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Linney reunites with director
Clint Eastwood made Laura Linney’s day when he asked her to join the cast of Sully.
Eastwood wanted Linney to play Chesley Sullenberger’s wife Lorraine in the biopic, and she didn’t hesitate to accept.
The Oscar-honoured actress knew what she was in for: Eastwood and Linney had worked together on 1997’s Absolute Power when she was just starting her movie career. So this time she didn’t overthink things — just the way Eastwood likes it.
In Sully, Tom Hanks plays Sullenberger, who safely lands his malfunctioned commercial airliner shortly after takeoff at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, saving the crew and all passengers on board. Besides the miraculous 2009 Hudson River landing, the Eastwood movie, based on Sullenberger’s book, also recounts an investigation into the event that threatened to end the pilot’s career and destroy his reputation.
Linney, 52, discusses her portrayal, reuniting with Eastwood and waiting on the line with Tom Hanks:
Q Did your co-starring role have challenges?
A It’s a part that’s modest and isolated from the rest of the narrative. It was challenging to calibrate the performance and at the same time serve the story. Q What was your goal? A Basically, I was trying to give (Eastwood) everything he wanted and at the same time show that things weren’t going so easy on the home front for them. Q Did you meet with Lorraine Sullenberger?
A I wasn’t able to. It just never worked out because of my schedule, but there is a great deal about her in (Sullenberger’s) book, and a lot of it is very informative. Q Was there other background information?
A There are lots of online interviews with her and there’s a YouTube thing of her introducing her husband right after he came home. You could see the whole weight of the ordeal was on her shoulders, too.
Q Were you familiar with the incident?
A As a New Yorker, I was very aware of the water landing and all the positive things that happened. And like everybody, I got swept up in the astonishing thing Captain Sullenberger was able to do.
Q And then there’s the negative side of the story revealed in the movie.
A Yeah, when I read the script I was surprised. I didn’t know about the stress that occurred long after the event — the hearing and the fact that he was separated from his wife.
Eastwood?Q How was it reuniting with
butA He’she has prettya lot much more the experiencesame, as confident.a director, so he seems more
Q Do you still have fond memories of collaborating with him on Absolute Power?
workA I’m withso gratefulhim earlyI was in ablemy to career.him I’ve What used I over learnedthe last from 25 years. Q What specifically did he teach you?
A He taught me how to relax, which is a challenge on a set. But when you’re relaxed you do your best stuff. Q Does he still move things along?
A Yes, he does. But that’s good. (He) makes you focus because you’re only getting one take, two at the most. Q Does that mean he trusts his actors?
A He hires you because he wants what you have to offer. So you do, indeed, have to be prepared and do the work when it’s time.
Q Was it odd to be in a film with Hanks but never on camera with him? A (Laughs) It was. But we were on the phone with each other. Q What’s next for you?
A I have a small but wonderful part in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals and I just finished a movie called The Dinner with Richard Gere and Steve Coogan, which should be (in theatres) next year.
(Eastwood) hires you because he wants what you have to offer. So you do, indeed, have to be prepared and do the work when it’s time.