By: debbie lynn elias
Known best for her roles as Nurse Samantha Taggert on ER and as Velma in the Scooby-Doo live action movies, Linda Cardellini is a woman passionate about her craft. One always ready to grow as a woman and an actress and tackle complex characters, Cardellini broke from the unexpected with the acclaimed Kill the Irishman. Now, on the heels of that intense performance, she takes on the first true leading role of her career with RETURN and the character of Kelli – a young wife, mother and soldier returning from the Middle East to a life far different than what she remembered. And as Cardellini enthusiastically champions RETURN, she readies herself for her next big production – the imminent birth of her daughter.
I had a chance to catch up with Cardellini in this 1:1 interview talking acting, RETURN and motherhood.
Hi Debbie!
Hey Linda! How are you? I think the last time that we actually spoke you were still doing “ER” and you just done Scooby-Doo and Velma!
Yeah! Yeah! [laughing] That was quite a while ago! And isn’t this quite a departure from that?
Boy have you made a departure! I have to tell you – Kill the Irishman – great! I absolutely loved your performance and love that film.
Oh! Wow! Good. Thank you! Oh thank you! Thank you so much. I loved the costumes and the period and all that, too. That was so much fun.
The authenticity was just immaculate. Absolutely perfect in that film.
Yea. They did such a great job with it. They really didn’t have a very big budget and they really made it look like “back in the day.”
And I just thought you really nailed the character of Joan and really brought her to life.
Thank you so so much.
Which is why I’m not at all surprised seeing what you‘ve done here with RETURN.
I hope that’s good! Thank you.
The role of Kelli is a very challenging role, but it‘s also a very unique role because it‘s one of the first films, if not the first film, where anyone has addressed a female soldier coming home.
There may be others but I think the way that [Liza Johnson] addresses it is really beautiful, very restrained. I think she really showed the unraveling of someone’s life without them going in and doing something incredibly violent to anybody.
One thing that stands out is that you embrace the aspect of not only being a female, but also wife, mother, and you bring all of that to the character and to the project. Now, you weren‘t a mother at the time but you’re about to be.
[Laughing] Yep, I am. I’ve got two big projects coming up. Birth and the film.
What did you draw on to establish Kelli‘s maternal instincts? Obviously having guy relationships, you’re used to that aspect of Kelli. Likewise on the work front, on the home front. But being a mother, compounded with the whole sense of loss, returning home and displacement, how did you get to that point?
My family is the most important thing in the world to me. And thinking about that and that relationship even heightened as a mother, that’s really what I drew upon. And their innocent faces are so easy to play off of because the kids that we were able to work with were so fantastic and they were so sweet that you can’t imagine wanting to do anything in the world that would possibly affect their lives adversely. I think she feels some guilt for having left. And I think she feels some pride for having left. She’s very conflicted. But when she sees their faces, there’s nothing in the world that matters more.
The visual expressiveness – and I don‘t know if you consciously do this or if this is just unconscious and a testament to your innate ability as an actress – you really convey so much visually with your look, your face, your stance, even how you walk.
Thank you. I really appreciate that. It’s a huge compliment. I think the most interesting things that play are the silences that she has in the film. I tried really hard to find out as much as I could, and initiate myself with other peoplefs stories and life experiences in order to fill those silences with things that would be able to read even though I wasn’t speaking. I donft know. [laughing] I’ve always been told I’m a terrible liar. I think my face gives me away. I think I wear my heart on my sleeve, so in some way I was born where everything just comes out on my face! [laughing]
But it works so well with the part of Kelli and especially, all the walking that you did. That walking was very important, metaphorically, for the character; the idea of putting one foot in front of the other and you just keep going, something I feel was very powerfully executed.
Yea, yea, and all the things that were taken away from her. She’s stripped down. Very few of us walk that many places anymore. The idea of having to put yourself on your back and walk around town as the only way to get around, that’s somebody who does have a family at home and who has a lot of obligations, I think that’s just another challenge for her.
You’ve got two key male components here. Michael Shannon and John Slattery. Your chemistry with John is just explosive.
Oh! Thank you! We had a lot of fun. I had been working alone for a long time before Michael showed up and then when Michael showed up, the story and Kelli’s character takes on a different sort of feeling. Then when John comes in it’s a completely different feeling as well. You almost get a break from all of the heavy lifting for a minute – Kelli gets a break from all of the heaviness and thinks that she’s found somebody who really understands her, which I think is why itfs so heartbreaking when she walks in and he’s grinding up those pills. But, it was really fun to have fun on set with John in those scenes because you got a glimpse of the Kelli that may have existed when her life wasnft so heavy.
I have to say, you and John on the couch – – that is one of the most realistic sex scenes I have ever seen on camera.
Thank you! Whew! I was nervous. It was a little nerve-racking. So, I’m glad. You always want to make sure it’s real, and it’s not real so…we laughed in between every take. We were having fun in front of 15 other people. So I’m glad it comes across as realistic and for you to say it’s very realistic, is a very big compliment. Thank you.
Linda, I know you are very particular about the roles you take. You had that little cameo in Super for James Gunn.
James is one of my best friends. He’s a really good friend.
What is that spoke to you about the role of Kelli? As I said, it‘s not a role that you are typically are known for doing.
I think that was part of it. I read the script and wanted to meet with Liza [Johnson] as soon as possible. And when I met with Liza, she just had such a unique vision for the film. It wasnft anything I had heard about in any kind of returning soldier story. It was very much focused on the details and the silences and the little things that unravel in this womanfs life after coming home from something that we all hear about but maybe donft necessarily known enough about. To me it felt very relevant as the years went by before the film got made. I just wanted to educate myself about what was happening to people, especially the people that we see overseas. We live our normal lives and theyfre over there sacrificing a lot for us while we go about our daily lives here. I wanted to know more about that. I wanted to pay respect to that. And I just thought, what a beautiful role for somebody. It’s the biggest role that Ifve been entrusted with. It’s very restrained, which I like; the way that Liza orchestrated the performances – they don’t spell everything out for you. It leaves you some room to decide what you think for yourself. And I like the idea that [Kelli] doesnft have a way of communicating perfectly. I think many of us when we go through traumatic events or life changes, donft realize what they’re doing to us until maybe many years later, and what the ripples of those actions are. I hoped it was a very realistic way of looking at somebody returning in a way that was different from what people had seen before.
Did you talk to any returning female soldiers?
Yea. I did. I tried to speak with as many as I could. Some were happily being redeployed, staying in the military. Another woman I spoke to was in the VA Hospital trying to get treatment for PTSD and was very young. I’m very happy to say that the last I heard, she was doing really well. Some people, some men as well, just so I could understand a more generalized version of [returning home] and also a more genderized version of it. I think there are common threads throughout everybody’s story but everybody’s story was also very different. What was interesting to me [is that] there’s so much that people go through [and yet] some people have one specific trauma and other people don’t have a specific trauma to point to, but the idea of being there – whether it’s the sadness or the anger or the disruption to their normal life – changes them.
The dialogue is so well done. It‘s so well crafted. No long soliloquies. Just these little flashes or a glimpse for us to grab onto that are actually quite ironic given your casting. For instance, Kelli worked in hospital supply. Here you come out of ER and are now in a movie role where you‘re working in hospital supply. Not to mention the fact that you work with the ex-Mrs. George Clooney [Talia Balsam]. It seems like you were pre-destined for the part.
[laughing] Oh yeah! That’s right! It’s a great role. Im really really lucky that Liza and I found each other. It’s been wonderful. We got to go to Cannes Film Festival with the film and we’ve been able to do so many things. Now I can’t do very much because I’m pregnant [laughing], but we got to do a lot of amazing things with this film and hopefully people will be able to see it.
When they told us there would be a Press Day for the film, I was surprised, thinking, “Linda’s coming? She‘s very pregnant and ready to give birth.”
I wanted to do it but my doctor said, ”You’re not going.” I also wanted to go to Camp Pendleton and they said, “No. You can’t go. If you go into labor on the freeway, you’ll be in trouble.”
Linda, as you sit here now and reflect, what is the greatest gift that acting has given you?
Oh gosh. I would have to say the ability to experience many many different things and people and places. When you’re on a set, you’re surrounded by so many people. It’s a working community. It really does take a village and very few people actually get the credit for it. That community is really a wonderful thing to be a part of. And I’ve been able to see places in the world that I would have never been able to go to, and bring my parents and my siblings. And it was always my dream to be an actor, an actress. Nobody I knew was really doing it and it’s always hard for me to believe that I’ve actually been able to do it. I’m very grateful.
Are you going to jump into something else right away after the baby’s born, or will you take some time off?
I don’t know. I’m not sure yet. I think I have to wait and see how motherhood is. [laughing] I think that’s the biggest mystery of my life is what it will be like once she comes along and changes my whole world. I love working and I want to work and I want to be able to work and give my child a lot of amazing things. So I will definitely go back to work, but I don’t know how soon.
I know that you havenft stopped working, haven’t taken any breathers.
No, I haven’t. That’s true. After ER I thought, “Okay. I’m gonna stop working for a minute here. I’m gonna wait. I’d been doing the same thing for a lot of years. I’m gonna wait to do something really different.” And I was so happy that I waited for RETURN. It took awhile. I was with the movie for about a year before it actually started to get moving and get put into production. I’m so happy I waited. It’s been really, really rewarding. And it’s hard to do when youfre used to working [waiting]. You kinda wanna go like a machine, but it was really good. It gave me a chance to rediscover myself as an actress.
What do you think will be the greatest bit of advice, at this stage of your life, that you will give your daughter?
Oh my gosh. I wish I knew. [laughing] I would just say, to have an open heart and truly trust in love. I think when you close yourself off, you lose a lot.
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