Supriya Ganesh’s next move

Speaking of The Pitt, Supriya Ganesh, who starred as Dr. Mohan in the first two seasons, has booked another post-Pitt role. First, it was the Netflix reboot of 13 Going on 30 (oh no, we’re updating a beloved classic For The Times), and now she is starring in Portrait, a horror/thriller from Robert Schwartzman which co-stars Finn Wittrock.

Robert Schwartzman is brother of Jason, son of Talia Shire, and part of the Coppola family dynasty. He’s best known as an actor for playing Michael Moscovitz in The Princess Diaries, and he is also the frontman for the band Rooney, which last released an album in 2016. He’s been focused on directing films since then, with his most recent film being 2023’s The Good Half starring Nick Jonas and Brittany Snow. I’ve seen a couple of Schwartzman’s films, including The Good Half, and haven’t hated them. Mostly it seems like he just needs the right script to make a real mark.

Will that be Portrait? Maybe! Wittrock and Ganesh star as a couple expecting their first child when they move into a house haunted by the portrait of an old-timey lady. (Where is this house, Widow’s Bay?) That’s a decent hook for a supernatural horror flick, those old timey portraits ARE creepy as f-ck. I’ve always harbored a dream of amassing a collection of them and hanging them in a stairwell that goes nowhere. The script is written by Zac Stanford, working off a story by Stanford and Schwartzman, so this is a good test of what Schwartzman can really do.

It’s also a pop quiz for Ganesh, to see how she can leverage The Pitt into a career. It wasn’t her first role, but The Pitt was her breakout, and she is one of the first stars to leave the show and then see what happens next. It’s basically just her and Tracy Ifeachor at this point, and Ifeachor’s post-Pitt roles include M. Night Shyamalan’s Remain (which filmed right after The Pitt’s breakout first season), and…Air Bud Returns. Low key yikes.

Meanwhile, Finn Wittrock should be a bigger star, unless he’s deliberately engineering his career to maintain a steady level of manageable attention. He works regularly, frequently in Ryan Murphy productions, and he dips in and out of the theater every few years. (I saw him in a production at The Goodman in Chicago a long time ago and he made such an impression that I deliberately noted his name and was not surprised at all when he started popping up in movies and TV shows.)

Portrait is seeking distribution at the American Film Market, which runs next week. I’ll be interested to see who picks it up. What kind of expectations does Hollywood have for Supriya Ganesh?

Here is Supriya Ganesh at the Women in Film Honors last night.

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