Laura Linney Talks TIME STANDS STILL

Laura Linney, who is returning to the Broadway stage this fall, resuming her Tony nominated role in TIME STANDS STILL, is featured on this week's cover of the New York Times Magazine.

Below is an excerpt from the New York Times Magazine feature.

TIME STANDS STILL resumes performances on Thursday, September 23 at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street).

Written by Donald Margulies and directed by Daniel Sullivan, the production stars Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James, Eric Bogosian and Christina Ricci.

The Age of Laura Linney

By Frank Bruni
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
Published: August 1, 2010

WITH THREE EMMYS, three Oscar nominations and two Tony nominations to her credit, Laura Linney could have easily been forgiven for treating her third Tony nomination - for "Time Stands Still," which ran from January to March of this year - with a bit of a shrug, especially since she was certain she wouldn't win. The statuette for Best Actress in a Play was expected to go to Viola Davis, for "Fences." (And indeed it did.)

But on the mid-June morning of the awards, over a chai latte in a Starbucks near her Manhattan apartment, Linney bubbled with anticipation for the big night. Just to participate in such a grand tradition and join her peers in the gilded splendor of Radio City Music Hall - that seemed to be excitement and validation enough for her. Without prompting, she ticked off highlights from Tony ceremonies she had watched over the years, special moments she replays in her head.

"Patti LuPone winning for ‘Evita,' " she said. "Jennifer Holliday singing from ‘Dreamgirls.' " She smiled a goofy smile, which brought out her deep dimples, so that she looked, at 46, like a bedazzled ingénue. Then she finished her drink and grabbed hold of the purse into which she had stuffed a pair of Louis Vuitton pumps, and off we went to a Tonys dress rehearsal. Linney was to be a presenter, and she wanted to test those high heels on the Radio City stage, where she had been before. "When you're up there and you look out," she said, "it's fantastic."

As we entered the auditorium, performers from the musical "American Idiot" were ripping through a spirited anthem. She stopped dead in her tracks. "It's 10 in the morning," she said. "They had two shows yesterday. And here they are. But are they phoning it in? No."

She bumped into Antonio Banderas, then Cate Blanchett: hugs all around. Linney has done enough work in enough different media, toggling with unusual fluidity among plays and movies and TV, to have met almost everybody who's anybody. If you need six degrees of Kevin Bacon to connect luminaries in the entertainment world, you need only three or four with Linney.

And yet her sense of wonder endures. Either that or she's a more gifted actress than even her fiercest admirers realize. "You just have to see this!" she exclaimed at one point, tugging me backstage. "It's just too much fun, all the different casts bumping into each other." We wandered amid the chaos, squeezing past Sean Hayes and taking care not to step on the far-flung frontiers of Catherine Zeta-Jones's gown. By the time we emerged back into the auditorium, dancers from the musical "Memphis" had begun a number, and Linney stood rapt while they whirled and tumbled for all they were worth.

"It makes me want to cry," she said, watching them. "I just love it."

TO READ THE COMPLETE FEATURE,visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01Linney-t.html?_r=1

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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