TV actor Patrick Ball is one of the names to watch over the next few years, and he has The Pitt to thank for changing his life. Prior to this, he had a lot of student debt.
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In an interview with Cultured magazine, the TV actor discussed being $80,000 in student loan debt.
"I paid off my student loans like three months into The Pitt, and that was a really profound moment 'cause I thought I was gonna die with it," Ball said. "It's a huge burden to carry, and a lot of people carry it."
At the time, the actor didn't think he would ever pay this off.
"I was $80,000 in debt and I had been through a series of failed relationships where my financial insecurity was a real problem," he explained. "I had just thought that was going to be my life forever, and that is a really heavy thing to live with."
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Being able to pay that debt off changed his life for the better. "Man, if this show works, great. If it doesn't work, they can't take that away from me," he told Cultured. "I am out of debt. No take-backsies on that."
Before landing a role on The Pitt, the actor considered taking a fundraising job at High Point University and giving up on his dream.
"I was like, 'Well, this is a $100,000 a year job. I'm gonna have to wear a suit and go to fundraising dinners for a living, which I hate because there's nothing more inauthentic to who I am, but it's a job, it's a life, and I cannot be too broke to marry again,' " he said.
Ball says he's worked a lot of odd jobs to get by.
"I was working at a coffee shop, I was working at a restaurant, I was working as a wardrobe assistant for And Just Like That... I was doing these corporate coaching seminars," he said. They would bring me in as an actor so that these administrators could get practice firing someone. So I have been fired more than anyone you've ever met, I promise you. I've been fired thousands of times."
