RAINE MAGAZINE Volume 16 | Innovate

ENTERTAINMENT | FILM/TV
LIVING IN THE MOMENT
Meet Katherine LaNasa
by MIMI HAYDEN
If you spend one second talking to Katherine
LaNasa, it’s not hard to see how her enigmatic
beauty and charm could easily convince even
the most austere of hearts to yield. Quick wit,
southern charm and ballet poise have given
the New Orleans native and one of Hollywood’s
leading ladies, a well-refined grace, but she is
also human, and very relatable.
“I never wanted to be an actress. It was not
something that I set out to do,” she recalls.
LaNasa, a classically trained ballerina, studied
at the legendary North Carolina School of the
Arts which led to an apprenticeship with the
Milwaukee Ballet and later, danced with Salt
Lake City’s Ballet West and the Karole Armtiage
ballet. During a trip to Los Angeles, where her
ballet company was being photographed for
LIFE Magazine, she met former husband, the
late, legendary actor Dennis Hopper – with
whom she shares a son. Upon settling in to life
with her then husband, LaNasa came across a
documentary filmed by Sydney Pollock about
the late and great Sanford “Sandy” Meisner.
“Whatever he is doing, I want to do that. I want
to be in that space and move just like him,” she
said. She went on to study at The Neighborhood
Playhouse under Meisner to hone her abilities.
In the film, Jayne Mansfield’s Car, which is
slated for a nationwide June release, LaNasa
plays Donna, a small town beauty queen who
has returned to her hometown in Alabama to
bury her mother whom she hasn’t seen in years.
During her return home we see the complexity
of her character being the fun loving doe-eyed
woman that also exudes a quiet loneliness.
“I feel like Donna was the odd man out. Her
brothers have this bond that they share from
all being in the war together. She’s returning to
Alabama from being in Atlanta, where she’s not
a big deal, her husband’s a loud-mouth that talks
all of the time. But here in this town, everyone
loves her. She’s the fun party girl.“ Through her
work on Jayne Mansfield’s Car, she gained a
mentor and friend in Robert Duvall and Billy Bob
Thronton both of whom she remains really close
with to date.
“I’ve been lucky enough in my career to have
never been ‘type cast.’ I get to enjoy playing
total opposite characters like Lizze on A&E’s
Longmire or Sofia on Deception.” LaNasa
plays Sofia Bowers, a mad-cap matriarch on
NBC’s soap-drama. From the scene when she’s
confronted with her husband Robert’s infidelity
you instantly know her character doesn’t lack
confidence. “She has a lot of self-loathing about
who she is. She loves her daughter. I hope that
as time goes on they reveal the dark devilments
of her character,” she says.
When you speak to LaNasa,
you get the sense of
someone who has lived a
remarkable life. Nuances
about balance and the “ability
to let go.” She believes
to live in the moment and
that at the end of the day
everything will be all right, if
you just live. As for advice to
hopefuls, “Persistence is the
whole game. Preparation
is everything. It takes time
to know yourself and your
instrument. ” When asked
if women could have it all?
LaNasa says, “I think you
can. You make decisions.
I think ‘having it all’ is selfdefined.
Contentment
comes from within. But I do
feel that women are in the
position to do it.” If there is
anyone who can defy the
odds and make it so, it is
definitely Katherine.
**Ed. Note: NBC/Universal
Studios decided not to
renew Deception for a
second season.
Photo by JAYNE MANSFIELD’S CAR
Photo by Bell Soto
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