LAURA LINNEY
With three Oscar nominations and roles in more than 60 movies (The Savages, Mystic River, The Truman Show) and TV shows (The Big C, John Adams, Frasier) to her credit, the New York City native, 52, now joins the cast of the action comedy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (June 3). She plays an NYPD police chief fighting organized crime.
When we think Laura Linney, we think big films or dramatic TV. But Ninja Turtles?
It just seemed like fun, and it’s probably the only movie of the 40-some that I’ve done that my son [age 2] can watch. Every once in a while, it’s nice to take a break from the heavy emotional stuff.
How would you describe your character?
She’s a woman in a typically man’s world. She’s a New Yorker, she’s tough, she’s jaded, and she’s invited to look at the world in a different way when people tell her about the massive, masked turtles fighting crime in her city.
What was it like playing a woman dying of cancer in The Big C?
She saw everything very differently. Every part tends to have a very specific view of the world, and Cathy’s was completely influenced by the fact that her life is threatened and her time is running out.
Your dad was a playwright, so you’ve always been around acting and the theater. Did you ever have a plan B?
I don’t know what else I could do. Thank God it worked out for me. I’m sure I would have adapted somehow, but I can’t imagine not being able to act.
It seems as if you’re not interested in celebrity.
My situation is I’m wellknown but not famous, and that’s a nice way to be. People are very kind to me. My life is not limited by the work that I do. I ride the subway and I move around, so I have no bad feelings about any of it.
A: Maybe! The two were close friends—despite the fact that Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd, left him for Clapton. Guitar and vocal parts on one of the tracks on I Still Do, Clapton’s new album, are credited to Angelo Mysterioso, a pseudonym similar to one the late Beatle used on a previous collaboration with Clapton, who’s keeping mum on the topic.
Is it true that George Harrison is featured on Eric Clapton’s just-released album? —Carson J., Huntsville, Ala.