The Pitt's Katherine LaNasa Reveals Cancer Diagnosis & How It Affected Her Role as Nurse Dana
Katherine LaNasa is opening up about her health.
The 58-year-old actress, who plays Dana Evans, the charge nurse of the emergency room on The Pitt, got candid in an interview with Women’s Health about her cancer diagnosis.
In new essay, Katherine opened up about how her own cancer diagnosis inspired her performance as Nurse Dana on the show and why she considers her role to be a love letter to the nurses who cared for her.
Keep reading to find out more…
On bringing personal experience to her role as Nurse Dana:
“My performance as the steadfast eyes and ears of the ER was also informed by my own health struggle and the calm, compassionate nurses I met during treatment.”
On her first reaction to her cancer diagnosis:
“It hit me like a ton of bricks, but I was so fortunate that my very first thought was, why not me? rather than why me? It happens to so many people, you know, and coming from that why not me? perspective opened the door to staying positive throughout my treatment.”
On how her diagnosis inspired her to take better care of herself:
“On some level, I do think that a lifetime of stress contributed to my cancer—the combination of dense breasts, alcoholism, and stress wasn’t great. It took being diagnosed with cancer to start to take better care of myself in terms of how much outside stress I’ll allow in.”
On how “framing everything as love” helped her through treatment:
“Along with my why not me? mantra, I found comfort in the idea of framing everything as love. I saw those big machines as a sign of how fortunate I am—fortunate to have the means to seek care and treatment, and fortunate that somebody cared enough about people to create this device to shoot radiation into me and save my life.
“I looked at it all as care and as love. When I set my mind on that intention, everything became evidence of love. Not feeling victimized by the treatment is tricky, but if you can get there, it’s really, really helpful.”
On the nursing staff that surrounded her during her treatment:
“Another vital source of care and love during that time was the nursing staff that surrounded me. Sometimes the gestures would be small—like bringing me a warm blanket when I had a scan. When they wrapped me in that cozy material, I felt like somebody cared about me and I could handle anything. I later told The Pitt writers about that, and in one of the scenes, I slip in and put a warm blanket around someone’s feet who is really struggling. That was based on my own experience.”
On receiving the script for The Pitt, almost a year after she finished treatment:
“Noah Wyle had written a note to all of us who were auditioning about what they were looking for. Producers never do that. They might do a character description, but he actually wrote a note about how they wanted—it’s kind of actor-speak—‘top to toe immersion.’ What they meant is they wanted you to feel like you were fully in it, all the time. It was very realistic. But they also wanted you to bring your creativity and leave your ego. They wanted us to take risks. Something about the way he wrote that letter and the way that I felt connected to the material, made me think, They might want me.”
On participating in two weeks of “doctor school” with her castmates before they started taping The Pitt:
“We were walked through a lot of procedures, and we also heard talks from professionals in the emergency field. It wasn’t until I got to doctor school that I realized how much my experience with cancer had informed me about how to play Dana. It probably came through in my auditions, and I didn’t even know it.”
On the goal she had for her The Pitt character:
“My goal was for Dana to be a love letter and a thank you to all the people who treated me so kindly, so lovingly, and so thoughtfully when I had cancer. It was really a spiritual equation for me that this seemingly difficult trial led to something creative and fulfilling and something that I could offer back as a thank you.”