Australian actor Shabana Azeez has revealed that the most disgusting thing she encountered on the set of the medical drama The Pitt was not a de-gloved leg or a vaginal birth, but American coffee. In a recent interview, she also disclosed that she accidentally broke a US$75,000 medical rig while filming a skull-drilling scene, a mishap she had not previously spoken about publicly.
Azeez, who stars in the new series The Airport Chaplain, shared these anecdotes during a rapid-fire Q&A session. She described the moment she broke the rig in detail, explaining that she had to fake the drilling motion for close-up shots of her face and then performed it with full force when the crew filmed the rig's coverage. The drill went clean through the rig's styrofoam interior, leaving the set in silence. She compared the adrenaline rush to that of a car crash, saying, "I regret everything."
Airport Chaplain and Celebrity Encounters
In The Airport Chaplain, Azeez plays a character who runs an airport. When asked who the worst two people to sit between on a plane would be, she chose Elmo and Kermit the Frog, joking that Elmo's laughter for 15 hours straight would be unbearable, and Kermit and Miss Piggy, imagining they had just gone through a divorce.
Azeez also recounted her most cringe-worthy celebrity encounter. While filming The Pitt season one in Los Angeles, she had never been to the city before and didn't believe celebrities were real. When she saw Quinta Brunson, the creator and star of Abbott Elementary, walk past her, she screamed and fell to her knees. Her co-star Jalen Thomas Brooks, who plays Mateo, came running out of his trailer, asking what had happened, only to find that it was just Quinta Brunson walking by.
Music, Odd Jobs, and Secret Talents
Azeez revealed that her most recently played song is "Machu Picchu" by the Strokes, a song she admits "nobody likes" but which "tickles a part of my brain." She described how she gets obsessed with songs and listens to one on repeat for two weeks.
Reflecting on her strangest job, she mentioned working as a simulated patient for medical schools. She would act out symptoms like appendicitis, and when the students realized she could cry on cue, they gave her a silicone baby to hold while she cried. The setup involved a room with a one-way mirror, where students would enter in groups of three to navigate the situation. She found it fun to watch them panic when she started crying.
When asked about a secret talent, Azeez attempted to juggle with camera lens caps and scrunched-up paper, but did not necessarily succeed. She was nonetheless commended for her effort.
On Pop Culture and Personal Impact
Azeez named her nemesis as "me from five minutes ago," explaining that it is hard being alive and having to live with herself. She also admitted to lying all the time, but never with genuine malice. She revealed that she had three fake birthdays on the set of The Airport Chaplain, and by the time her real birthday came around, nobody cared.
On pop culture, Azeez argued that society should care less about it, pointing to wars and other world events as more important matters. However, she acknowledged that comedy and art have a place, and that pop culture can "illuminate our culture in a way," like holding up a mirror to who we are. She criticized celebrity gossip as a waste of time, but recognized the potential for genuine conversations through pop culture.
Azeez sees her own work as part of that illuminating pop culture. Her first film dealt with coercive control and gendered violence, her second with queer joy, and her first big TV show addressed gun control in season one and violence against healthcare workers in season two. She described these as "impact-driven" projects. The Airport Chaplain airs on SBS and SBS On Demand in Australia and on Netflix globally from 26 August.
