The Pitt's Katherine LaNasa Recalls Her Week On ER — But Does She Remember Meeting Noah Wyle?
Long before she charmed audiences as Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center charge nurse Dana Evans, The Pitt's Katherine LaNasa guest-starred on Noah Wyle's previous medical drama, ER. Funnily enough, though, she has no memories of encountering TV's erstwhile John Carter during her one-week stint at Chicago's Cook County General.
"I don't even think I met Noah [at the time]," LaNasa tells TVLine. "I remember I met Maura Tierney. She had done NewsRadio with Vicki Lewis, and I was on this NBC show called Three Sisters with Vicki Lewis, so we had that connection."
LaNasa also befriended fellow ER guest star Don Cheadle, who was on set ahead of a multi-episode arc as med student Paul Nathan.
"I used to play poker with Don," the actress reveals. "I don't remember if it was ER first and then the poker game, or which way it went, but I was so impressed with him."
LaNasa — whose extensive résumé also includes episodes of Grey's Anatomy, House and The Night Shift — appeared in Season 9, Episode 4 of the NBC juggernaut as Janet Wilco, an overly flirtatious mom who winds up in a storage closet with Goran Visnjic's Dr. Luka Kovač.
"I remember when I auditioned for that part. I had watched The English Patient the night before, and Kristin Scott Thomas [who played Katharine Clifton in the Oscar-winning film] had this very mature, very womanly sexuality, and the thing I always have loved about [ER and The Pitt executive producer] John Wells is that he lets women be women," LaNasa says. "We're not, you know, these 95-pound models... you know what I mean? Women are complicated. Women have age on them.
"At that time, as young as I am in that, I was still a good seven or eight years older than everybody auditioning for that part," she recalls. "I walked in the waiting room, and I could just feel all the women looking at me, and I was way older than they were and had short hair." Be that as it may, LaNasa just knew that she had "what that part needed. I was inspired by Kristin Scott Thomas to tap into that part of my sexuality required for that role, and I got it, and I remember thinking, like, 'Yeah! The old girl got the part!'"
TVLine previously spoke with fellow Pitt star Shawn Hatosy (aka Dr. Jack Abbot) about his guest appearance on ER, which led to a 20-year working relationship with Wells; you can read more about that here.
All Season 1 episodes of The Pitt — and all 15 seasons of ER — are now streaming on Max; The Pitt Season 2 premieres in January.