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Laura Linney, Back in Room 304 By SETH NUMRICH
You could see the memories building up in Laura Linney's eyes as she walked into Room 304 in the Drama Division on September 26. Drama students from Groups 32 through 36 all stood and applauded to greet the Group 19 alumna, a renowned stage and screen actress and 2002 Tony Award nominee who had come to share her wisdom with current students. There seemed to be something infectious about her smile as she and her interviewer, Michael Kahn (the director of the Drama Division) sat down and began the interview/discussion.
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| Laura Linney (Photo by Jessica Katz) |
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Ms. Linney started by giving us a brief synopsis of her life in the theater: The daughter of a renowned American playwright (Romulus Linney), she spent much of her young years traveling with her father as he worked on shows in regional theaters all across the country. She recalled: "I would watch the most glorious ingénues, these beautiful girls who were just like flowers—they were fabulous. And they would hit an age, and they just could not make the transition to leading lady, nor could they make the transition to character acting. That was when my first idea of going to some sort of a school for formal training really started." Linney earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University as a theater major. While she enjoyed her time there and was a self-proclaimed "big theater-history nerd," she realized that she wanted something more.
Specifically, she wanted a program more focused on acting—her initial motivation for applying to Juilliard. (Of course, she got in, and spent four years here, graduating in 1990.) In summation of the time she spent here, she said something very simple and yet profound to all of us aspiring actors: "Really, guys—regardless of what your experiences are here, regardless of how painful, how challenging, how terrific, how confusing it is, regardless of where your life goes ... this school will prepare you for just about anything." Linney obviously knows this from experience, considering that very soon after graduating, she dove headfirst into a career that has consisted of just about anything and everything that an actor could hope for. Her first job out of school was as an understudy in the original Broadway production of Six Degrees of Separation at the Lincoln Center Theater. After that, she enjoyed several other roles in regional and Off-Broadway theater. "At the time," Linney confessed, "I had no interest in film or television—not out of a snob factor; it just scared me. It was still foreign. I didn't know anything about film and television... I grew up in the theater!" Fortunately, her agent was smart enough to seek out small screen parts for her to begin with, so as to slowly acclimate her to the world of screen acting. As she points out: "Slowly, over time, the parts just sort of, very subtly, got bigger and bigger."
As her film career continues to grow and flourish, Linney remains very active in the world of live theater and received a Tony nomination for her work in the 2002 Broadway production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. She explained to us that she tries to make sure she's onstage at least once every other season.
The next point that came up had been on many of our minds: Michael Kahn asked Linney to elaborate on some of her experiences illuminating the differences between stage and film acting. "For one thing," she began, "your responsibilities as an actor are very different." In film, she explained, because the world of the script is so clearly visually defined for you already (specifically, when you're acting outside, for example), you often feel like half your work is already done for you. But in spite of this, she feels it's vitally important not to "skip steps" in your preparation and process as an actor. "Often directors in film will give you very result-oriented direction," she continued. "You can get caught up in the hour of the day, and losing the light ... but you just have to remember, don't skip steps. So you can ultimately give the director or producer the result they want, without skipping over the six or seven steps that actually justify what you're doing. Really, the ability to do all of these things comes directly out of the training that you will get here."
At another point in the interview, Linney shared a story that I found extremely inspiring about the work that we as actors will do here over our four years of training. She told us that, during her third year at Juilliard, she was going through a very rough time and was considering leaving the School. At some point, drama faculty member John Stix pulled her aside and asked why she wanted to leave. "So I explained it to him," Linney recalled, "and John said to me, very smartly: 'This is the place to fail. This is where you have to fail. And, when you fail here, it's a big success.' And sometimes it's hard to remember that when you're here, going from class to class, but it's very true and I think it's one of the best gifts that anyone ever gave me."
Those inspiring words motivated her to stay here and complete her training. For us current students, it was incredibly moving to listen to her talk about her time here, and to hear her say some of the things that—even though we've heard them before—were more meaningful coming from someone who has survived the training program and is a successful working artist. Laura Linney's discussion with us was very enlightening to all, and I hope she'll come back to talk to us again before my time here is over.Seth Numrich is a first-year drama student.
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