What's Up, Anna Deavere Smith? Easy Does It for the Master Monologist

If anyone can bring 20 personalities to life in just 90 minutes, it’s Anna Deavere Smith. A performer, interviewer, writer, college professor and co-star of TV’s Nurse Jackie, Smith is currently back on the New York stage for the first time in 10 years in Let Me Down Easy, the latest example of her unique combination of journalism and theater (seen previously in her award-winning pieces Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992). Second Stage’s production of Smith’s powerful new solo show, which has extended through December 6, is the culmination of years of interviews about healing and mortality with subjects as diverse as cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and the late Texas Governor Ann Richards. We dialed up Smith for a chat about her powerful new portrait of modern health care and her take on the show’s all too timely subject matter.

Where did this title Let Me Down Easy originate?
I honestly just woke up one morning and thought “that should be the title.” I think it’s a phrase calling for grace and kindness, and that seemed fitting [for this piece].

You’re an actress, a teacher, a researcher. At what point did you decide that this show would be your next project?
I had an invitation to come do interviews at the Yale School of Medicine and then present the characters I encountered at what was called Medical Grand Rounds, a lecture series for doctors. That was back around 2004. I wasn’t sure then that it would become a piece of theater, but I left the lectures thinking about healing, and whether we have that. You know, just because we have medicine, does that mean we have healing? I wanted to explore that more.

You had hours upon hours of interview footage. How did you pick what made it into the show?
It was overwhelming. I had three different productions before I came to New York and two different workshops—they’re where you really chisel down and look at what you have, whether it’s a play like mine or a more traditional show, and go “Okay, this is what I’m trying to say?”

Has this production affected your personal view of what health care is?
Yes. I’m hoping that in the next few decades we see the value of real healing. A lot of time the people who assist and do the hands-on caring are the least compensated in our society. I hope that that really changes over time.

Do you have a stance on the current health care battle going on in Washington?
We’re all anxious to know what kind of health care reform the President will be able to push through. I think in a country this wealthy, it would be really bad if we couldn’t figure out a way to get everybody taken care of. A healthy country is a better country. People are more productive when they’re well, they can pay attention in school better when they’re well. Some of the chronic diseases are diseases of poverty that come from bad living, and rising health care costs are something we all feel. So I do think it’s almost an ethical issue that we find a way to make more affordable health care available to everyone.

I’m sure you rarely fall victim to fandom, but is there anyone you’ve interviewed who made you a little bit starstruck?
Actually, I have often that kind of starstruck feeling, and it isn’t just for famous people. When I was in Rwanda researching, I was amazed that I was able to talk to some of the prisoners, amazed that I could talk to the President of Rwanda. I spent a day in Uganda in a forest with traditional healers and saw things that I couldn’t have imagined—people being possessed by their ancestors. One guy was literally running through fire and eating fire. I was blessed by my ancestors while a man threw a mouthful of banana peel at me! I would say these kinds of experiences are as engaging and enthralling as getting to meet Lance Armstrong—and it was pretty cool to meet Lance.

It's pretty wild that you'd been working on a piece like this and then joined the cast of a medical show like Nurse Jackie.
I know, isn’t that interesting? It’s one of those serendipitous things.

Given what you’ve seen during your research, how does Nurse Jackie hold up as far as television vs. reality?
That show has brilliant writing; that’s the thing to applaud about Nurse Jackie. I think it’s very relevant to our time, but not just because of what it shows us about health care. What’s very, very timely about it is the amount of moral ambiguity [the show portrays]. The notion that what is right and what is wrong is not black and white is something people are struggling with in their daily lives right now. Some of the old ideas don’t necessarily reign. This [title character] is a drug addict, but she sticks up for the downtrodden and is a good person and a healer, like we were talking about earlier. In that way I’m very proud to be a part of something that’s standing up for the healers, regardless of morals. Besides, it’s a comedy. And laughter is the best medicine.