CARDELLINI ON A ROLL
From Mad Men to Netflix’s Bloodline
“I was thrilled to have that job. I didn’t realize because I didn’t watch the show at the time what my role would mean to fans. It was the first time anybody recognized me after that show. I came home and I went to a little festival and all these kids ran up to me and called me homewrecker and then ran away. I thought, ‘Wow, the power of television!’ ”
LINDSAY WEIR ON FREAKS AND GEEKS (1999)
“It’s crazy that it was one year. It was such a special role. It was so different than anything else that was out there. At the time I was supposed to test to play a teenager on two other shows and those shows never ended up making it but they had better chances than Freaks and Geeks at the time, but I said, ‘I love this script. This is the role I want to be in line for.’ So I didn’t sign the two other deals and I waited for Freaks and Geeks and I auditioned for that and lost out on the other two. Some people didn’t think that was a very good move (at the time). I was 100 per cent sure at the time and I am now that that was the best move.
“We didn’t look like anybody else on TV. We were sort of the opposite of everything that was happening at the time and we were proud of it. We loved the show. We loved each other. We laughed all of the time. I was with some of the funniest people and it was so heartfelt at the same time. And then the network made us feel like we were losers. They kept scrambling the show around and taking it on and off the air.
“We felt that coming, we hoped it wouldn’t happen but it felt like it was going to. When it happened, I figured it would never see the light of day again and now it’s on Netflix and people find it all the time. I see these young people come up to me and they’re so passionate about the show like they just found it. That’s amazing to me. I think it might have lived on (on another network). I could still be playing Lindsay Weir in some other parallel universe.”
VELMA IN SCOOBY-DOO (2002)
“Here’s this comedy, which is very broad and the female role is very intelligent, so that, to me, was fun to play and it was fun to sort of mimic what I had seen when I was a kid. I auditioned in a costume. I was the only person who came dressed as the character and the waiting room was full of famous faces and I was devastated. I thought I had made the biggest fool of myself. I went in there with this voice and with these actions and dropped my glasses and did all these things. I had loved that cartoon when I was a kid so the idea of being able to be in that movie seemed like a privilege, and then I had that audition and I thought I could never show my face again in Hollywood. Then I got the part. I was excited I could look different (from real life) in the role because I could stand next to Matthew Lillard after the movie had come out and he would get mobbed and I could just walk through without anybody noticing me.”
SAMANTHA TAGGART ON ER (2003-2009)
“That group of people was a wonderful community. Some of my closest friends are from that show. Forest Whitaker was on the show while he was being nominated for an Oscar. The people that they had coming through those doors were really exciting. And there were fans who had an appointment with that show every week and did not miss it for 15 years. Internationally I get recognized most for that show.”
SYLVIA ROSEN ON MAD MEN (2013)
“I went in and cold-read. They give you these sides that don’t have anything to do with the scene you’re actually going to play and I did it a bunch of different times and Matt (Weiner) worked with me a million times over and he was loving, putting me through the wringer. Then he explained the character to me — her hair, her face … her gestures and her history, the way my character’s arc ends in that season. “I couldn’t have been happier reading that script, which is a little bit sick because she gets Don caught in a way he’s never been caught. She’s the first person to bring him to his knees and that to me was very exciting. I got nominated for an Emmy and that was a dream come true.”
MEG RAYBURN ON BLOODLINE (STREAMING NOW ON NETFLIX)
“To work with those actors has been an incredible gift. They’re icons. There are Tonys and Emmys and Oscars ... To work with so many people who are great at what they do every day in a place that is far secluded from my own home, it’s wonderful. Meg’s defined herself with her parents’ expectations, but she doesn’t believe that’s what she’s done. She wants to be everything to everyone and in that, she loses herself. Approaching playing it, I try to make her as present as possible. I’m a daughter and I’m a sister and I’m a girlfriend. I think you draw from those experiences. And I like to make the people that I love happy and sometimes doing that means sacrificing at the cost of yourself.”