By Carole Horst
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Photo by Emily Sandifer Charge nurse Dana Evans embodies the heart and soul of HBO’s “The Pitt.” She’s smart and reacts with her gut; she’s tough and empathetic, a fierce fighter for her patients and staff, but knows when not to pick a fight. Katherine LaNasa’s portrayal of this complicated woman has made her a fan favorite and earned her a Critics’ Choice Award, an ensemble Actor Award and an Emmy, with more on the horizon after her sterling performance in Season 2 of “The Pitt.” LaNasa will be honored June 20 with the Variety Virtuoso award at the Bentonville Film Festival in Bentonville, Ark. “The Pitt” has catapulted her into what seems like overnight success, but LaNasa is a veteran of stage and screen, quietly doing great work for decades. But the newfound fame “feels great,” she admits. “I loved what I was doing anyway. I loved it as it was. I really just wanted to keep working, so hopefully this ups the odds of that happening. That’s kind of the main takeaway — I just want to keep working. It’s not something that I expected, so it’s all just lagniappe, as we say in Louisiana.” When she first got the script for the medical drama, she immediately thought of the different types of people who could be cast and wondered, “Are they going to cast an older white lady for this part? There’s probably a more interesting way to go than that, to be honest.” But after a second read, she realized that the show contained such a rich tapestry of cultures and ethnicities and worked hard to honor diversity on screen, including Deepti Gupta’s Dr. Shamsi and her relationship with her daughter, Dr. Javadi, played by Shabana Azeez. Plus, LaNasa says, “the Filipino nurses speaking Tagalog.” Taking on Dana came to LaNasa rather easily, as they have many similarities. “I just understood her. I mean, I’m not heroic like Dana, I’m not a real nurse, and I don’t sacrifice myself for people the way that Dana does. She’s pretty amazing. But I am strong-willed like Dana. I’m a get-it-done kind of person. So, I think those things were similar, but Dana’s amazing in ways that I certainly am not,” she says, musing on another role that “came easily” with a laugh: “Will Ferrell’s bitch wife in ‘The Campaign.’ That was another great role to get, and I’d worked zero on that part. I also completely understood that person who’s a total narcissistic bitch.” Nevertheless, Dana is a juicy role for an actress over 50, but perhaps showrunners are recognizing the rich natural resource of the female performer of a certain age that they can tap into — Jean Smart, Demi Moore, Kathy Bates, Viola Davis, etc. LaNasa name-checks Barbara Stanwyck as an example of an actress who continued to get strong roles throughout her career. “People always compare me to her,” she says, and yes, Stanwyck would have killed as Dana. LaNasa concedes that she thinks there are more and better roles for women now, but notes that in the 1930s and 1940s, “there were so many strong female leads in movies.” “There was a whole period of time where there were these great female leads, and then we kind of backed off of that for a while,” she says. “I think in television there [still] are. What’s nice is we’re seeing a trend toward natural-looking older women — that’s kind of a big thing. We’ve got a lot to offer. I mean, look at Kathy Bates, she’s freaking crushing it in that show, she’s so wonderful. Age ain’t nothing but a number.”
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