Katherine LaNasa is still getting used to the perks of being an Emmy winner. The Pitt star, who took home Best Drama Supporting Actress at last year’s ceremony, got to attend a Louis Vuitton show during Paris Fashion Week and was amazed by the experience. But will she wear the fashion house’s designs at this year’s Emmys, where she’s nominated once again? “Louis Vuitton has sent me flowers, which is almost like getting a horse’s head if you’re in the mafia,” LaNasa told Gold Derby. “It’s like, ‘We’re dressing you,’ so I’m hoping that works out. I’m guessing that a dress would follow. Otherwise, it’s kind of like a mean little trick.”
LaNasa joined us to talk her second Emmy nomination, if she ever entertained the thought of competing in the lead category, and what she thinks might happen in The Pitt’s third season.
Gold Derby: Congratulations on your second Emmy nomination. What does it mean to you to be nominated alongside so many of your co-stars?
Katherine LaNasa: It’s really cool. I didn’t know it would be so fun. The whole thing is kind of nerve-wracking, so I try not to think about it. In fact, I didn’t know what day it was until somebody, I think my husband [actor Grant Show], told me in the morning, “Good luck today.” I was like, “What?” Yeah, I just forgot what it would feel like or anything, but to have them nominated really just made the whole room just so joyful and it just feels really great. They should be up there, particularly the ones that have been with The Pitt from day one. It’s really well deserved. They’re a big part of it and it makes me feel good for them to be acknowledged as well.
How did you celebrate the nominations on-set?
We were about to shoot a scene and we’re not supposed to have phones on set, and I had my phone with me. I’d walked in with my phone, so I was taking it to the break room and while I was taking it, my husband was calling me and I was like, “Oh no.” And then I didn’t want to know, really. I was on set. So I looked at my messages and there were some congratulations coming in, so I tried to go to the break room and someone kicked me back and said, “No, go to the hub.” Everyone was gathering in the hub, and I saw Patrick [Ball, who plays Dr. Langdon] across the way and he walked towards me and he had a big smile on his face. I said, “Did you get nominated?” … He goes, “I think everyone here got nominated.” So that’s how I found out. He gave the list.
It was so exciting. To see our set designer, our art director, Nina Ruscio, get nominated was a big deal because that set is such a big part of the show. And the writers, some of whom had not been nominated before, that was great. Well deserved on the sound, again. I got to say, they’re like wizards. They never make us stop doing anything. So often you’re not allowed to even put a fork down if you don’t have a little pad. I don’t know how they isolate the sound on that show the way they do.
If you won, you’d join an elite group of women who have managed back-to-back wins in the Supporting Drama Actress category: Blythe Danner, Anna Gunn, Allison Janney and Julia Garner. Can you talk about what this moment in your career means for you to be potentially among such beloved and acclaimed actresses?
Oh, wow. Well, they’re all incredible, incredible actresses. Just to even be on a list with Allison Janney is amazing. She’s really been a north star for me, just a woman that can play a lot of different roles. I like to think that I enjoy playing a lot of different roles as well. She’s smart and real. Women like her and Patricia Arquette have just really kind of paved the way for me. Julianne Nicholson, another person in the category, I would say has also been a north star. When I see them making room for a woman like that, when women like that are shining, I feel like I’m in the right place. I’m doing the right thing. They do the kind of roles that I want to do. They do the kind of acting I admire. And so God, to be on a list like that, it’s really flooring.
Did you ever consider submitting as a lead actress instead?
To be honest, I try not to think about the whole thing at all because it’s all just so. … The less decision-making for me, the better. In fact, I don’t think anyone ever asked me, so I guess HBO took care of that.
Where do you keep your Emmy from last year?
Well, we’re in a rental house right now. We actually moved out of our house to remodel that house and instead we bought a new house. So it’s on the fireplace of this ’50s house that we’re renting.
Robby [Noah Wyle] and Dana’s work relationship was tested in Season 2. Do you think it can be repaired?
Yeah. I think their fighting and their ability to fight with each other is an example of how intimate they are with each other and how safe they are with each other, that they could go there and that they’ve probably gone there before. It was a little scary for me to do as an actress. I didn’t really want to hit him that hard. No one really wanted me to hit him hard. But the effect I think really worked. You have to be unafraid of conflict and you have to be, I think, unafraid of your character being perfect or likable or any of that stuff in order for it to be interesting and relatable.
Can you talk about your experience of portraying Dana’s work with the sexual-assault victim, Alana? It felt so real and raw, and I know so many viewers have expressed their thanks that it was so authentically done.
It was so cool to be on something that really showed that side of it. The effect of actually having to take a rape kit on a rape victim who’s just been invaded, and then this other invasion, and then the effect of it actually on the SANEs, the sexual assault nurse examiners, as well. I went and studied with these women in Santa Monica at the rape-treatment center, and I tried to absorb what the experience was like for them. And I had one of them on set just for any technical things. I went and studied with them twice to try to really get a sense of what it was like, so it takes a toll on the examiners as well. They see a lot of stuff as well. I’m really just proud of being a part of that. I thought that we got some really good information out in the episode and I was so proud of Tina Ivlev [who played Alana], who’s also nominated. She’s really one of the finest actors I’ve worked with, and it’s really not easy to get a nominee for a guest spot if you’re not a celebrity, so good on her. Well deserved.
What were the most challenging scenes for you to get through in Season 2?
That whole Episode 12 was a lot, when I have the vial of Versed and I’m fighting with Noah. I have the fight with him out in the ambo bay, and then I tell him, “You’re going to a place called Smash Your Head in Buffalo Jump.” I really kind of put it in his face that I think he’s suicidal and he’s mean to me. And it just was- that whole journey was unpleasant, but it’s kind of what we live for as actors. It’s like trying to get that meat off the bone. You have to go to those typical places in order for it to be satisfying. At least sometimes you have to do it. And it was, it was. But I’m glad when those things are done. I find that they take a toll. Maybe some other actors can have that stuff go through them in a way that’s really light. It’s not really light for me. It kind of stirs up a bunch of gunk and I don’t really feel that great when I’m doing it.
What are your hopes for Dana in Season 3?
I honestly never want to hope for anything or tell them anything that I hope for because they always do such a good job at it, and I think they’re better writers than I am. And so it’s funny, I don’t hope for anything. I always just trust because whenever I feel like I don’t know where I’m going, it just always ends up being better than I thought it would be, and it’s always fun to play. So I trust that they’re going to give me something great. It’s always a mystery to me where I’m going, to be honest with you.
I know a little bit about what’s coming up, but I have no idea about what my response is going to be to it, so I don’t really know. I do have to say that it’s really fun doing a Season 3 when you have repeat directors and repeat cast and so much repeat crew. It’s really a well-oiled machine and it just kind of clicks. And I don’t know, we like each other over there. So it’s been really fun to come back and really joyful post-nomination to be all in this together.
What is it about Dana that you think makes people respond so strongly to her?
I think she probably reminds people of people in their family, like that grandmother or that aunt or even their own mother. I don’t know. I think she’s dependable. I love Dana. I feel like Dana exists as a person outside of me, that I get to inhabit. I get to put on the Dana suit and I get to be Dana. I also love Dana. I think she’s funny, and I think it’s the fact that she’s so real, that she’s flawed. She talks kind of funny. I don’t know. I think she’s dependable and she cares. She’s a boss. There’s a lot of great fun things about her. Who knows, right? It’s ephemeral. Who knows why people have connected with her so much? I think she feels familiar.
What has playing Dana taught you as a person and as a performer?
Well, as a performer, I asked John Wells [executive producer] when we first started, “What is it that you want from this? Do you want it to be like a documentary?” And he said, “No, I want to feel like you’re inside it.” And that is a very specific call to be as natural as you can be, and so that’s just been really fun, and it’s been fun to have evidence by the reception of the performance that it is enough. You can strip away all of the acting that you do, all that tricky stuff, and just really just try to live as simply and truthfully as you can and that is enough in acting. So that’s been a real lesson. I think I’ve learned that from her. And then with Dana, I think she’s taught me that you never know what people are going through. Just in these imaginary circumstances, all these people that come in every day on The Pitt, this is just a mirror of real life, right? And so really getting to see on a visceral level every day when I go to work that people are really in a lot of pain, they’re dealing with a lot of stuff, to try to remember that out in the world, that’s a good lesson.
Because of the show’s structure we only find out small details about characters in passing. What’s a detail or info about a character you’re dying to know?
I’m really interested in Dana’s home life. I have an idea about it, but I don’t know if there’s a way that that ever would come into play, if those people would ever come to visit her in the ED, like her family. But I think that Dana is a minimalist and I think that she was probably a real loud mouth as a teenager and a young woman. But I think when her mother died, I think her grief kind of squashed her. And I think she’s actually quiet out there, and I think she just brings that boss in, that funny, into the ED. But I think Dana’s quiet and I think her home is minimal. I think there’s enough drama at work. Yeah, I think Dana wants peace.
What are you most looking forward to about the Emmys next month?
The clothes. I’m excited about the clothes. Louis Vuitton has sent me flowers, which is almost like getting a horse’s head if you’re in the mafia. It’s like, “We’re dressing you.” They sent me flowers, so I’m hoping that works out. I’m guessing that a dress would follow. Otherwise, it’s kind of like a mean little trick. I got to go to the fashion show, which was just an amazing life experience this year, so that would be amazing. I’m a big fan.
