Katherine LaNasa on How Her “Hyper-Vigilant” ‘Pitt’ Character is “Still Reeling From the Punch”

When Katherine LaNasa‘s charge nurse Dana Evans is showing her young wide-eyed trainee Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) the ropes at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center in the season two premiere of The Pitt, she mentions some best practices to help nurses protect themselves from overly aggressive patients, like the one who punched Dana in the face in season one, leaving her not only with some bruises but also with some doubts about whether she wanted to continue working in the hospital.

But a few hours later, as seen in episode six, she’s walking Emma around the emergency department and sharing more instructions about patient care when one patient suddenly reaches out and grabs Emma’s arm. Dana rushes to her defense, frees Emma’s arm and scolds the patient, ripping a sign off the wall and shoving it in his face, loudly noting that aggressive behavior toward health care workers is a felony.

Despite these laws and guidelines, LaNasa says Dana doesn’t feel like they’re going to protect her.

“I think she feels like she has to enforce that herself,” LaNasa tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I think she definitely feels vulnerable.I don’t think Dana ever saw coming what happened. You know, I remember one time I read an article about Aretha Franklin, and they were asking her, like, ‘Are you worried about wearing your fur coat, that people are gonna throw paint on it?’ And she was like, ‘Nobody’s gonna throw paint on Aretha.’ Do you know what I mean? She was not worried about it. And I think Dana never thought that Dana would get punched. Do you know what I’m saying? So I think it really shattered her whole world view.”

Full Article:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/katherine-lanasa-pitt-character-still-reeling-punch-1236504301/