October 20 , 2004

Laura Linney isn't scared anymore.

She's out promoting Dylan Kidd's P.S. right now, but she's between moments of promoting Bill Condon's Kinsey and she is expected to turn up again and again over the next few months as one of the rare few who is actually threatening to "go both ways" at the Academy Awards, managing both a Lead and a Supporting acting nod in the same year.

In her first decade in the movies, she's made 18 films, starred in three Tales of The City series (plus a role in a standalone TV movie as the same character), grabbed a Tony nomination on Broadway, been Oscar nominated, won a couple of Emmys, got married and divorced and turned 40 just this year.

And she isn't scared.

What is that all about? Linney lights up when she talks about Congo in much the way Robin Williams shuts down when talking about Popeye, even though Popeye is a far superior film. Linney, then on her first big film with a big role, took it upon herself to learn what was happening in the flurry of activity around her. "I can take a theater apart and put it back together," she says with prideful amusement when remembering how intimidating the film set was back then.

She then started her run of high profile quality films, jumping from Primal Fear to playing Clint Eastwood's daughter in Absolute Power to the Truman Show and on to You Can Count On Me, for which she was Oscar nominated.

At that point, she seemed ready to flex. First time directors Rob Morrow, Moises Kaufman and Richard Curtis. Veteran helmers Clint Eastwood, Alan Parker and Mark Pellington.

And now, Kidd & Condon and two roles that are as far apart from one another as imaginable. And for the first time, at 40, Linney isn't intimidated by the nature of making movies. She knows her place on the set. She knows what muscles she can flex. And she is, it seems, remarkably peaceful and happy doing her job.

Her skirts folds into itself as she sits, awaiting her media courtiers. Her smile comes easily, the angles of her face gentler and more pliable than on screen. But it is her. You can all but smell the Northeast on her. For some reason, the notion of sitting around a brown paper covered table with her, working on a few dozen steamed crabs, seems like a more natural way to chat with her than sitting in this hotel room, as one of many to come her way to ask off-mark questions this day. Because Laura Linney's nature seems to demand that she be occupied by complex work before her inner self will emerge. She does not appear to be a control freak. But she wants to know where she stands… exactly where she stands… and then, she can be free to move.

How do others see Laura Linney? She doesn't know… doesn't care. "I'm not stupid," she points out unnecessarily. She knows people are judging her. But as with You Can Count on Me, an Oscar nomination for either of these movies means more than just a higher profile for Laura Linney… it's her chance to sell movies that need all the free help they can get and that she feels obliged to work for… work tirelessly for.

Both performances have the air of fearless about them. In P.S., she exposes a neediness and an emotional ache, all the while needing to keep up the energy that makes the audience pleased by the notion of her having a June/April affair with a young man she thinks is the reincarnation of her one great love. In Kinsey, she must act as the emotional heart of the title character, a heart we cannot be in him. She gives up all the vanity of an actress, her only onscreen beauty left coming from within.

But both roles fit like a glove that's been shrunk to size over and over and over again. Laura Linney is ready for anything that's thrown at her. She has made friends with her fears and honed the muscles of her craft.

"So bring it on, I've been bruised
Don't give me love that's clean and smooth
I'm ready for the rougher stuff
No sweet romance, I've had enough..."

Elton John wrote that lyric at 55. Laura Linney is ready at 40. Now let's just hope that there are enough writers and directors who have the rougher stuff to give her. She ready.

READER OF THE DAY: A FRIEND FROM UP NORTH writes: "Race in Hollywood is extreme in so many ways. While there are plenty (and I do mean plenty) of racist portrayals of blacks in film (stereotypes like Remember the Titans irked me more, especially since the racism issue was sanitized for the family). There seem to be an increasing number of racist white portrayals or comments in movies -- and nobody bats an eye.

For example, I was shocked when every ad for New York Minute included a black woman referring to a white man as "cracker". I don't find the term offensive, but in a modern social context it's considered a humorous derogatory comment. Just because people laugh at it, does it make it acceptable? What was the justification of tossing it into an advertising campaign? I have no idea.

What baffles me even further is how White Chicks thought it was clever by taking the offensive "black face" and turning it into a "white face" comedy under the guise of a spoof. First, the movie wasn't smart enough script-wise to be attacking social issues with any sort of intellect. Second, the image of a black man participating in what was basically a shameful situation for race 60 or so years ago is even more confusing. You'd think this is something we'd want to move past.

Neighbouring Canadian entertainment has practically banished ethnic stereotyping from its programming on television and in movies. Some people find it boring. Of course there are exceptions to my generalization -- Canada is hardly a perfect nation, and racism still exists here. The country generally accepts its diverse cultures, yet some citizens aren't always quite as accommodating. What America needs to do is realize that they aren't going to progress past the issue of race with racist-tinged revenge tactics. For a "progressive" and "democratic" society the American media hardly rises to the challenge. Then again, it's a society where everyone seems to be struggling to fit into an already set definition of an ethnic group, rather than create their own definition of themselves. Life goes on, I suppose"

E-ME: Where do you rank Laura Linney... not that she cares...