Katherine LaNasa was photographed Dec. 9 at PMC Studios in Los Angeles. Styled by Tara Swennen. Patrizia Pepe dress; Tabayer jewelry. Photographed by Mark Griffin Champion; Makeup: Myriam Arougheti; Hair: Katherine Kousakis Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment When Katherine LaNasa walked onto the set of The Pitt to begin filming the medical drama's second season, she immediately noticed that something was different. There was, as she describes it, a veneer of success permeating across the cast and crew. "Everybody was a little more tanned, a little more buff, they're all redoing their bathrooms," she recalls with a laugh. The show, created by ER writer-producer R. Scott Gemmill alongside star Noah Wyle and producer John Wells, debuted one year ago and became a smash hit - it's now among HBO Max's top three most watched series of all time. In September, it won five Emmys, including one for LaNasa's performance as crowd-favorite charge nurse Dana Evans, and this season it will compete at the Golden Globe and Spirit awards (after winning big at the Critics Choice). But LaNasa, 59, is happiest about the fact that she still has a job. Related Stories TV 'The Pitt' Season 2 Trailer Shows Tension as Noah Wyle's Doctor Gets Ready for a "Little Sabbatical" TV HBO Max Teases 'Lanterns,' New Seasons of 'The Pitt' and 'Industry' in 2026 Preview At the end of season one, Dana was experiencing an existential crisis; her decades-long dedication to the ER was buckling under the brutal realities of the modern health care system, compounded by a violent attack by a disgruntled patient. She was threatening to quit, and neither fans nor LaNasa herself knew what would happen next. "I was really hoping they wouldn't fire me," she says with a laugh. "I was like, 'I'm in my 50s, I finally got on something that really took off - please don't let go of me now.' " That kind of uncertainty might rattle a less seasoned actor, but it didn't faze LaNasa. "This is my ninth series, so I'm pretty used to it," she says. "I never really know where we're going." She's been working steadily in Hollywood since 1990, with stints on network heavyweights (NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Two and a Half Men) and intriguing, if underperforming, streaming projects (Apple TV's Truth Be Told). She's been married three times - first to Dennis Hopper, then to French Stewart and, most recently, to former Melrose Place star Grant Show. She has two children and splits her time between Atlanta and Los Angeles. In other words, while she was deeply invested in Dana's fate, she also was realistic about how these things tend to go. "I've had a lot of other jobs that looked like, at the time, they were going to be 'the thing': I had a starring role in a movie with Billy Bob Thornton, directed by Robert Duvall, that didn't do any business; I was in a Jay Roach movie with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis that didn't catch fire for me; I was in an HBO show with Lily Tomlin that didn't air," she says. "It took me a really long time to get here." Thom Browne blazer, shirt, tie, skirt, kerchief; LaNasa's own jewelry. Photographed by Mark Griffin Champion Unlike many of those earlier roles, LaNasa says she understood Dana on a visceral level - even as she remains largely in the dark about the show's long-term narrative plans. During the audition process, she crafted an elaborate backstory that involved Dana losing her father at a young age and channeling that grief into compassion for patients. "I also worked out what her home would be like - she's from a blue-collar background, but charge nurses make good money," she says. "I think she'd live in a house built in the middle of the century, but not midcentury. It's minimalist and tidy. And in my mind, on the night she got punched, she had plans to have her 2-year-old granddaughter over to watch a movie and have dinner." When LaNasa got the call that she would indeed be returning for season two - which premieres Jan. 8 and unfolds over a Fourth of July shift - she began filling in the emotional logic of Dana's decision to stay. She imagined the nurse retreating to a family cabin ("a place in Louisiana, not luxurious, but in the woods and passed down through generations") and trying to white-knuckle her way through the trauma of the attack. "I think she's the sort of person who liked the way the trauma of the ER kept her from her own feelings, and the punch broke a lot of that open," she says. "One of her daughters finally talks to her and tells her to get help, so she gets therapy and takes some self-defense classes. That's what allows her to come back." While LaNasa has a firm grasp on the show's emotional arcs, she admits that even now, deep into production on season two, there is one aspect of The Pitt that continues to throw her. "I