Flonique Guimary

Fil-Am actress Isa Briones recalls being rushed to the ER while filming 'The Pitt'

Article (news)

Push Team

Isa Briones plays a doctor on television — but it turns out she&#x27;s had her own real-life medical scare to draw from.Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the Filipino-American actress revealed that she suffered a &quot;serious medical emergency&quot; while filming The Pitt — and in a twist of fate, ended up being treated at the very hospital where parts of the show are shot.Isa remembered that it had begun innocently enough. She was doing background work on set and walking through a scene without any lines when she began feeling stomach pain. <div> </div>&quot;I was doing background work, and I&#x27;m walking through this scene, and throughout the day, I started to have a stomachache. And I was like, &#x27;Oh god, it must&#x27;ve been the burger bar. I&#x27;m really gassy right now,&#x27;&quot; she said.She mentioned it to castmate Shawn Hatosy — who plays Dr. Jack Abbot on the show and was directing that day — but he brushed it off. &quot;I told Shawn Hatosy — &#x27;cause he was directing — and he was like, &#x27;Oh, that sucks,&#x27; and moved away,&quot; she recalled.The situation took a serious turn the following day when the pain intensified into what she recognized as appendicitis-level discomfort. Her partner rushed her to the emergency room, which happened to be the same hospital where The Pitt films its ambulance bay scenes. &quot;That night, my partner took me to the ER, which was actually where we shoot our ambulance bay footage,&quot; she said.What followed was, by her own telling, a surreal experience. While in triage, a doctor in the corner recognized her from the show. &quot;He was like, &#x27;The Pitt, right?&#x27; And I recognized him too, because I&#x27;d taken pictures with him when we toured the hospital,&quot; Isa said. The nurses, equally starstruck, went out of their way to protect her privacy. &quot;The nurse was like, &#x27;Oh my god, you&#x27;re on The Pitt. We&#x27;re gonna scrub your name from the record — no one&#x27;s gonna know you&#x27;re here.&#x27; It was like Beyoncé was having a baby,&quot; she laughed.Beyond the medical scare, Isa also opened up about her character&#x27;s arc on The Pitt. Having advocated for Filipino representation in the show, she was thrilled when her character, Dr. Trinity Santos, a Filipino-American doctor, got to belt out karaoke in the finale of the second season. &quot;She&#x27;s Filipino. Let&#x27;s be real. She would be able to sing. She&#x27;s a Filipino doctor, so she sings and she dances. That&#x27;s just how it works,&quot; she said. Earlier in the series, her character also sang the Hiligaynon lullaby &quot;Ili Ili Tulog Anay&quot; and delivered a Tagalog line that confirmed her heritage to two Filipino nurses on the show.Fresh off wrapping The Pitt&#x27;s second season, Isa has also been making waves on Broadway, playing Connie Francis in the musical Just in Time. She describes theater as home — but acknowledges that returning to the stage feels different now that she&#x27;s a recognizable face. &quot;Theater is home to me. I&#x27;m a theater girl first. But it&#x27;s a little different now. People kind of know who I am, which is a little different. So it&#x27;s cool to know, &#x27;Oh, people are really coming to see me.&#x27; Hope you like it,&quot; she said.Isa is the daughter of Filipino-American actor Jon Jon Briones, a veteran of the stage best known for his role in the 1989 West End production of Miss Saigon, where he shared the stage with Lea Salonga. The two have also worked together professionally: Isa appeared alongside her father in Hadestown, an experience she described as &quot;incredible.&quot;Growing up, Isa was very much a child of the theater world. &quot;I grew up as a tour baby. He was doing Miss Saigon for most of my life. Before we settled in LA, I was on tour and I would watch him be this larger-than-life, amazing actor. And I was like, &#x27;Oh, I&#x27;m up here with you.&#x27; That&#x27;s kinda awesome,&quot; she said. &quot;It&#x27;s also great to see him create a character — and not just see the finished product. That was so awesome,&quot; she added.<div>—By Paolo Lim</div>

Isa Briones was rushed to the ER after experiencing appendicitis-level discomfort.

Isa Briones was rushed to the ER after experiencing appendicitis-level discomfort.