Katherine LaNasa Was Ready to Quit Acting. Then Came The Pitt.
The Emmy winner discusses landing the role of a lifetime, her “Duchamp scar,” and being haunted by Dennis Hopper's ghost.
A few years back, Katherine LaNasa was on the verge of quitting her on-screen career to teach acting in her backyard. Now, at 59 years old, she’s an Emmy winner thanks to her performance as the wry but logical head charge nurse Dana Evans, opposite Noah Wyle’s Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, on HBO’s mega-hit The Pitt. But acting wasn’t LaNasa’s original creative pursuit. She started her career as a professional ballerina. A chance meeting with the late screen legend Dennis Hopper after an opening night in Los Angeles led to both a brief marriage and a career change. She’s worked in television for decades, with a résumé that includes guest spots on sitcoms (such as Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men) and procedurals (everything from Ghost Whisperer to Burn Notice), and even a starring role in a Riverdale spin-off (Katy Keene). Though she played a flirty mom whose daughter was a patient on an ER episode back in 2002, she never expected that the show’s executive producer, John Wells, would change her life more than two decades later. Making a self-tape for The Pitt was just “a random audition,” she says. “I was going to be a counselor at summer camp. They sent me something the night before, a big dramatic scene. I guess that scene was the clincher. The gods were just with me.”
You used to be a ballet dancer. Does dance still inform your life?
Dance informs everything I do. For one thing, The Pitt is really a dance. The first day on set, Noah came across this long stage toward me. Then we have all these walk-and-talk scenes. He'd set the pace, and I was like, "Oh, this is it." The Dana-Robby relationship is this kind of dance that we do through the halls. I also understand how my body expresses a certain emotion. Because in dance, you're expressing emotions, but it's all abstract. Understanding that your body is speaking a language, not just your face, like when you're acting.
Did you always want to be a professional dancer?
Yes. By the time I was 14, I was living away from home at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. My first job was with the Milwaukee Ballet. I was 17. And then I danced for Ballet West and met Karole Armitage. She was with the artist David Salle then, and I came to New York. Eventually, I moved to L.A. and met the actor Dennis Hopper at a party. He was an art collector, and I ended up marrying the guy. I saw a PBS program about the acting teacher Sandy Meisner, and I tracked him down and studied with him. The rest is history! Forty years later, here I am.
LaNasa wears a Louis Vuitton jacket, pants, and shoes; Van Cleef & Arpels pavé ring.
Did you have the feeling from the beginning that The Pitt was special?
I just hoped it was good enough that we could stay on the air. I don't think any of us had any idea. I admire John Wells so much because he's always put real women on television. To get to be one of them was such a big deal. It's been so freeing and hopeful for me, and the most beautiful experience to get to participate in.
What was it like winning the Emmy?
Before I got The Pitt, I didn’t know if I was going to work again. I was about to build a structure in my backyard so I could coach acting. So to win an Emmy was a big deal. Honestly, it just felt like the heavens had opened up.
Who was your cinematic crush when you were a kid?
I have very few crushes. I really like Pierce Brosnan in The Matador. I always liked Robert Redford growing up. I married Grant Show—that's kind of my type, these little blond guys. Daniel Craig is really the only guy that I've found to be as hot as my husband. He could get a hall pass, probably.
Do you have any good scars?
I have a scar on my leg. There's a [Marcel] Duchamp exhibit at MoMA right now, and Dennis Hopper had a Duchamp, but he also had this bottle rack he used to just say was a Duchamp. I impaled myself on it at night one time trying to go to the bathroom. So, I have my Duchamp scar.
Do you believe in ghosts?
The ghost of Dennis Hopper [who passed away in 2010] would not leave me alone for a really long time. He came one time looking like when he was at the Academy Awards—he was in a wheelchair, and it was super upsetting. I told him he had to leave me alone, and then he came to me in a dream. We were both in a cafeteria in Greece, and he told me that he was okay. I never heard from him again.
Hair by Mustafa Yanaz for L’Oréal Professionnel; Paris at Art + Commerce; Makeup by Sam Visser for YSL Beauty at Art Partner; Manicure by Eri Handa for Dior Le Baume at Home Agency; Set design by Mila Taylor-Young. Produced by Prodn; Production Team: Mitch Baker, Noah Conboy, Steven Dam, Torrance Hall, Parker Hanley, Taryn Kelly, Conor McIntyre, Wesley Torrance, Daniel Weiner, Jasmine Williams; Photo Assistants: Keegan Gay, Jeremy Gould, Carlos Vigil; Digital Technician: Kylie Coutts; Fashion Assistants: Lizzie Bowden, Tori López, Kayla Perno, Sofia Prochilo, Celeste Roh, Tyler VanVranken; Tailor: Lindsay Wright; Hair Assistants: Tiana Amani, Harley Beman, Kazuto Shimomura; Makeup Assistants: Elika Hilata, Juan Jaar, Meghan Nguyen, Yuui Vision; Set Assistant: Kate Atkinson.
