Savage love

One of the first things I'm doing when I return to New York is seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway. To be honest, I don't even know what the thing is about. Yeah, I watched that movie with Glenn Close in AP Euro. Yeah, I guess Cruel Intentions is kinda based on it? Whatever. All I know is that it's got Linney. Who I gotta see, up close and personal. (I just saw The Savages again, which is why I'm on this Linney high.)

To me, she used to be "that lady from The Truman Show," but now she's one of my greatest acting inspirations. As a theater student---aspiring actor? Just plain "actor"?---I remember what she says about choosing roles and simply working in the big time. It's refreshing to watch her onscreen. She seems to ignore the tabloids and distance herself from worldwide fame and sexy femme fatale roles. Instead, she seems to find depth in the neurotic, the melancholy, the timid---the everyday woman, who she makes so beautiful.

She also respects the work of an actor, no matter how big-budget the film or how popular the performer. In the big time, I think it must be easy to forget that acting is a job, a complex one that requires unlimited patience and thorough examination of the project and the performer herself. She has never allowed the glamour of Hollywood diminish her job as an actor.

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.

--Laura Linney, The Tufts Daily

Photo source: NY Mag