Hey everybody, this is the Late Show Pod Show. I'm here with my boss, Stephen Colbert. Hi, Stephen. Hey, Becca. I'm Becca. I'm a producer here at the Late Show. Yes, you are. Yeah, and previously on the Late Show Pod Show, if you tuned in last night, we were talking about the Winter Olympics. People are watching TV, but not the Late Show because we're off this week, but we'll be back next week. I'm definitely watching TV, though. I'm not missing any of the Olympics. I'm not watching that. You know what else I'm watching? The Olympics of TV watching The Pit. I'm watching The Pit. So good. I'm binging. So good. I'm re-watching because they talk kind of fast sometimes. Dr. Ravi. Dr. Ravi. So troubled. Yeah. This is Kathleen Lanasa, who is just... Oh, how lovely. What a lovely... I only met her once at the Emmys before, but I so enjoyed this interview. She seems like just a capital person. Yeah. And love Nurse Dana. Great character. Great. Love that accent. Honestly, one of those situations where she comes on the show and you're like, Where's the accent? Where's the accent? Yeah, you sound like you're from Pittsburgh. Yeah, exactly. My reaction when I saw The Pit the first time, I mean, I watched a couple episodes in, I'm like, who is this actress? She's so great. She's like, it's like watching Catherine Lanasa do that part was like the first time I heard One by U2. I went, they can't have written this. This is too much of a classic. This has to be a cover. How can this be like new? Yeah. And when I see her, I was like, how could I not know who this person is? Totally. How can she be this good? Yeah. How can she be this good and I've never seen her? Totally. She's great. Best part of the pit. But please enjoy this. I don't know about the best part of the pit. I mean, there are many very good people on the pit. Kathleen Nuss is fantastic. Ensemble cast. I have to talk to all of these people. I know. Great ensemble cast. Love the time. You know, I was big on 24 as a kid. I watched 24 kind of that, following that high-paced, fast-deadline environment. When we had little one, when our daughter was first born is when, I don't know why this is, I just remember that she was young when ER was really hitting. Oh, yeah. And we called it a boop boop because the opening credits, they started with boop boop because it was all like, you know, those alarms in ER, kind of an ambulance, kind of like a heart monitor going, boop boop. So we're like, you ready for some Bweep Boop? And we would have to watch it when it was on. So the thing was get the baby down, get settled, make sure it was before Bweep Boop came on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Bweep Boop, I think, was at 9 o'clock. Oh, perfect. Just shout out to John Wells for just quality, quality TV, Mr. Wells. Thank you. Thank you for so many decades of quality TV. So this is Catherine Lanasa on The Late Show Pod Show. Please enjoy. Folks, you know my next Emmy-winning guest as Nurse Dana on The Pit. Mr. Digby. Just Digby. Digby, why'd you wait so long to come see us? I don't like going to doctors. Well, that makes two of us. We all need help from time to time. Think maybe we could arrange for some more going care? I just kind of want to get patched up, you know? I do know. But that's today. What's tomorrow? Sunday. It's the system. It's what it's there for. But in my Dylan knows all the angles, he even works the occasional miracle. You think maybe I could have him stop by? I guess, yeah. Right. How about a sandwich? Yeah. Yes, please. Please welcome to The Late Show, Katherine Lanasa. Hi Hi It nice to see you again It nice to see you The first time we met, I don't know if you remember everything about it, I came over to say hi to you at one of the parties after the Emmys. We both had a really nice Emmy night that night. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. And so did you. And I came over just to say that I really enjoyed your speech. And what do you remember about that night? I remember asking you if you'd come on the show. Yes, well, that's my great honor. It's such an honor to be here. You're just such an elegant... Right? You're just such an elegant man. And you mean so much to me. And I was so gobsmacked when we met. It was a whole full circle moment for me. You really changed me. And I was so gobsmacked that I wasn't able to express myself that night. So I'm so glad I'm here. I want to tell you the story. So about a year before I got to Pitt, I was in a dark place. I had been unemployed for a while. I had cancer. And when I was growing up, if something didn't go your way, it was like, well, why did you do it like that? Right? And so I had subconsciously developed this paradigm where I thought that if I just did everything perfectly, that I would insulate myself somehow from loss and bad things. And so when I found myself in this place, I felt like a failure. And I was riddled with regret. And I just had these ongoing thoughts of like, well, God, if you'd only hadn't whiffed that meeting, or why did you say that? Or why did you use hormones to get pregnant? Or why did you drink so much? Or if only I'd started using Botox in my 30s. You know, like, no grace, right? And I saw that clip of you talking to Anderson Cooper that's so very famous. And you, and I paraphrase, say that our grief and our loss is part of what makes us human. And it allows us to understand and connect with other people. and if we're really going to love our life, that we have to love all of it. We can't turn our back on that part. Yeah. You're pretty smart. You're pretty smart. And I heard you. I heard you. In the depths of my despair, I heard you. And I started to live by this new thing, which was sometimes you lose. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you get the short end of the stick. sometimes you do it wrong and that life is going to bring us great beauty and great joy, but it's also going to knock us on our ass and bring us grief and loss. And so I started to live by this. I started to lighten up and I go on and I get the pit and I get Dana and all of that loss and grief and the cancer fed so beautifully into playing that role. And it connected with people and they gave me an Emmy and I got up on the stage. And I was so overwhelmed that I just felt like I whiffed everything I wanted to say. But I had the good sense to take in all the joy and the energy that was coming from the room. And I got off the stage and the first thing I said to my husband was, did I whiff my speech? And then I saw Sarah Paulson. I was like, did I whiff my speech? And she said, honey, you just won an Emmy. Like, get over it. And... Sure, because you don't know. It's all happening. No! It's all awash. No, it's crazy. And so then I at the very end of the night you who I did not know came up to me And do you remember what you said I said something like we were all so moved by what you said up there. Yes, and you said you know how much joy you brought the room. Oh. Yeah. And like... It was. It was lovely. It was just such a testament to how we just think that we need to do everything perfectly. And here I was just gobsmacked, just being like, oh, screw it. Just take it. Just be like, yes, I won! Well, that's where the joy came from. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was very honest. Yeah. It was very honest. Well, I'm glad it was a nice night for you. Yeah, well. That's great. It was lovely. Anyway, everybody's so happy for you, too, because it's a fantastic performance as Dana. That's extraordinary. You also, and thank you for that memory. Thank you. Earlier this month, you won the Critics' Choice Award as well. Yes. I got a lovely, you wear a gown very nicely there. There you go. And you thanked, in your speech, you thanked the valiant nurses who do what I only pretend to do. Now, I understand that you and a lot of the cast went to, like, a doctor nurse school. Yes. What did you learn? Oh, God. What was it like? Not much. Yes. Not much. I can trach pretty well I can do an intubation pretty well That's about it Maybe later Yeah Well Stephen the night is young The night is young my friend Really you can slip that thing down there Whatever floats your boat Exactly Can you like give people shots and stuff like that Oh no oh no In fact I had done so little of that When we got to the mass casualty last year They said the nurse I mean the doctor who runs the scenes The medical scene says And then you hang a bag I'm like hang on Let's hang a bag You know And all it means is like You take the back and you put it on the hook. I got a little too technical for you? Yeah. I was like, back it up, sister. You know, it takes place in Pittsburgh, the pit. Yes. And your character's from Pittsburgh. Yes. But you're from, like, the Louisiana, New Orleans, Baton Rouge area. Yes. I understand. Okay. So, first of all, you don't sound like you're from there. Do they beat it at you in acting school? Well, you know it's in this thing called Broca's area. Do you know this thing? The language part of your brain Fuses between like 11 and 14 That's why kids can lose their accents But adults have a really hard time Well I went and lived Went to the North Carolina School of the Arts Which was an international school for high school When I was around 14 And I kind of just naturally lost it But I can turn it on I want to ask about The time I've spent in New Orleans Or actually Baton Rouge a gig down there at an old club called The Grin Room that used to be when I was a young man, you know, touring around doing comedy. And they would give us, they would pay us a little, but we would get giant bags of crawfish. Yes. Like real big bags of crawfish. They would come like cooked and steaming. Yes. And we would just drink all night and just eat that. And they'd say, don't forget to suck the hands. Yes, yes. They like to say that. Are you a crawfish fan? No, I'm a proper young lady. No, I ate so much crawfish that I became allergic to it So I was a big fan and I developed an allergy That's why you had to leave And that's why I left that state Second season of The Pit started a couple weeks ago Fans were really worried that your character may not come back Following the finale of season one Yes Were you worried? Yes, yes, I was worried So you had no guarantee It wasn't like there was a secret knowledge you had that we didn't No, no, no And in fact, we decided at some point, well, the show had gotten picked up, so we bought a house in L.A. We were moving back from Atlanta, and we bought a house and I got a call from I got a call that day and they said excuse me we have John Wells Can you hold for John Wells please And I like oh Lord So he gets on the phone and I like please don fire me I just bought a house And he's so kind. He said, I just called to thank you for an excellent season. Job well done. And, you know, here we go. Oh, good. That's nice. Yeah, it worked out. Yes. It worked out. No, really. It had taken me so long to get on a hit. I was like, don't dump me now. Your husband, right there, Grant Show. That guy. Major heartthrob in his Melrose Place days. Did you, like so many people, have a crush on him when he was on Melrose? No, I never saw Melrose Place. Does he know this or is he finding out now? I think it's why I got him. I think it's why I ended up with him. He was just a guy with bad pants. He was. Go into these pants. Well, I first met him on Big Love. He kind of replaced me on Big Love. I fired Marjean, and he came in the same scene and hired her. So we met there. And then about six months later, we met in Canada. And he was on a job, and I was on a different job. And we were staying in the same hotel, and we had mutual friends. And he was walking around with these, like, cargo pants with these giant holes in them in the dead of winter in Canada. And I was like, what is with this grown man with these terrible pants? Wow. Yeah. Is he Canadian? No. He just had bad... He just had bad pants. Was it your first husband was Dennis Hopper? Yes. Yeah. What sticks out in your mind from those years of being with someone who was perceived as a bit of a wild card? Yeah. Well, he was a real wild card. They're all wild cards in my life. Yes. And you were not watching Melrose Place with him. No, no. That's why I didn't watch Melrose Place. But we used to go to dinner at his friend Roddy McDowell's, and there would be Lauren Bacall, Betty Davis, Liza Minnelli, Johnny Depp and Winona when they were dating, and my favorite was Vincent Price. Vincent Price. What was he like at dinner? He was really, really sweet. And one of my best memories is of freaking out Vincent Price with my ultrasound of Henry. It's when ultrasounds were kind of new, my 35-year-old son. And I said, look, Vincent, and here's the body, here's the head, and here's the little arm buds, and here's the leg buds. And he was so freaked out by that. So that was my great joy that I had freaked out Vincent Price. Did you ever see Tingler? No. Oh, it's about this thing that attaches to your spine inside your body, and he's this mad doctor. He was really sweet. You know, he was a modern art collector, and that's how Dennis started collecting art. Was through Vincent Price? Yeah, he and another friend, Vincent hired them when they were unemployed in the 50s to come paint his pool. And he had a modern art collection, and he taught Dennis about modern art, and that's how Dennis Hopper got into modern art, which was one of the main passions of his life. Yeah. Well, Catherine, it's so lovely to have you on. Thank you, Stephen. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Best of luck with season two and season three and everything else. Thank you. So lovely to see you. Yeah. New episodes of The Pit debut Thursdays on HBO Max. Catherine Lanasa, everybody. Thank you for listening to The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives. publicists often do not. And it's all taped in front of a live audience. So listen to Love It or Leave It, America's number one late night political gay live comedy podcast every Saturday.
