Katherine LaNasa Says Filming ‘The Pitt’ Next Door to ‘Abbott Elementary’ Was ‘Full Circle’ For Her

When Katherine LaNasa walked onto the set for “The Pitt,” one of the first people she saw was Lisa Ann Walter.

“I’m like, ‘This is such a full circle moment,'” LaNasa tells TODAY.com. “And I think she looked at me like, ‘Who is this chick?'”

“The Pitt,” which stars LaNasa as its fearless leader and charge nurse Dana Evans, films on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, California, right next door to the set of ABC’s sitcom “Abbott Elementary.”

Among the stars of “Abbott Elementary” is Walter, who plays the “no-nonsense,” South Philly Italian American teacher Melissa Schemmenti.

Many fans have clocked that both Melissa and Dana epitomize their respective Pennsylvania regions, from the teacher’s passion for the Philadelphia Eagles to Dana’s strong Pittsburgh accent. In fact, one viewer posted on Threads the theory that the two characters could be cousins. “They mostly get along, but the Philly vs. Pittsburgh ribbing is constant and mutual,” they wrote.

It even drew the attention of Walter.

“This is also in my head,” she wrote. “Fun fact, we shoot our shows next door.”

“God, I love Lisa Ann Walter,” LaNasa says in response. “In fact, when I was trying to figure out how to do a Pennsylvania accent in general, I watched her on ‘Abbott Elementary.'” (Appearing on TODAY Jan. 29, she also cited “Mare of Easttown” as inspiration for how she nailed the Pittsburgh, Mid-Atlantic dialect.)

But LaNasa says her connection to the actor goes way beyond “The Pitt.”

Before the medical drama came along and earned her an Emmy award, LaNasa was in a “complete dry spell.”

“I couldn’t get arrested,” she says, an idiom in show business that refers to continually being overlooked for roles and achievements.

She recalls some uplifting words she received from her friend Elaine Hendrix, who starred in “Dynasty” with LaNasa’s husband, Grant Show.

“I was really upset about it in the few years before ‘The Pitt.’ I was having just a complete dry spell,” LaNasa says. “And Elaine said, ‘Just keep going. Look at Lisa Ann. She couldn’t get arrested, and now she’s on ‘Abbott Elementary.'”

Walter and Hendrix, a famous best friend duo, both starred on “The Parent Trap” in 1998. LaNasa recalls Walter having “shows developed around her” before hitting her own dry spell, which eased with her casting in the hit ABC show.

“For her to drop down and then come back up, it’s like, ‘Oh, I have to remember these hills and peaks and valleys,'” LaNasa says.

“And the first day I got to work on (‘The Pitt’), there was Lisa Ann Walter,” she adds.

Both “The Pitt” and “Abbott Elementary” have received heaps of recognition at the Golden Globes, Emmy Awards and by fans.

The medical drama is currently airing its second season on HBO Max, with new episodes dropping every Thursday until the Season 2 finale on April 16.

Here’s what’s ahead for LaNasa’s character looking to the rest of Season 2.

What’s Ahead for Nurse Dana on ‘The Pitt’?

After being assaulted by a patient in Season 1 of “The Pitt,” Nurse Dana said in the finale that she wouldn’t be returning to the emergency department.

But to the great joy of fans, LaNasa didn’t go anywhere. Dana is seen back on shift when the show picked up 10 months after Season 1, on the Fourth of July. So far this season, which just aired Episode 4 on Jan. 29, Dana has largely been training a new staff member, Emma (Laëtitia Hollard), and dealing with cases including the long overdue cast removal of a man experiencing homelessness and a baby Jane Doe who was found in the waiting room bathroom.

LaNasa says the nurse Dana we’re encountering in Season 2 is largely the same as Season 1, just with a new daily sense of hypervigilance on the job.

“Now that she’s back, I don’t know that she’s entirely ready, and I don’t know that people really ever get over something like that,” LaNasa says. “I think when people are assaulted… I think that sticks with them for a long time.

“I had an incident one time. I was assaulted by a guy on a bike. And (now), I never see a guy going by on a bike that I’m like, ‘What’s that guy on the bike doing?’ And so I would imagine only 10 months later, one would still be reeling from that,” she adds.

In the character’s personal life, which viewers don’t see on screen due to the show’s real-time format, LaNasa says much is the same for Dana.

“I view her husband, Benji, as kind of a grounding force,” LaNasa says. “And she has three daughters, and in my mind one of them is one that you always worry about.”

“In my mind, the daughter struggled with her own sobriety … Dana also has a granddaughter, so my own daughter (Eloise) plays Dana’s granddaughter in my pictures at my desk,” she adds with a laugh. “I’ve cast my own daughter as Dana’s granddaughter.”

As for what’s ahead in the next 10-plus episode of Season 2, LaNasa teases the plot point she’s most excited for fans to see unfold — and it includes Noah Wyle’s character.

“There’s conflict between Dana and Robby this year,” she says. “That’s all I’m going to tease. … It’s good. It’s juicy.”