‘The Pitt’ Actor Patrick Ball Cries While Revealing Show Got Him Out of $80,000 Worth of Debt: “I Thought I Was Gonna Die With It”

"holy shit, I fired that guy forty times one day..."

Or hey wasn't that my bartender last week?

I wonder what kind of performances he gave after getting fired. Like breaking down in tears or getting violent and aggressive?

crazy thats a job you can have. im rejected from jobs every week i could easily sit there and get fired all day

Reminds me of the film Up in the Air

>That part about hiring actors to get your company better at firing is so tragic for humanity. Firing an employee is generally a horrible experience for both the manager and the employee. Training managers to make these difficult conversations as smooth as possible is a good thing. Every decent place I've worked has had it, though we usually have to role play with other managers.

In med school, they brought in actors to the skills lab so we could practice interviews and module relevant exams, including difficult patient encounters. Like the angry pt (screaming swearing), distracted pt (kept eating Cheetos, rustling bag, smacking lips, and drinking mt dew), crying pt (inconsolable), and overly flirty pt (kept hiking up skirt to point out thigh tattoo). A much better use of those skills for the world.

Yeah, it is. Doesn't surprise me that they'd hire people to help their managers practice, though. Firing somebody is tricky enough as it is and the employer wouldn't want its managers saying the wrong thing and getting the employer sued.

I mean, is it? Like no one likes to think about someone getting fired, but it's a part of managing people so I don't see why it's some grand indictment to train people in handling it well. Seems more considerate to both the firer and firee if they're appropriately trained to hande the situation.

Eh it's just the reality, there's plenty of legitimate reasons to fire someone, and having a legitimate reason doesn't make it any easier or the person being fired take it better.

This is definitely something started by Nathan Fielder

Does Nathan Fielder owns the company providing these services?

How is this tragic? It’s just training for managers for a difficult conversation….

I have done those workshops and they are 100% a good thing. Every company should require this type of training. Firing was one "difficult" conversation of maybe 12 different scenarios.

>That part about hiring actors to get your company better at firing is so tragic for humanity. Also a scene premise from The Office if I remember right. When Michael Scott is so loath to fire someone he's just procrastinating in his office all day, practicing and delaying, etc.

I wouldn’t be surprised. There’s an interview were Katherine Lanasa talks about one of the actors being scared of being fired during their first table read and her giving them a rock for confidence, and Noah immediately assumed that it was Patrick and joked that he still thinks he’s gonna get fired

Especially since outside of just a small handful, nearly all of them are breaking out with this one show. They rolled the dice on so much undiscovered talent and it paid off huge. Among all of them, from what I've read it sounds like Patrick Ball was the biggest jump from nothing-to-something. I really hope he ends up with a solid career moving forward.

If talent and looks are a dime dozen, how do you decide who to hire? Well, the kids of the special and influential come with their own dividends. They’re also the ones who show up to every audition because there’s no conflicts with their job or ability to travel. Plus, you get stuff where you can get Fiona Dourif to pull in her real dad to play her dad in the show. Not a bad deal.

She was the yellow turmeric woman!

Uh, kinda funny they cast their loved ones both as massive idiots.

So did Shawn Hatosy's wife

Holy Shit that's Noah Wyle? I remember when he was a young Steve Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley. Damn time marches on I guees

She wasn’t acting, she actually glued her eyelids on set and they made it into the show.

her first televised gig. she’s done theater as well (that’s how they met!).

so maybe by 35 you can leave your parents house to start saving up to start your own life

I'm so happy to live in a country where even the concept of student loans is considered absurd. What a f****** tragedy, it's ridiculous this is somehow normal anywhere on earth

The real American dream is hoping you win some sort of lawsuit and a corporation/insurance gives you a big fat paycheck

In the past, it was literally cheaper for me to quit my minimum wage job and live off my husband's salary for 4 years until my unpaid student loans dropped off my credit. That way they couldn't dock my pay. It put me way behind in life and I had a lot of catching up to do in my late 20s/early 30s. I still have one big private loan that's $300 a month. But I'm "lucky" to have even had that option. Completely insane.

> Student debt is harder to discharge than medical, credit card debt, or tax obligations. The tradeoff is that if student debt was easier to discharge, it would be harder to get student loans. And then the tradeoff is that more student loans led to higher education costs.

Not sure what you do for a living but I worked at a college for free tuition. Just a thought if you have a couple of kids attending college.

As someone who went the community college route, I *really* wouldn't worry about "the full college experience" if I were you. Looking back on it over a decade later, I can't really say there was a ton that I didn't experience that would have been better if I was there for 4 years instead of 2. Of course, grad school destroyed any savings that really gave me, but yeah. If you really feel bad, the best thing you can do (aside from career changes or getting some perk for free college which is cool, but definitely not possible all the time), support and vote for those that would make it so future generations won't have to suffer this mess like many of us. I for one would rather be one of the last with the debt if it means future generations don't have to deal with it. I'll still die with it, but at least I know that's one more shitty thing that dies with me.

Im not quite sure there’s a right answer. The “college experience” is expensive, some come to regret it for what it costs, but others cherish it as the best years of their lives. And it’s honestly a great way to make lifelong friends and professional connections, as well as giving teens experience in living away from home in an environment that’s friendly at that stage. Don’t let listnook tell you those aren’t worth anything.  But yes the community college pit stop is great too. Much more affordable and you can bypass something that may not be necessary.  I’d look at either with a positive attitude and make sure whichever direction your children go, make sure they make the most of it. 

I was a product of 2+2 community/tech college for associate and then engineering school (private, as well) bachelor degree. Well, it took one additional year for me because I switched degrees, very slightly, from engineering tech to engineering (5 years in total). But, while I did not have scholarships coming into the engineering school, they had a program where those coming from tech schools had immediate 25%-30% tuition rate cut. I am not sure if these are offered in your kids' choice of schools, but this was definitely a huge chunk of money saved for both me and my parents, and something that you can talk with your kid that wants to go to 4-year school immediately to maybe convince them to go 2+2. I was also lucky that the summer before my last year of engineering school, I got an internship that admittedly paid close to minimum wage, but then they pretty much gave me a scholarship that covered the last year of my schooling. I am not sure if these are still out there particularly with all companies cutting out spending, but hopefully there are still avenues for you kids to get scholarships, even if they are only partial and not right away. I attended a $30k+ year engineering school after the tech school pitstop (which I also borrowed the tuition for completely), so I still ended up with a decent amount of student loan debt. However, it was only around $30k, compared to some of my classmates that were $100k deep. It definitely helped as well that I had wonderful parents that let me live with them all through college and even 5 years after, and did not ask me to pay rent during all that time. I was only asked to contribute to household expenses (energy, food, etc.). I used all the money I was saving to just pay more principal to my monthly student loan payments, and when I felt I was close enough I just paid the whole damned thing. I cannot remember how long it took me, but I think it was around 3 years. I definitely had to sacrifice social aspects of my college and early 20s life going about this way with living at home, but just thinking about it while I am typing this, I would do it the same all over again. Really, the one thing that truly sucked is having a 1 hour one-way commute to the second school since I had to take public transport. Hopefully, you can convince your other kid to go the 2+2 route. It is such a huge boon to come out of school with only a small amount of debt. Relatively speaking, of course. Thinking about it now, even my $30k is a lot of f****** money, my goodness.

Do not let your child do that, holy shit. The "college experience" is not worth $60k you could save with community college. People act like it's monopoly money just because it's college debt and "everyone has it". My parents couldn't pay for college either, Ive had a complicated path through education and career, but I always prioritized staying debt free and I don't regret it at all. I think I'm happier than anyone who makes a little more money than I do, but has a big pile of student loans.

Holy shit, you’re right. I’m in the middle of RE9 and he’s spot on

I don’t know… What’s his pun game?

Debt is debt, man

I still qualify buts its 519 a month for 10 years so 519×120=$62,280 back

Each masters gives about 5k more to my salary, up to two master's. So eh. Right now they can't charge me more than 10% my salary, hence the 519 dollar payment. So I could add 100k more to my debt, but my debt payout has hit the ceiling of cost

Agreed. I think he's the best performer on the show, other than Wylie

I love Santos just for her sarcasm, but it baffles me why people don't see why she's like that; she's been through a bunch of bad shit in her life and it's her defense mechanism.

IMO for whatever reason they wrote Santos to have negative interactions with practically everyone in season 1, I've been doing a semi-rewatch recently as my SO only just got into the show, and I was surprised at how many instances I had forgotten where she is needlessly hostile to other characters, over and over again in the first half dozen episodes. They gave her all that negativity then had her be responsible for exposing Langdon, which despite her being 1000% in the right in doing so, got added to the pile of things people were getting mad at her for because until that point Langdon was untouchable. If she didn't have all that additional negative baggage, her reporting of Langdon would have likely gone over a lot smoother.

Where does one sign up for that last gig No reason

Some nursing schools pay actors to be a "standardized patient" for students doing simulations.

Wait, wait, wait You can get PAID for that?

I've had said exam as part of a physical. I don't know how much money it would take to get me to let dozens of students do that to me in a day.. but it is a VERY large number.

I met someone who did this, they weren't actually an actor outside of the fake patient thing.

It’s actually refreshing finding out there’s something more useful for actors to do honestly. I like this idea

I love the Digby subplot this season for that reason.

Ha, it must have been so funny to be at that audition. "Okay, so you fucked up your tongue and you're wasted and making lascivious comments about the cute doctor. Now read!"