A conversation with Anna Deavere Smith: Key takeaways
Intellect and empathy. Anna Deavere Smith credits her grandparents with instilling these qualities in her as a young girl growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. Now, as an actor and playwright, she relies on intellect and empathy to help her master myriad roles on stage and screen from hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus on Nurse Jackie to HBO’s Notes from the Field, in which she portrays 19 real-life individuals along the school-to-prison pipeline.