Edie Falco, Anna Deavere Smith and Eve Best Star in Showtime's Nurse Jackie
Falco stars as the title character, Jackie Peyton, a strong-willed and brilliant—but very flawed—emergency room nurse working in the frenzied environment of a New York City hospital. A lapsed Catholic with a weakness for painkillers to get her through the days, Jackie keeps the hospital balanced with her unique bedside manner and own brand of medical justice. Every day is a high-wire act of juggling patients, doctors and fellow nurses along with her indiscretions. Jackie’s relentless dedication to her profession and her family come into conflict with the complicated decisions she’s faced with on an hourly basis, leaving her in many moral and ethical quandaries that she somehow must find a way to figure out.
Falco became the only actress to ever receive the Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards—all in the same year—for her performance as Carmela Soprano in the series, The Sopranos, debut season. She has subsequently been nominated for each award for each eligible television season, winning two additional Emmys, another Golden Globe and SAG Award, as well as the American Film Institute’s award for Female Television Actor of the Year. Falco made her Broadway debut in the Tony-winning play Sideman, which she originated in its off-Broadway production. For her performance, she received a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. She went on to make her London stage debut in the West End premiere of Sideman, and thereafter opened the London production of The Vagina Monologues. Falco’s other Broadway credits are Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and ‘Night, Mother. Her feature films include Cost of Living, Sunshine State, The Quiet, The Great New Wonderful, Freedomland, Laws of Gravity, A Price Above Rubies, Copland, Trouble on the Corner, Private Parts, Hurricane, Layin’ Low, Breathing Room, The Funeral, The Addiction, Bullets Over Broadway, Trust, The Unbelievable Truth, Random Hearts and Judy Berlin.
Best most recently appeared on Broadway in The Homecoming. She received a 2007 Tony nomination for her Broadway debut performance as Josie Hogan opposite Kevin Spacey in A Moon for the Misbegotten. Her many London stage credits include starring roles in Hedda Gabler, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, The Heiress, Hamlet, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Coast of Utopia and Cymbeline.
Smith is best known for her documentary-style theater pieces, including Fires in the Mirror for which she was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 for which she was nominated for two Tony Awards—for Best Actress and Best Play—and for which she won a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award. Her new work, Let Me Down Easy is scheduled to play off-Broadway’s Second Stage in the fall. Her film and television credits include Philadelphia, The American President and The West Wing.
The series also stars Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Haaz Sleiman, Paul Schulze and Dominic Fumusa.