Anna Deavere Smith

Studio 360

Anna Deavere Smith is best known for playing the national security advisor on The West Wing but she’s also a theater pioneer — writing and performing plays based on hundreds of interviews with real people. On stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival, she describes her current work, “Let Me Down Easy,” about the resilience of the human body. And she performs an excerpt where she portrays a champion bull rider named Brent Williams.

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