Laura Linney reached critical acclaim with her candid portrayals of struggling middle-aged women, varying from an anti-death penalty activist in "The Life of David Gale" (2003) to a dedicated sister in "Love Actually" (2003).
In her newest film, "The Savages," she returns as a devoted daughter, Wendy Savage, who must overcome an intense rivalry with her brother, Jon (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) in order to care for their father (Philip Bosco) who is suffering from dementia.
Linney spoke to the Daily in a roundtable interview about the film, her experience working with Hoffman and the techniques she uses to improve her acting.
Question: In your new movie "The Savages," you co-star with Philip Seymour Hoffman. You've both continued to do smaller-budgeted movies even as your respective profiles have risen. Was that intentional? Was that a point of discussion?
Laura Linney: No. We certainly talked about the work a little bit, and I think we're - I can't speak for Phil - we're just actors. We don't make decisions based on career. I guess I sometimes do, if I have to make some money.
But most of the time, you try to find the best material possible, no matter what medium it's in or how big or small the budget. You just try to find the best, most challenging and interesting work you can.
Q: Your characters are often very neurotic, and also very maternal. Is there someone in your life that reminds you of that; that draws you to the character?
LL: Not really. I try to listen to what the script tells me to do. With the more complex characters, generally the text is richer, and there are hints and clues, and I have to figure out where they are and what they're telling me to do. What does the language say, and how does that affect how someone moves? I have played some wonderfully flawed people, but they're fun to play.
Q: Your new film deals heavily with theater. Your character is a playwright, and Hoffman's is a theater scholar. Both of you come from a theater background, as does Philip Bosco, who plays your father. Were you drawn to this project because of that element in the script?
LL: Oh yes. My father's a playwright, and I grew up in Manhattan, so I know that world really well, that off-Broadway world. The theater aspect of it was just very fun. And the script is written in a way similar to how a play is written - as far as being able to find these clues, and having character stuff very richly woven together. That doesn't happen all the time.
Q: Do you prefer acting opposite theater actors? Is there a difference between stage-trained actors and film-trained actors?
LL: It's different. There's a mutual, unspoken understanding when you come through the theater. You've all roughly been through similar experiences. But also, the people who have grown up in film understand film in a way that I will never understand it. I find them fascinating. They just inherently understand the relationships within the work that I will probably never get. But there are things about the theater that I just know, having grown up in the theater. And I like seeing the counterpart to that, the people who are just so comfortable in the film environment. Just like I feel at home when I go to the theater, they feel that way on a movie set.
Q: You tend to play a lot of academics. Is there a comfort there in these people that use a lot of big words?
LL: (Laughs) I've never thought about that. It's fun to play people who are driven by their intellect first. That's an interesting thing to play. Playing smarty-smart people is fun, but there are a lot of really dumb smart people - a lot of really intelligent, brilliant people, who are so completely inept in the basics. I felt that way. I went to school until I was 26; I got out of school, and I knew how to study and how to be a student, but I didn't know how to live a life. So when you play the smarty-smart people, what's fun to find is where they're deficient.
Q: Many actresses refer to the 30-year age bracket that you're in as being a kind of "no-man's-land" between leading roles and mothers. You've been consistently successful in getting large and important roles - you're in about three movies a year. Do you credit your own talent for this or do you think things are changing for women in movies?
LL: I hope things are changing. It's an interesting topic; I've spoken to every journalist on it. I keep wondering, "Why does everyone ask me this?" What most people say to me, "Now that you're in your early 40s, it's all over, right?" And basically what they're saying to me is, "You should be afraid." ... I think when people ask that question, they're thinking about being an A-list movie star, or they're just talking about being an ingénue. And no, you're not going to be an ingénue forever, and who would want to be? They're boring to play. Luckily for me, I've had a really good run. I think some of the best work I've had has been more recently. I hope that the logic behind that thinking will change; it seems a little outdated.
Q: You don't live in Hollywood. Are we moving away from Hollywood as the central hub of cinema?
LL: It has changed. It's not so much the artistic center it used to be, but it is the business center. That's not to say that a lot of good work isn't being done there; it is. But most work is being done outside of Los Angeles now. My experience as an actress is that I don't feel that I have to be in Los Angeles. But I love going there; it's where business is done.
Q: Do you use acting as a therapy in any way?
LL: People have different relationships to their work. I think it is therapeutic in the same way that going to the gym is therapeutic. Having said that, I don't feel that I need to exploit my own pain. My experiences are mine. They don't apply to the character. It is unfair to take my stuff and smear it all over somebody else.
Q: What do you think of those acting exercises where they tell you to think of a parent dying in order to cry?
LL: Yeah, is the character thinking of my parent dying? It doesn't belong there. I think people misinterpret the acting expression "make it personal." What that really means is "make it intimate." Get to know the situation as intimately as you know your own situation. Also, all of my stuff will bleed through anyway. I can't control that. I am who I am, and it will come through.
