The Pitt actor Patrick Ball tearfully reveals the series saved him from $80,000 in debt: “I thought I was going to die with this debt”

According to the CinemaDrame news agency, The Pitt actor Patrick Ball revealed in an interview with Cultured magazine, while visibly emotional, that the Emmy-winning medical series from HBO Max helped him pay off $80,000 in student loan debt. Ball plays Dr. Frank Langdon in the series. The Pitt is currently airing its second season on the platform.

Ball said through tears: “About three months after starting The Pitt, I paid off my student loans, and that moment was very profound for me because I thought I was going to die with this debt. It’s such a heavy burden, and so many people carry it. I owed $80,000 and had gone through a series of unsuccessful relationships where my financial insecurity was a major issue. I thought this was going to be my life forever, and that’s a really heavy thing to carry.”

He continued: “When I paid off those loans and got to zero, I remember thinking that if the show succeeds, great; if it doesn’t, they can’t take this away from me. I’m no longer in debt. That’s irreversible.”

Ball received a Critics Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in The Pitt. He also won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award alongside the ensemble cast of the series led by Emmy winner Noah Wyle. Before being cast in The Pitt, Ball was on the verge of stepping away from Hollywood entirely.

He told the magazine: “The financial outlook can be discouraging. I was looking for an exit.” He also noted that at the time, his girlfriend’s father was trying to convince him to join the FBI. Ball later moved to New York, where he was working four jobs at once.

“I worked in a café, I worked in a restaurant, I worked as a costume assistant on And Just Like That, and I also worked in corporate training seminars,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this, but they would take me to places like BlackRock, Blackstone, and Goldman Sachs, and they wanted to teach young executives how to have difficult conversations—like how to fire someone. They brought me in as an actor so these executives could practice firing people. So I’ve been fired more than anyone you’ve ever met, I promise you—thousands of times. Then the call for The Pitt came in, and everything changed.”