How does a classically trained New York theater veteran make the transition to Hollywood leading lady? By keeping her head down, according to Laura Linney, star of last summer's no-brainer Congo and this spring's psychological thriller Primal Fear.
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If you saw last summer's colossally silly smash Congo but don't remember the name Laura Linney, join the club. The job of the actors in that film was to avoid upstaging the animatronic gorilla star. Amy. Not much of what Linney may have learned during four years at Julliard came into play. Still, her pale attractiveness made her convincing as a scientist capable of quantitative thinking under fire, and she was equally authentic as the naive Midwesterner Mary Ann in the 1994 PBS miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. Now Linney, whose impressive stage resume includes a starring role in last season's Broadway production Holiday, finally has a choice role in a substantial film project: she plays the tough prosecutor opposite Richard Gere's showboat defense attorney in the thriller Primal Fear. If audiences didn't quite buy Cindy Crawford in Fair Game as someone who could pass the bar (or anything but the hairspray), Linney might just come as a welcome relief in Primal Fear.
DANNY PEARY: Your recent breakthrough in movies as the female lead in Congo and the new Primal Fear must be surprising to those who read a year-old magazine a major dramatic movie?
A: [Director] Greg Hoblit worked very hard for me to do that film when he could have gotten many better-known actresses. I knew there was resistance, and that was a hard position for me to be in. I felt it was a very nice thing he was doing for me and didn't want to let him down. When I screen-tested, my biggest concern was not to get the role but to avoid embarrassing him.
Q: For your prosecutor, did you study Marcia Clark?
A: Of course I watched her during the O.J. Simpson trial to see what she was doing in the courtroom, but I would watch other women in positions of power or control to see how they functioned under pressure. In Chicago I spent a lot of time with the assistant state's attorney and went to court and watched murder trials. I was fascinated by how dramatic it was and how attorneys exhibit a dramatic flare and try to control the courtroom.
Q: Your first appearance in movies was in Lorenzo's Oil. Did you have to audition for such a tiny part?
A: I auditioned to play a larger role. Then the director, George Miller, who is a very sweet man, said, "She's not good for this, but see if she'll be interested in doing something else." They called and asked, "Would you consider playing the school teacher?" A day with Susan Sarandon on a movie set? Absolutely!
Q: You have the wholesome look--fair complexion, dimples--that helped you get the part of the quintessential Midwesterner, Mary Ann Singleton, in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. One wrongly assumed that Mary Ann--a former member of "The Future Homemakers of Ohio"--had a normal childhood. How about you?
A: I didn't either. My father was a playwright and my mother was a nurse, and I was the only kid in my class with divorced parents. I was a nice girl, but I was a little eccentric. I created a fantasy world for myself, which included a "sister" who did all the bad things. I have memories of being hyper and running around the apartment and bouncing off the walls. I knew that I had more imagination than most people and could understand things at a very deep level, but in the basics I was far behind. I was the worst reader in the lowest reading group. I was the verbally articulate child who couldn't read or write. That made me very insecure.
Q: Did you relate to Mary Ann's idealism, which is a characteristic of most of the women you play?
A: I hadn't thought of that, but it's true. I am also idealistic and have even been criticized for being that way. Another thing we had in common is that we were both naively trying to play a new game with different people and rules. It was great fun to play a character who is going through extreme discovery, to see how she assimilates information into her consciousness. That's what I was doing on the set. Working in front of a camera was certainly different. It was done fast and the six episodes were done completely out of sequence. I had a little bit of trouble adjusting to that, but I learned tricks to help myself. I realized that's what film acting is all about--going your own way.
Q: Tales gave you your second and last "sex" scene to date. In this case, the male adulterer turned away from you because he couldn't get it up. In Dave, the adulterer President lay unconscious on top of you after having had a stroke.
A: I don't do too well in bed, do I? I suppose that for Dave I could have spent hours practicing my two words of dialogue for that scene--"Mr. President?"--but I was in denial that I was going to fly to Hollywood and go to bed with Kevin Kline. I couldn't quite visualize it. But it was great.
Q: Tales was pretty much the last time you have had the chance to do intimate one-on-one scenes with other actresses.
A: I have been thinking about that. I have worked closely with a lot of great actresses on the stage and on television, but I've been in a lot of boy movies. The formula calls for all these guys and one girl. That's just kind of where I am right now. Unfortunately, most good roles for women are in lower-budget, independent films, and those filmmakers tend to work with the people they know.
Q: Congo sure wasn't a low-budget movie. And it had you on an African safari with a lot of men. How did you get that part?
A: From just three days work on a pilot, Class of '61. I got both Congo and Primal Fear. Amblin, [two of whose producers] would make Congo, produced that pilot, and Greg Hoblit, who would direct Primal Fear, directed it. "Class of '61" was shown to Steven Spielberg, and he remembered me and called me in to test for the lead in Jurassic Park. So I flew out to California to test for Steven. From that, I was remembered for Congo and I did a test in New York for the director Frank Marshall, producer Kathleen Kennedy and the writer John Patrick Shanley, who knew me because I had been in his play Beggars in the House of Plenty. Dylan Walsh and I were like Ping and Pong. We were unknown actors who lucked out and got this huge job and we went through this whole adventure together.
Q: Did you worry about being the lead in an expensive extravaganza?
A: Of course. But I can't believe that I'm the pivotal reason for how a picture does financially--it's always chemistry, everybody working together, and sometimes the cake rises, sometimes the cake falls. That one rose.
Q: Your character, Karen Ross, is defined by her own words: "Just give me a gun and a flashlight."
A: Put together that laser gun, baby! I worked hard to learn how to put that gun together. You should have seen me. When I got that role my friends were rolling their eyes and laughing hysterically that Laura was an action adventure person. I liked saying, "Amy--good gorilla."
Q: Was it a totally bizarre filmmaking experience?
A: It was wild. I was running down the edges of volcanoes in Costa Rica. I did many of my own stunts. I didn't leap over the chasm or out of a plane in flight, but I did most of it. I was He-Woman. I was in the boat during the attack of the hippos. It was freezing cold, but I fell asleep while we filmed that sequence. I think I slept for about six hours floating around in that boat. I was so tired because I was the first one in almost every morning and I worked every single day for 100 days. One of the challenges in filmmaking is just to stay mentally and physically healthy.
Q: Congo is set in the African jungle--so how come nobody sweats in the entire movie?
A: They did drench us with spray bottles--whether it read or not is another thing. It was, like, an issue. To keep the jungle plants alive on the soundstage in Los Angeles, they had to keep the temperature very low. So we were freezing, yet they were spraying us with water to make it look like we were sweating. A lot of us got colds. They sprayed the guys more because they didn't want the girls drenched.
Q: On a film, are you surprised at how pampered movie actresses are compared to the theater, in terms of things like hair and clothes?
A: I don't understand why we can't just do the work. Unlike in the theater, there's so much time spent in rampant fear of being unprotected. What you've got to believe is that people are really good at what they do, and you'll be taken care of. I just remember the nightmare experience I had when I was doing Searching for Bobby Fischer, Blind Spot for TV and Dave, simultaneously. I was flying from Pittsburgh to Toronto to Los Angeles, and all the companies were fighting about time and scheduling and my hair color. I'd go from job to job and they'd dye my hair a different color each time. There has always been a hair drama, except on Tales, where they kind of let me alone, and Congo, where I could just put it into a ponytail. If you're an actress and they don't know who you are or what you are, there's a "thing" they've got to do with your hair. I don't know what that "thing" is, but people want to "do" something to me. It never works.
Q: Have you ever said enough and had a tantrum?
A: I've done that only once since I've been making movies, and that's because I was completely fatigued. They asked me to do one more thing and I just lost control. I felt so bad about it that I was apologizing by the middle of the tirade. I'm not seen as a difficult actress.
Q: Let's get back to Primal Fear. Was it difficult to play the assertive person who battles our hero, defense attorney Richard Gere, without making the audience turn against her?
A: I never decide for an audience what they're going to think about a character I play. [But] there was concern about my prosecutor being too hard, and I'm sure some people will find her that way. I really liked her, but there is a lot about her that I found unpleasant, and I hope viewers will get a little of that.
Q: Michael Chapman was behind the camera for Primal Fear. Do you talk to cinematographers about how you look?
A: Walt Lloyd, who did Tales, was the first cinematographer who really took time with me. And then I learned so much from Michael Chapman, who is a brilliant and good man. He realized that because I have such a long neck I need to keep my face down. I was trained to keep free the whole area between my chin and sternum so the air can come in and the lungs can expand and my vocal quality will be strong enough to hit the back wall. But he realized that on film when my head was up it made me look odd. He said in his New England accent, "Laura, come here, come here. You see this, you see this? You see how you look when you put your head down, right there, right there? You need to look just like that, just like that. Do you know horses at all?" "Yes, I..." "Do you know what a martingale is?" "Yes, I..." "Put a martingale on and keep your chin down." My instinct was to keep my chin up, so every once in a while, during the middle of a scene, I'd hear him yell out, "Martingale," and I would slowly rotate my head down, and he'd say, "Good girl." For the whole film--God bless him-- he looked out for me.
Q: How was working with Richard Gere?
A: He's a lovely man--which I didn't know. He was so good to me. When you see that another actor trusts you, that's heaven, and it makes you that much better. You know what I loved? That Richard gets nervous before a scene. I found it very comforting and very human. I loved that this very famous, handsome man would allow himself to sweat a little bit in front of everybody on the set and allow us to see him be scared. That was good for me. Some actors, because of pressure or fear, won't let themselves go through a process. With Richard, there was faith that it would "happen," that the process would pay off.
Q: Is Primal Fear the first time you'll be on a movie poster?
A: Yes. For Congo they chose to list none of the actors. My picture's not on it [the Primal Fear poster], but my name's there for the first time, which is kind of cool. I have one and I gave one to my mother for Christmas.
Q: Are there movie actresses whose careers particularly impress you?
A: I admire just about anybody who is in a career for a lifetime. I have a great deal of respect for Maggie Smith. I'm also partial to Joanne Woodward. I am fortunate to have acted with her in Blind Spot and to be blessed with her friendship. I rely on Joanne and call her when I'm in a quandary.
Q: As you get deeper into the movie business, do you feel you have to be stronger?
A: Definitely, so I won't lose control of the situation. There are two dangers that I see. First, movies can be very seductive, because all your needs are taken care of. You become addicted to feeling wonderful. Second, Hollywood can teach you to be distrustful, paranoid and insecure. You have to be careful not to take that into your personal life. I know if I concentrated only on business. I'd go nuts.
Q: How have your plans changed now that you're making major inroads in movies?
A: It's too hard for me to look into the future. People ask me all the time about the roles I want to play, but I can't tell them. I've never been good at setting goals for myself. I just know that I feel that this movie thing is kind of fragile and so extraordinary that I'm not going to take it for granted. I hope I have the opportunity to have more experiences and get better at it, but it's certainty not something I feel I can lean back on and build my world around. So I've no idea what's going to happen with me. It'll be interesting to find out.
Q: Has your sudden fame turned your life topsy-turvy?
A: I think what is happening to me isn't what people assume. Other than my getting married [to stage actor David Adkins], and acquiring a better sofa, and being recognized occasionally in a restaurant, and receiving fan mail from a lot of young German men about Congo, my life hasn't changed one iota. I still schlepp around New York, still lake the subway, still go to auditions. Nobody applauds when I walk into a room. The only thing exciting is that once in a while. I'll get a message on my answering machine from a movie star. I just laugh.
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Danny Peary interviewed Dylan McDermott for the December '95 issue of Movieline