The Root Interview: Anna Deavere Smith

In this exclusive interview with The Root, actress Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie, West Wing) talks about her new one-woman show, Let Me Down Easy, which kicked off its national tour at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage and will air on PBS later this year. In it she explores health care, illness and death and impersonates everyone from Lance Armstrong to a retired boxer to Eve Ensler. "When I turned on the tape recorder," she says, "people were singing … praying, showing me their scars, taking off their clothes. When people have actually been through something, they want you to testify for them."