‘The Pitt’ Star Shabana Azeez Explains the Fiery (and Flirty?) Javadi/Ogilvie Rivalry: “Hatred is a Type of Chemistry”

When we first met medical student Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) back in the The Pitt Season 1, she was a socially awkward prodigy too shy to form complete sentences around her work crush, Mateo (Jalen Thomas Brooks). Almost a year later, though, Javadi has officially found her voice.

The Pitt Season 2 introduces us to a new class of medical students. One of them, Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson), is already grating characters on the HBO Max show with his cocky approach to the rotation. Javadi, however, sees him as her primary rival and annoyance.

**Spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 2 “8 AM,” now streaming on HBO Max**

In The Pitt Season 2 Episode 2 “8 AM,” Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) warns Javadi that Ogilvie is a “gunner” and her “competition.” Santos believes the out-of-state student is gunning for the emergency medicine spot that Javadi has her eye on. After Santos suggests Javadi “step it up,” we begin to see Ogilvie and Javadi battle it out to prove who is the smarter student in the ED… Much to Robby’s (Noah Wyle) consternation.

Nevertheless, there’s something almost Hepburn/Tracy about the characters’ rivalry. Whether they’re stepping on each other’s lines or slyly duking it out to claim a computer mouse, there’s a strange chemistry on display.

The Pitt star Shabana Azeez told DECIDER, “We had a really good chat about it, Lucas [Iverson] and I, because I think there is something about hatred as a type of chemistry.”

“Like for actors, to hate each other, you have to be on the same wavelength, at the same speed,” Azeez said. “You know, like interrupting each other at just the right moment. It’s like a dance, right?”

“You’ve got to be like in the same game, basically. Like you, the characters, are playing the opposite game, but you, the actors, are playing the same game.”

Besides the technical work that the actors did off-screen to pull this “dance” off, there’s another element to their rivalry that Azeez found “really, really liberating” for Javadi.

“Javadi is so polite a lot of the times and like, trying desperately to be socially adept and trying desperately to pick up on [social cues]. She’s like hyper vigilant about it. She’s not very good at social stuff because of the way she was socialized, but she’s really trying at it,” Azeez said. “And to have somebody be so fucking irritating and insufferable by her — specifically to her — it gives her a freedom to just be like, ‘Actually, I’m going to tell you exactly what I fucking know.’”

“It’s like a version of herself she can really only be with him in a way that’s really freeing,” she said. “Like, she you’re seeing like a version of her that she’s like, ‘What is happening? Why is this coming out of me?’”

Fiona Dourif, who plays Dr. Cassie McKay on the show, was paired with Azeez on The Pitt press day and saw an interesting contrast between Javadi’s relationship with Ogilvie and the one she has with Santos.

“I think you were bullied a little bit by Santos,” Dourif said, “and bit your tongue, but with him — “

“I bit my tongue,” Azeez said. “But this guy’s in the same grade as me!”

“Exactly,” Dourif said. “I was proud of her.”

“Thank you,” Azzez said.

So could Javadi’s chemistry with Ogilvie evolve into something else? “I think we have a lot of fun and there’s a lot of friendship,” Azeez said, “and who knows if they’ll become friends?”

The Pitt returns next Thursday, January 22 at 9 PM ET on HBO Max.