Shawn Hatosy Opens Up About Emmy Win, Acting Class & a Cringe Fan Selfie With Rosie O’Donnell

Winning an Emmy Didn’t Stop Shawn Hatosy From Going Back to Class

Mister Shawn Hatosy came ready to chat. The Pitt and Animal Kingdom actor sat down with Rosie O’Donnell during her guest-hosting run on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and the conversation bounced from childhood acting jobs and Emmy nerves to going back to acting class and one painfully awkward fan-selfie encounter.

Hatosy has been working on screen since he was a teenager, but the funny part of a career that long is how different generations recognize you for completely different things. For plenty of viewers, he will forever be Andrew “Pope” Cody from TNT’s Animal Kingdom. For a newer wave of fans, he is Dr. Jack Abbot on HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt.

That Animal Kingdom recognition also gave Hatosy one of the interview’s funniest detours: the strange little dance of being spotted in public, somebody wanting a selfie, and then the moment not exactly unfolding the way either person imagined. Celebrity encounters — keeping Walgreens parking lots emotionally complicated since forever.

But Hatosy also gets surprisingly earnest about the craft itself. Even after decades of steady work, he talks about going back to acting class and continuing to train. There is something refreshingly un-Hollywood about an actor with this many credits deciding there is still homework to do.

Shawn Hatosy Went From First Emmy Win to Another Nomination

The timing makes that conversation especially sweet. Hatosy won his first-ever Emmy in 2025 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing Dr. Jack Abbot in The Pitt. The Television Academy lists the winning episode as “9:00 P.M.”

One year later, he is right back in the race — only this time Abbot has moved from guest territory into the supporting field. Hatosy is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the 2026 Emmys, giving him two nominations and one win in just two years for the same role.

The jump reflects how much The Pitt expanded his character after that first-season appearance. Hatosy went from a guest performance that immediately clicked with viewers to a much larger presence in the hospital drama, while the series itself piled up 25 Emmy nominations for 2026.

Hatosy also talks with Rosie about what that first win actually felt like and what it is like heading into another awards season with a nomination already sitting next to his name. Last year, he joked after winning that simply hearing presenter Ron Howard pronounce his name correctly already felt like a victory. The actual trophy was a fairly solid bonus.

And that is sort of the charm of the whole conversation. Here is a working actor who has been around long enough to have credits stretching from ’90s movies to Southland, Animal Kingdom and now one of television’s biggest dramas — yet he can still sound genuinely amused by recognition, embarrassed by a fan interaction and interested enough in acting to put himself back in class.

Also, Rosie being Rosie, the interview feels less like the usual late-night publicity lap and more like two people actually having a conversation. Hatosy gets to talk career, insecurity, recognition and awards without anybody pretending the next movie clip is the most important event in human history.

Watch Shawn Hatosy Talk Emmys, Acting Class & Fan Selfies With Rosie O’Donnell

Hatosy joined Rosie O’Donnell on the August 20, 2026 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where they discussed his career, Animal Kingdom, The Pitt, acting class and his latest Emmy nomination.

Source: ABC; Television Academy; HBO Max.