Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Mel Finds Peace in The Pitt’s Chaos
This week’s episode of The Pitt confirms something we’ve suspected for a while now: Dr. Melissa “Mel” King was born to be an emergency-room doctor. As injured victim after injured victim floods the ER following the mass shooting at PittFest, the second-year resident moves from one seriously wounded patient to the next with measured compassion and a rapid pace. In a situation that would rattle almost anyone on their first day at a new job, Dr. Mel remains as unruffled as her ponytail braid and still doesn’t have a hair out of place at hour 12 of the shift.
Actress Taylor Dearden partly attributes her character’s sense of calm concentration to her ADHD, a condition Dearden has herself and pushed to give to Dr. Mel, too. While the Max medical drama never explicitly states that Mel is neurodivergent, Dearden says the part was written to imply it. “I was informing the writers that, actually, ADHD and autism are on the same spectrum now. All of the research is done together,” she explains. “There’s an incredibly high percentage of ADHD in emergency departments, in firefighters, in all emergency workers.” Through this lens, Dearden realized she could bring an entirely different facet of herself to the character. “I was like, well, I’m going to play everything I mask,” says the actress. “I’m just going to let that show instead.”
This authenticity has endeared Dearden, the daughter of actors Robin Dearden and Bryan Cranston, to fans of The Pitt and informs the pleasure of watching Mel flourish in the closing hours of her first shift (but not her last — Dearden confirms she’ll be back for season two). “Even though it’s a horribly tragic day, it’s like, this is exactly what she wanted to practice,” she says. “When you finally get to do the thing you’re supposed to do, as a neurotypical or neurodivergent person, that kind of peace is everything.”
One of the big moments for Mel in this week’s episode happens when Whitaker performs an IO on a conscious patient, which he’s not supposed to do. Mel steps in to correct him but remains calm and demonstrates real leadership. Where do you think those qualities come from?
A little bit ago, probably around episode five-ish, Noah Wyle and I were alone in the room and I pitched him an idea. I was like, “I don’t know if this works for what’s written, but with ADHD, we have this thing called hyperfocus, where all of a sudden we can become the calmest person in the most insane situations and just focus on whatever is in front of us. We’re able to recall things we learned years ago that are buried and somehow come up. I feel like that’d be cool to show.” And he went, “Ah, that works.” There’s actually a line in the show where Supriya Ganesh asks Patrick Ball and me, “Why do we do this, again?” And Patrick says, “Because we all have ADHD.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.”
I know you’ve talked about having ADHD yourself, but I don’t think at this point in the show they’ve said explicitly that Mel has it.
Honestly, it was written as quite coded and somewhat obvious, but then they wanted to backtrack. I was like, “It’s okay, I have ADHD. We can actually move forward.” I was able to make the decision, which was really cool.
Why did they want to backtrack?
There’s very little known about the neuroatypical world and about ADHD specifically, but I was informing them that, actually, ADHD and autism are on the same spectrum now. All of the research is done together. There’s not much difference.
Mel is very emotionally attuned to her patients and has a good bedside manner. One of the stereotypes about people who are neurodivergent is that they have a hard time making emotional connections. That does not seem to be an issue for her.
It’s definitely a misnomer, yeah. I think Mel has been trying so hard for so long, and to finally be in an environment where it’s all working — even though it’s a horribly tragic day — it’s like, this is exactly what she wanted to practice. This is the reason to become a doctor. When you finally get to do
the thing you’re supposed to do, as a neurotypical or neurodivergent person, that kind of peace is everything.
Another Mel moment that really delighted fans was after the baby got delivered in episode 11. The look of joy on your face when you hold that baby is just so special.
That was decided in the room. That wasn’t written. Dr. Collins was the only one supposed to be handling the baby, but I remember Tracy Ifeachor saying, having lost a baby, it would be really hard to cradle a healthy baby right now. She was like, “What if I offer it for Mel to do?” I was like, “Well, that works for me.” It made a lot of sense. It was just a really sweet little moment.
And the baby was an animatronic doll, wasn’t it?
It was a robot baby. You can feel the mechanisms move. Even though it looks really smooth, if you’re holding it, it’s a very jerky feeling. My hand placement was where it was because of an external battery I had to hide. It’s like, “Wow, she has a firm grip on the baby’s ass.” Yep, because that’s the battery! We had puppeteers who were there. It’s a very small world because one of the puppeteers played Chucky in Child’s Play. Fiona Dourif has long been in that world of the franchise. So she showed up and was like, “Did I just see my friend Peter the puppeteer?” And we were like, “Yeah, he’s doing Robot Baby and Bottom Half of Woman.”
At this point in the series, we’ve heard Mel talk a lot about her sister. How much did you know about their relationship when you got this role, and how much were you finding out as you got each script?
My auditions didn’t have anything to do with Becca. But Scott Gemmill and John Wells sat us all down and went into detail about our backstories. We all had that at bootcamp, and it was so, so actor-y. We were so happy about it. It was like, “Oh, no one does this for us. This is the best.” That’s when I learned about Becca and I learned that Mel was the caretaker and that both of her parents were gone. I didn’t know how lonely Mel was until I got that info. You know, being a primary caregiver, being in med school with no parents, it means Mel never had the opportunity to have friends. I feel like that informed Mel’s desperation to meet a friend.
Dr. Langdon is really kind and encouraging to her in ways he isn’t with anybody else at the hospital. Why do you think he treats her that way?
Langdon has been wanting to be Robby for so long, wanting to be an attending and a mentor for so long, and there just weren’t any willing participants. Then comes Mel, who is so wanting a mentor to latch on to. It kind of clicks that Mel is pretty much egoless. They clicked because both needs were met.
I know there has been some speculation among fans about whether there might be something romantic between them. You were asked about this in another interview and you said something about Mel being asexual. Can you expand on that?
That was never a thought in my mind, playing Mel. I don’t think she has time for romance or ever has had time. I don’t think that’s really in her brain at all. When someone said that, I burst out laughing, and I texted Patrick, like, “Wait, why are they shipping us?” He’s like, “I have no idea.” He made a really good point. He goes, “Yes, but isn’t it fortunate that we get to show a really close friendship between a man and a woman and not be sexualized?” I went, “Yes, you’re right.” I think having Mel around really softens him and makes him listen more and slow down. And I think Mel gets so much of a confidence boost from Langdon because he’ll take the time to say, “Hey, look at me: That was great.” That’s all Mel’s ever wanted.