The daughter of playwright Romulus Linney, and a Julliard graduate, Laura Linney had extensive experience in the theatrical world before finally making a name for herself in film. After taking a number of bit parts, Linney broke through with a series of substantial roles in thrillers like Congo, Primal Fear, and Absolute Power, the first of her collaborations with director Clint Eastwood, who cast her again six years later in Mystic River. But Linney's remarkable performance in 2000's You Can Count On Me put her (and co-star Mark Ruffalo) on the map, earning her an Oscar nomination and a near-sweep of the major critics' awards. Linney earned another Oscar nomination for her work in Kinsey, and has appeared to great acclaim in such films as The Squid And The Whale, P.S., The House Of Mirth, Love Actually, and The Nanny Diaries, among many others. She also won Emmys for the lead role in the 2001 TV movie Wild Iris and for a guest appearance on Frasier.
In The Savages, the new film by Slums Of Beverly Hills writer-director Tamara Jenkins, Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman star as siblings whose lives undergo major upheaval when they're forced to take care of their ailing, irascible father (Philip Bosco). Linney recently spoke to The A.V. Club about grown-up children's responsibility to their parents, her methods for getting acquainted with characters, and the choices involved in fashioning a career.
The A.V. Club: How did you get involved in The Savages?
Laura Linney: It's sort of a boring answer: The script was sent to me, I read it, and I loved it. I just loved it. Not only because the characters were so terrific, but because the script was in perfect shape. Perfect. Which is unusual, because most of the time, scripts are still works in progress, and this one needed nothing.
AVC: But the actual process of getting it made took time.
LL: No one wanted to do it.
AVC: Reportedly, Focus Features wanted to make the movie, but not with you and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead roles. Did you feel like the film wasn't going to get made?
LL: No, I knew it would get made, but I'm very grateful to Tamara [Jenkins] and the producers for sticking with us. They could've dumped us and had the movie made with twice the budget or three times the budget, with other actors. The thing that was the most puzzling… [not casting] me, I can understand. But Phil was about to win the Oscar. The man was going to win the Oscar. It was so obvious, and the fact that they wouldn't… I just didn't know what to say. And there was a part of me that was a little like, "Oh. Hmm. That hurts a bit. It stings a bit." It's more of a bruise than a sting. But at the same time, what gets me is that the priority's not to make the best movie that you can make. The goal seems to me at times just to be business first. There's time for that. It would be nice if people thought the other way sometimes. And there's some people who do.
AVC: Nearly all grown-up children face decisions at some point about what to do with their parents when they're no longer self-sufficient. Yet movies stay away from that, for the most part. Is it something people are just ashamed or afraid to think about?
LL: I think it's just dread. I mean, the idea of losing a parent is really inconceivable. I think there's just an undertone of dread about the subject, so people don't talk about it and don't prepare for it.
AVC: And a certain element of guilt as well, of "How do you do right by them?"
LL: And particularly, how do you do right by one who hasn't really treated you very well, with this movie as an example of that. What's your responsibility as a child to a parent, and one who hasn't treated you well? What do you do?
AVC: In this film, your character's in the position of trying to persuade her brother to do the right thing, because if he had his way, maybe things would go differently.
LL: I think what she's really trying to do—she has this false hope that somehow she's going to have the relationship she always wanted with her father, but it doesn't really change. Wendy's really, in a child-like way, thinking if she decorates the room and gets him the nicest nursing home, he will have a bond and a revelation and a love for her that isn't really there now, and one that she hasn't felt.
AVC: It's so common for people to have mortgages, families, careers, and lives of their own that caring properly for a feeble parent can be impossible. Is it a luxury to have that ability?
LL: I think you have to have the disposition for it. You have to take the responsibility of it. You have to know what it is, and you have to want that to be a part of your life. You have to value it. And our society's lost complete contact with that, because people just don't live together any more. People really don't know what's happening, and it turns into people seeing it as a burden as opposed to an essential part of life that no one is exempt from, unless you go before a parent.
AVC: How much preparation was necessary for you to pull off this role? LL: When the writing is good, it's always easier. Having said that, there was also an enormous amount to figure out about her—who she was, why she was the way she was, what was she really doing, what was she reacting about, what were her triggers—and the thing that was fun about that part was that the boundaries of her character were really far apart. She could be unbelievably narcissistic, and yet very giving and empathetic. She could be manic and she could be very still. She could be like a 5-year-old, and then she could have moments of great wisdom. So it gave me a lot of in-between space to play with. A lot of room. If you play just the extremes, it wouldn't have the impact that hopefully it does. So there was a lot of script work that I did. A lot.
AVC: Script work, as in consulting with—
LL: No, time that I spent alone with the script. You read it and read it and read it and read it, and it sort of tells you how to start working on it. And then you go through every single line and make sure you know what you're saying, and what it's referencing, and then your imagination kicks in, and you start fantasizing about periods and times of that person's life, or what they're thinking. And your mind just starts to go, and it's a way you bond with the script; you get to know the story. So I did a lot of that. You do all that and then you throw it away. You walk on a soundstage or on set, and you just respond to what's there.
AVC: That process is similar to what Mike Leigh tends to do: He comes to his actors with an outline, and it's really up to them to create their characters. Is that a situation you would like?
LL: I love to work in all sorts of different situations. I think you learn a lot, which is why I try not to approach something the same way, because it might not be appropriate, and then you can get lazy just out of boredom. So I love any approach. But Mike Leigh is a director who I admire, and those performances always have a depth and richness that most others don't, because of the time they spend in prep before they go on set.
AVC: That level of creative involvement isn't something you necessarily associate with actors. It's something you tend to think is in the filmmakers' hands.
LL: Well, in theater, it's common, and there are a lot of people who approach it this way—who create the world themselves so they know. It also just helps you. You do whatever you can to help yourself.
AVC: How far do you usually go in researching a role? Do you need to spend time among the Upper East Side set to do The Nanny Diaries?
LL: It depends. It depends on the script. It depends on… I grew up on the Upper East Side, or around it, so I knew that area a little bit. I didn't grow up in that milieu, but they were all next door in the nicer apartment down the street. [Laughs.] When I did Primal Fear, I sat and watched a lot of lawyers in Chicago. There are certain films that you will go and watch for manual stuff, to see how bodies are affected by what someone does. So it really depends.
AVC: Did the nature of your sibling relationship in The Savages call to mind You Can Count On Me a little? When you enter into a screen relationship where two people know each other that well, does a lot need to happen between yourself and that other actor before the cameras ever roll?
LL: I didn't really think of You Can Count On Me while I was making this movie at all. I see them as so different. The fact that they're both sibling films, and that sibling films are unusual, I think will make people make the connection. And there were a few people who were like, "Do you really want to do a brother-sister movie again?" And I thought, "Well, can I never play a wife again, either?" [Laughs.] The dynamics in the relationship are so different. I loved being the younger sister in this situation. It was fun. We're just really lucky in that Mark Ruffalo and I fell into it very easily, and the same thing with Phil Hoffman. I've had fantastic fictional brothers. A girl couldn't have better fictional brothers.
AVC: Is there much rehearsal, or do you just arrive on the set and go from there? Would you prefer to have more time?
LL: You always want more time. I think it just helps. It's difficult with film, because you're not on the set, you're not in the clothes, so rehearsal, in film terms, is really about going through the text and asking a few questions. A lot of people use it as a good excuse to change the dialogue. "Rehearsal" means "I want to change it." [Laughs.]
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