Laura Linney
(Credit: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)
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So there's obviously something more to "The Savages" than just the story of a brother and sister reuniting after years apart. Writer-director Tamara Jenkins' smart script won a prize at Sundance, and the film is already earning rave reviews for its deft blend of comedy and drama and an uncanny resemblance to real life.
Linney and co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman play Wendy and Jon Savage, siblings whose messy family history complicates caring for their ailing father (Philip Bosco). By touching on issues of family, aging, artistic expression and following your bliss, "The Savages" is not an easy film to categorize, but it's a hard one to resist. And Linney's empathetic portrayal of a woman coming into her own is one of those performances that lingers long after the credits have rolled.
Metromix spoke with Linney about the themes of her latest work, creating an on-screen bond with her Oscar-winning co-star and what she looks for in a script.
Some people may get the feeling that if these characters weren't siblings, they wouldn't be friends.
Correct, yeah.
Why do you think they come together in this story?
I think it's a primal need. Throughout the course of the film they do get to a point where they have a sense of belonging to each other, which is foreign to both of them. The question that always hung in the air for me was 'how do you care for a parent that didn't love you?' What do you do with that? How does it affect almost every decision you make and your lifestyle? The movie is very much about them finding each other. Because of this experience they're forced to rely on each other. They couldn't do it individually.
How did you create that sibling relationship with Philip Seymour Hoffman?
I've worked with a lot of people who I liked very much, but every once in awhile you get to work with someone and you work together. That's a whole deeper, richer, more beneficial relationship as far as your development as an actor. Phil and I had known each other as acquaintances in New York, I'd always admired his work on stage and in the movies he'd done, but we had never spent any time together. My instinct was that it would be a good, easy working relationship and it was. When you feel safe and secure when you're working with someone you can go a little deeper, it was fun.
What is your relationship like with your own siblings?
I grew up in a single parent household, my parents divorced when I was very young. I have a half-sister, who's 11 years younger than I am, who I did not grow up with and consequently we are really close. We're really friends. That's an easy relationship. [Growing up] I felt very much alone, and I often think 'what would I have been like had I had a sibling?' I would be so different. I think about that a lot actually.
Do you think that viewers who have had strained family relationships, or cared for an ailing relative, will be able to relate to this movie more than those who haven’t had those experiences?
Hopefully this is a story that is being told and you can let the story and the characters be their own. That's normally when [art] shakes you up the most. I just saw ‘Into the Wild.’ I'm not someone who has gone off into nature, but I'm someone who has felt lost at times. Even if you haven't been lost in the wilderness you feel like you could be, emotionally. I love movies like that. It puts things in a different perspective, it makes you have a relationship with your own emotions that you didn't have before you saw the film.
When you’re reading a script do you have to immediately see yourself in the role to be interested?
I know I have to pay attention to a script when I start working on it before I finish reading it. There's something with really good material, your actor brain just clicks on. You can't help it, it just starts. You start making connections, seeing things, start working. When that happens, you pay attention.
What will set you off?
It's hard to say, good writing is undeniable. There's a lot that good writing will tell you. The rhythm of speech will tell you how someone moves. Hopefully every voice is different. A lot of times you'll read scripts and every sentence is the same. That's just a writer who doesn't know about the orchestra of an ensemble. It's sort of like an architect looking at blueprints. If it's a really good script I can have a sense of the telling of the whole story.
Are there times when the final product turns out far worse than you expected?
What I learned pretty quickly is you never know. You try, you give it everything you've got. There are movies that are very difficult to make, no one likes each other and they're fantastic. Then there are times where you've had a wonderful time and the movie just doesn't...come together. It just goes to show you, it's not about one person or one thing. Everyone has to step up to the plate for it.
