesn’t work, they can’t take that away from me. I am out of debt.’ No take-backsies on that.”
Ball earned a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for best supporting actor in a drama series thanks to his performance on “The Pitt.” He won a SAG Award as part of the show’s ensemble cast, which is headlined by Emmy winner Noah Wyle. Prior to being cast in “The Pitt,” Ball was leaning towards a life outside of Hollywood all together.
“The financial outlook can be bleak. I was looking for an off-ramp,” Ball told the publication, noting his then-girlfriend’s dad was trying to convince him to join the FBI. He was later working four jobs when he moved to New York City.
“I was working at a coffee shop, I was working at a restaurant, I was working as a wardrobe assistant for ‘And Just Like That,’ I was doing these corporate coaching seminars,” he continued. “I don’t think I’ve told anybody this story, but I was doing these seminars where they’d bring me into Blackrock and Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, and they would want to teach these young administrators how to have difficult conversations, à la how to fire somebody. They would bring me in as an actor so that these administrators could get practice firing someone. So I have been fired more than anyone you’ve ever met, I promise you. I’ve been fired thousands of times. And then the call for ‘The Pitt’ came in and everything was different.”
Head over to Cultured’s website to read Ball’s profile in its entirety.
Leave a Reply