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Webmaster: Lemon
Layout: Version 3 Tyler Shields
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Layout: Version 3 Tyler Shields
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Linda-Cardellini.Org is a non-profit fansite for Linda Cardellini, created and maintained by Lemon. I am not Linda, I do not know her, and I have no contact with Ms. Cardellini, her management, or anyone affiliated with her. All content © its respective owners; credit will be given when necessary. If you see something that you own/I have forgotten to credit, please e-mail me and I will fix the problem.
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• Interviews
IGN
December 5, 2007 - This week marks a rather amazing feat for ER, as the NBC series airs its 300th episode. To mark the occasion, I spoke to ER star Linda Cardellini to discuss what it's like being part of such a rare achievement in television.
The busy Cardellini also has a miniseries debuting next month, the western Comanche Moon. A prequel to Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove, the miniseries is written by McMurty and Diana Ossana, the same duo who wrote Brokeback Mountain, another project Cardellini appeared in. The impressive cast for Comanche Moon also includes Steve Zahn, Val Kilmer, Elizabeth Banks and Rachel Griffiths.
During our conversation, Cardellini and I talked about ER, the ongoing writers' strike, Comanche Moon, what it's like being Velma from the Scooby-Doo movies and the continuing fandom for her breakout role on the brilliant Freaks and Geeks.
IGN TV: With the writers' strike underway, is ER still filming?
Linda Cardellini: Yeah, we're on our last episode. We finish next Tuesday.
IGN TV: What episode are you filming?
Cardellini: I think it's 13.
IGN TV: What's the mood been like given the situation?
Cardellini: It's eerie. It's a lot more empty [on set] than it usually is and we see our friends on the picket line. It's unfortunate. Nobody's happy about it, but we understand it's necessary.
IGN TV: I'm sure you're hearing the same things we are, but do you think any sort of resolution seems possible anytime soon?
Cardellini: Well, I'm hopeful that there will be a quick resolution and a positive outcome from the whole thing, but to say that I know anything about when it will end or how it will end is just completely fiction. I don't know. I think that's maybe one of the harder things, is that nobody knows when it's gonna end.
IGN TV: Going in, it seemed this was likely going to be the final season. Had you guys had discussions with the producers about that?
Cardellini: Yeah, everybody's prepared. We're not really sure if it's going to be the last season or not and they really hope that they'll find out soon, so that they can plan for an ending to the series. Because it's been on for so long, it deserves a complete and thorough wrap up. But we don't know, and so we've prepared ourselves for both things and we're hopeful that it'll continue. If it does, it does, and if it doesn't, it doesn't!
IGN TV: This week sees the 300th episode air. You obviously weren't there from the beginning, but what's it like being part of something that's reached such a milestone? Very few shows can say they ran 300 episodes.
Cardellini: I don't think I understood it until it started happening, and even shooting the show "300 Patients", which is the 300th episode… There's lots of references to the past, present and future in that 300th episode, but I didn't really register the gravity of it until we had a party for the 300th episode and there were people who had been there from the beginning - and [taking in] the pictures and the clips and the long history of the show and the amount of people who have worked on the show and the amount of people who are still there working on the show that have been there since the first day. It was incredibly moving. Especially coming from a show like Freaks and Geeks, where we were hanging on by a thread and we didn't get to complete a full season, to a show that's [gone for] 14 seasons is very, very different. It's a rarity. It feels nice to be part of it.
IGN TV: What's the storyline of the 300th episode?
Cardellini: They're close to getting 300 patients. They're trying to get 300 patients into the hospital and treated - It would be a record. My character has a really wonderful storyline. She is trying to branch out, and she's becoming more independent since her son is gone. She enrolls in transport training, to be a flight nurse or an emergency response nurse. She does a ride along with this ambulance and there's an altercation and a car accident and we have to save a child. It's a really interesting episode for Sam, because she's out of the ER, being an in-field nurse.
IGN TV: The show has had some pretty exciting situations happen to various characters outside of the hospital through the years. Is it fun when you get to do a story like this?
Cardellini: It is, especially when it's medical stuff outside of the hospital, because we're so used to doing that within the fake hospital I work at [Laughs] that it's nice to get to do it outside. And you learn more about what it is like. We have EMTs and nurses and people who talk with us and you learn a lot more about how hard this job is for people and how important nurses are. There's always a nursing shortage. I hope the heroic part of it comes across, so perhaps people will be inspired to do that job, because it's a very noble job. I'm happy I just have to pretend, but I'm also very impressed that there are people who do that job. It seems to be a very tough job.
IGN TV: What was it like joining the show? It was already such a well established part of TV history. Was it a bit surreal, since I'm sure you'd seen the show for the last ten years before you joined it, like the rest of us?
Cardellini: It was interesting. I just really loved the part. [ER Executive Producer] John Wells was interested in having me on the show and he described this woman who had a baby when she was 15 and has been working to make ends meet. Especially having just come from playing Velma, that's something that seemed really interesting to me and very different from the last thing that I'd done. I joined the show and really within days you're at home, because the show moves so fast. Unlike other shows, there is no lighting set up time, really. It's all made to look like a hospital. The crew is fantastic and the D.P. and everyone else does such a wonderful job, but it moves very, very quickly, because it's overhead hospital lighting and they know how to move it. They've been working on the show for so long. It's a very well oiled machine. There's not a lot of time to sit around and be a spoiled actor. It moves very, very fast.
IGN TV: Earlier this year, your character had some very dark, intense events going on with the father of her child. What was it like to play those scenes?
Cardellini: That was really great. Especially when you get personal storylines on the show, it's always fun to sink your teeth into, because so often you're a catalyst for somebody else's story. You're there to uncover the patient's storyline. And so when it turns around and it becomes about your character and your personal life, you really get to sink your teeth into it and do something different than you do normally on the show. Then it feels earned too; it doesn't feel over indulgent. So I really loved those episodes. They were really harsh and hard core. We shot all night and we were on location, but the storyline was fantastic and I was very, very happy to have those things to do. And it explained a lot about Sam and sort of her inability to let people in.
IGN TV: On the flip side, having gone through all that as an actress, it is nice to currently have your character -- at least in her personal life -- have some lighter stuff going on? She's decided to casually date and have some fun like she never had a chance to before.
Cardellini: It is. At first I was afraid, because I didn't want Sam to totally forget her past. But they've managed to make it where now that her son is safe and he's doing well at school, she feels the guilt lifted off of her for the first time. She has this delayed and renewed adolescence and I think that it's really fun to play. And it's also fun to play against; because of her past, she doesn't give over to it completely. She catches herself. Just when she's having a really great time, she catches herself and she sort of reels it back in and it gives me something to play against.
IGN TV: She's had a few different potential love interests lately. Is that going to continue for awhile?
Cardellini: Oh yeah, there's a big one coming up! They're going to put me with one of the guys on the show, so it'll be interesting.
IGN TV: Ah, so you have to stay tight-lipped on that?
Cardellini: Yes, but you'll be able to tell within these next couple of episodes.
IGN TV: You also have Comanche Moon coming up. Can you talk about your character in that?
Cardellini: I play Clara Forsythe. She is the love of Gus McCrae's life. Gus McCrae is actually one of my favorite characters from literature and Lonesome Dove happens to be one of my favorite novels. This is the prequel to Lonesome Dove and I was ecstatic when they asked me to play the part, especially because I've worked with Diana and Larry on Brokeback Mountain and loved them and admired them and respect them so much. The project takes place in the 1800s. She's a pioneer woman on the frontier. She's got a lot of guts and a lot of heart and she's in love with a rambler. They're sort of never to be, but always in love. It shows you what they were before Lonesome Dove. I really loved the book Lonesome Dove and when you watch the miniseries, you're kind of skeptical that it's going to live up to how much you love the book, but that miniseries is fantastic! Robert DuVall and Tommy Lee Jones and Diane Lane and Angelica Huston playing Clara... It's the same director [on Comanche Moon], Simon Wincer, and we just had a fantastic time doing it.
IGN TV: As a fan, was it especially exciting for you to get to perform scenes with some of your favorite characters?
Cardellini: Oh, it was fantastic! It really was inspiring and it was exciting. And the costumes were gorgeous - Going from playing in scrubs every day to wearing a corset and about five pounds of clothes and period shoes where your feet were killing you after a day's work! But it was really a great joy of mine.
IGN TV: Did you watch the Lonesome Dove miniseries again and look at Anjelica Huston's performance for inspiration or did you decide it was better to not have that so ingrained in your head?
Cardellini: I'd seen the miniseries, but I didn't watch it again in attempts to sort of mimic her. She's younger and less has happened to her in Comanche Moon. She's less experienced and when you see her in Lonesome Dove, she's been through a lot more. So I didn't want to pay too much attention, because I didn't want to mimic anything. I loved the book so dearly that I sort of relied more on the text than anything else.
IGN TV: How was it working with your costars, like Steve Zahn and Val Kilmer?
Cardellini: Steve Zahn's really one of my favorites. He's the most down to Earth, generous, kind, hilarious person. He really was great to work with. I hope I get to work with him again! And Val Kilmer was great, Rachel Griffiths was great… I really can't say a bad thing about anybody on the show. We were all pleased to be working with each other and I think we were all excited to work on something with such a long history.
IGN TV: You mentioned Brokeback Mountain and that prior connection with Larry and Diana. Did that lead into you getting this part?
Cardellini: Yes, I think it did, because I know Larry and Diana. I've known them from working with them and I've been an admirer of Larry's books. They've both been very wonderful to me.
IGN TV: Did your character get to partake in any horseback riding?
Cardellini: You know, I didn't, and I love horses! I have horses. I didn't get to ride one in the show. I get to be out with them, and I was carried by an eight horse drawn carriage. It was like a rickety old stage coach being led by these eight, powerful horses. That was in incredible feeling. The adrenalin of actually feeling horse power move you from one place to the other was pretty unusual.
IGN TV: Did making Comanche Moon inspire you to want to do more period pieces?
Cardellini: I would love to. I would really love to. And I would love to do something where I actually ride a horse!
IGN TV: You should talk to Larry about that!
Cardellini: I know, really.
IGN TV: Thanks to Scooby-Doo, do you have a lot of kids approach you?
Cardellini: Every once in awhile. It's nice, because I don't look exactly the same and I don't speak exactly the same, so when I don't want to be noticed, I can get away with it. But every once in awhile a little kid will see me. The other day we were working on the street in Chicago [on ER] and two little girls realized that I was Velma. They were so excited and they followed us around during the day. They were told "There's Velma", but they really didn't believe me until they made me say things. So I had to say "Jinkies, I have a clue!" I had to say it in the whole voice, and then they were just hook, line and sinker so impressed with me. It felt good! [Laughs]
IGN TV: What's it been like seeing what a huge afterlife Freaks and Geeks has had?
Cardellini: It's so gratifying to see that people are still watching it and getting to know it. It just feels so good, because I think we were all really proud of that show and didn't feel like we had the greatest chance for people to see it. Now, to have more and more people find it on DVD, it's so great that it's living on. I'm just really happy that people get to see it and I'm really proud of it. It was really a special time in my life, all of us together, making that show.
IGN TV: The past couple of years it seems like everyone from that show has become successful. What do you credit that to? You were obviously a talented group of people, but still, every talented actor doesn't find success. Do you think Judd [Apatow] and Paul [Feig] just really knew what they were doing when they chose everyone?
Cardellini: You've got to hope so, you know! [Laughs] I really respected and admired all the people that we worked with and I thought they were super talented. They weren't the usual group of people that I had seen play those characters on television before. I think it was really a pleasure. I think everyone was really talented, and they're actually all pretty great people too.
IGN TV: Was it fun to work with Busy Philipps again on ER?
Cardellini: Oh my god, yes. She and I have a great time. We both went to the same college. We have a lot in common and I just really love her. When you work a lot on a series, you don't have any time to see anybody, especially when they're working too, so to be able to work with some of your friends is the best feeling ever.
IGN TV: Do you have your green jacket from Freaks and Geeks?
Cardellini: Yes I do. I have it on my closet. And you know what it sits next to? It sits next to my Velma costume. I've got them both in my closet, actually.
IGN TV: You've got ready made Halloween costumes.
Cardellini: [Laughs] Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think I can show up wearing those! It would look a little desperate.
IGN TV: It seems like at least half of your Freaks and Geeks costars are writing now. Do you have any writing aspirations?
Cardellini: I do, actually. I wrote a television show that I sold to John Wells at one point, but we didn't end up selling it to anyone else. There's a few things that I've been doing, so we'll see what happens with that. But it's always such an awkward thing. I don't normally admit that, because I feel like every actor in town is writing a script. But I'm getting more serious about it.
IGN TV: You should write yourself a horseback riding role.
Cardellini: I know, really! Maybe I will. But I'm better at writing things not for myself though. The thing I wrote, I wasn't even going to be in it.
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