Laura Linney at the Toronto Film Festival 2007 Photo by Matt Carr

READ MORE: The Savages Director Tamara Jenkins

LAURA LINNEY

Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) returns home to her drab New York apartment from her dead-end temp job. On her home voicemail is a message from the retirement village of Sun City, Arizona: Her father (Philip Bosco), slowly slipping into dementia, has written an obscenity with his own feces on a bathroom wall. With this news, Wendy and her estranged brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hofmann) are confronted with the realization that caring for the cantankerous father, who never cared for them, has become their duty.

Linney chats about her role as the daughter-sister of this small dysfunctional family unit in Tamara Jenkin's darkly funny film The Savages, as well as the horrors of working with cats, wedding bells, and Oscar rumors.

What was it like playing an adult character who still has so much growing up to do?
It is actually fun; you get to bring out the most childish and most petulant aspects of yourself.

Did the group get to rehearse much together?
We did a little bit. We did some. We met in Tamara's apartment a few times, and then basically went off and did our work on our own and then came on and there was enough that we had all done separately that we were then able to jump in and have a good time with each other.

How was it working with Philip Seymour Hoffman as your foil? Is he a serious kind of guy to work with, too?
No, I don't think he's that serious. I found him great fun. And Phil and I come from a similar philosophy of work and how to work, so we were very comfortable with each other and had a really terrific time with the banter. And the script was wonderful so we had a lot work with.

Flawed characters are always more interesting to play, but your character in The Savages is rather deeply flawed. Her flaws are out there for everyone to see. Some of your other characters in the past have been, as well, like in You Can Count on Me.
But she was much more together. She was flawed, but she wasn't neurotic. I mean Wendy is terrific because she's not your typical protagonist. Neither is Phil Hoffman's character. She lies, she cheats, she steals, she's a fraud, she was in an adulterous relationship. But for some reason you go with her — because she's not a malicious person. She doesn't have the tools to live and she makes the most ridiculous choices. And the thing that I always thought was interesting is that she would set up situations so that she could watch someone behave well. She would say "I am sick," [because] she would want someone to go: "Well, I'll take care of you." She would set up these situations, so that someone would give [something] to her. She wanted to see people behave well, so she'd create drama to see the decisions that people would make.