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[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes with the stars and creators of the hottest shows on Broadway, off Broadway, and beyond.

[0:17] Gordon Cox: I'm your host, Gordon Cox.

[0:19] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to the actor Laura Linney. On screen, she's appeared in movies including The Truman Show, You Can Count on Me and Love Actually, and on TV in shows like Tales of the City, The Big C, and Ozark, winning four Emmys along the way.

[0:35] Gordon Cox: If you're a theater fan, you've probably seen her on stage too, in Broadway shows like The Crucible, Time Stand Still, and a couple of years ago in Manhattan Theater Club's ripping good revival of The Little Foxes.

[0:46] Gordon Cox: Now she's back in the same Broadway theater, starring in My Name is Lucy Barton, a one-woman show based on the novel by Olive Kitteridge writer Elizabeth Strout, opening January 15th at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.

[1:00] Gordon Cox: Laura is here with me in a rehearsal studio at MTC, so please forgive any traffic or radiator noise you might hear as we talk about her favorite co-stars, the things you learn from shows that don't work, and why My Name is Lucy Barton still scares her.

[1:14] Gordon Cox: Hi Laura, thanks for being here.

[1:17] Gordon Cox: So I thought we could start out talking a little bit about how My Name is Lucy Barton came about, because it's sort of this transatlantic project. It's based on an American novel and it's starring an American actress, but it premiered in London at the Bridge Theater directed by British director Richard Eyre. So how did all this come together to make this project happen?

[1:38] Laura Linney: So it's a funny story, actually. I got a phone call from my agent about three years ago, maybe, two and a half years ago, maybe three now. And she said, you know, I just read this article that Elizabeth Strout said in answer to a journalist that they asked her if anyone was ever to play Lucy Barton, who would you like to see do it? And she said Laura Linney. And so my agent called Elizabeth's agent and they set up a lunch for the two of us and we met. Did you know her work before that?

[2:05] Laura Linney: Yes, I did. But we had a great lunch. We had this wonderful time. And then every once in a while there'd be a bit of a pause, and we'd sort of look at each other, and then finally Liz looked at me and said, so you want to play Lucy Barton? And I looked at her and I said, I'd love to play Lucy Barton. And then there was a pause. And we had this lovely three-hour lunch where we just talked and talked, and then we left. And I got a text from her later that afternoon saying, Laura, I'm so sorry there's been some misunderstanding. And it turns out that she thought I was there to pitch her some way for me to play Lucy Barton, and I thought I was there to hear her tell me how to, you know, so it was a funny misunderstanding. So I left her a text back saying, you know, well, how funny, and it was so nice meeting you, and thank you so much, and all the best, and I hope our paths cross again.

[3:00] Laura Linney: And about five months later, I was filming the second season of Ozark in Atlanta, and I got a phone call from Nick Heitner who said, Laura, I've just commissioned this book. We're gonna turn it into a one-woman show, and Richard Eyre's directing, and we'd like to do it in London, and it's My Name is Lucy Barton. And I sort of paused and I said, does Liz know about this? And he said, no, she doesn't. I said, you're kidding. So the fact that it had come to me twice, you know, when something like that happens, you sort of have to stop and take it very seriously.

[3:34] Gordon Cox: As you were thinking about it in that first lunch, did you think it would be theater? Did you think it would be the one?

[3:39] Laura Linney: I had no idea. I would have guessed. I didn't know. I feel like, you know, I'll keep for towards a mini-series, like maybe it was TV, right?

[3:44] Gordon Cox: That's right, that's right.

[3:45] Laura Linney: I didn't know. I thought Liz had some idea about what she wanted to do with the material, and she was going to tell me what that was going to be, and she thought I had some idea about how I wanted to do Lucy Barton, and then I was gonna tell her. And then it turns out that Nick Heitner had his own idea. And he hired Rona Munro to do the adaptation, and he hired Richard Eyre to direct it, and Richard and Nick both thought that I would be a good fit for the material. And it was a three-week run at the Bridge, which is this beautiful new theater that Nick Starr and Nick Heitner created, it's just gorgeous. And it was three weeks that fit perfectly into my schedule, into a very crazy schedule. It fit just dropped right in. And I realized the only thing that would keep me from doing it was just sheer cowardice. So I accepted it right away so that I wouldn't change my mind and I wouldn't think about it too long.

[4:40] Gordon Cox: And what makes it a good play?

[4:43] Laura Linney: Oh, that's a really good question. Like why is that story suited to the thing? I don't know. I'm not an audience member, so I don't know. I mean, my only experience is in the execution of it. Do you have a sense of what in the story in the novel lends itself particularly to being on stage?

[4:58] Laura Linney: Well, I think it sits within a very deep truth. I think it sits within an emotional truth that makes you re-familiarize yourself with the pain of growing up and growing into the person who you become and what you have to leave behind and what you have to step into. I think there are just some very deep truths about that carried in that language that resonates when spoken aloud. You know? Not only when you read it is it powerful, but when it's spoken aloud, it also hits. There's a poetry to the language which is so beautiful. That's very contemporary and yet slightly heightened. It's very poetic in a very stealth way. You don't realize just how masterfully this language is put together until you really sit and break it apart and put it back together again.

[5:51] Gordon Cox: Do you have a sense of why two different people thought of you in particular for Lucy Barton?

[5:54] Laura Linney: I don't. I have no idea. But I'm certainly glad they did.

[5:58] Gordon Cox: Now that you've played the role once already on stage and you're coming back to it again, what feels like the thing that shines with you in Lucy?

[6:10] Laura Linney: Oh, I don't know, you know, I don't know. This will be my third time doing it. I did it in London once for those three weeks, and then I wanted to do it again before it came back here, just to see if it would get easier with more time, and it does not. Yeah, that's what I've learned. What I've learned is that it does not get easier, which is sort of good to know. You know, the reality of it is it's just hard to do. It's hard to execute any one-person show.

[6:37] Gordon Cox: Is it specifically about being a one-person show?

[6:40] Laura Linney: Yes. Yes, absolutely it is.

[6:41] Gordon Cox: And what is gained by it being a one-person show, do you think?

[6:45] Laura Linney: Well, I think it's appropriate that it's a one-person show. A lot of what Lucy Barton is dealing with is her own coming to terms with herself and moving from one identity to the next, you know, evolving into your own identity, and just the pain of growing up that has no influence with anyone else. It's very intimate that way. There's sort of a sacred pact between me, the language, the story, the audience, the space. And it's appropriate that it's one person.

[7:19] Gordon Cox: I was thinking back over all the things I've seen you do on stage and, you know, some of the stuff I haven't been able to see, but none of it seems to be of this. Have you ever done a one-person show like this?

[7:28] Laura Linney: No, yeah, and so no, why I would not like why would anyone do that to themselves? I mean, honestly, why would you do that to yourself? It's really, in some ways, it's completely bonkers and goes against in many ways why I do theater to begin with. I do it to be with other people, really. So it's been very outside my comfort zone, and it's been very good for me because of that.

[7:52] Gordon Cox: And what is it in particular about the experience? Is it the loneliness that makes it so hard? Tell me more about what's so hard about it.

[8:01] Laura Linney: Well, in some ways there's no one else up there to help define me. You know, I'm not seen in relationship to anyone else. And what that does to your sense of time and your internal rhythm of time, like I go out there, I know it's an hour and a half. I can't believe I talk for an hour and a half nonstop. That just seems, you know, insane on many different levels. But I have no sense of time when I'm out there. It's very weird, and you have to just trust it, and you have to let it carry you through. But I come off stage and I just think like what just happened? Like I just, what was that hour and a half?

[8:43] Gordon Cox: Does it go fast or slow?

[8:45] Laura Linney: I don't even know. Some version of the thing. It just goes. You're like, I don't know what happens. You know, you can't have a thought of your own out there, or you get bucked out. So you really have to not let anything get in the way. You have to get out of its way every single step.

[9:05] Gordon Cox: And there's no one around to help you with a line if you draw one, right?

[9:08] Laura Linney: There's not.

[9:09] Gordon Cox: And does your relationship with the audience feel at all different in a show like this as opposed to something like that?

[9:15] Laura Linney: Drastically different, yeah. Because it's a lot of direct address, which I've never done before and I've always been terrified to do. I mean, I really, because I like being, I don't know. I like being in a world that has nothing to do with anybody else. You know, I like being, I don't like acknowledging the artifice of what's happening. So I like a fourth wall. I love a fourth wall. But this is direct address, and I've actually, you know, I've grown a lot doing it. I mean, it's really, it's broken some spells for me. I mean, I've been able to sort of, you know, I can go on stage and look into people's faces and not be terrified anymore. And that's a big step for me.

[10:03] Gordon Cox: Is that a thing that you can carry over now into other parts?

[10:08] Laura Linney: That's a good question. I don't know. I'll find out when I do another fourth wall show, I'll see. It'll be interesting to see how it affects me somehow. We'll see. And you play two different characters in this to a degree, one might say. How do you think of this? Are there two do you think of multiple characters? Because there is in the I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but I have read it and I know that you know it's a memory play.

[10:33] Gordon Cox: So you're playing her memory of these people? Is that what you how you think of it as?

[10:36] Laura Linney: I don't really think of it. I just do it. I don't know. I don't know. I think I try to act it out as I know when I think back on memory. You know, it's my memory, but it's that person. Right. You know, it's that person who I'm thinking about, but it's my memory of them. You know, so I try not to question it too much.

[11:08] Gordon Cox: And so then is the process of sort of differentiating between voices and sort of physicality, is that more intuitive for you or?

[11:08] Laura Linney: Yes. Yes. And specific. You know, it's intuitive, but it is I've worked at it. Of course. Yes.

[11:26] Gordon Cox: How the over the when you came back to it the second time, did it change for you? And do you anticipate it changing again?

[11:33] Laura Linney: Oh sure. It's a living thing. Yeah. You know, plays are living things. You know, they take on a life of and you want them to. You want them to take on a life of their own. You know, there's this wonderful period of time. You work on the play, you work on the play, you work on the play, and then hopefully you get to the place where the play stops and starts to work on you. And you just get out of the way and let it guide you. Um I'm sure I'll learn a lot. I'll be in a different space, which will feel different in a different country with a different audience. So it's gonna be a very different experience.

[12:07] Gordon Cox: Right. This is a theater you know, though. Because the last time you were on right. You've been in a few times, and the last time was in the Little Foxes a couple years ago. Um we're actually in the rehearsal room that you were in for the Little Foxes right now.

[12:20] Laura Linney: Yeah, you're sitting in Dan Sullivan's seats.

[12:23] Gordon Cox: That's what I do. Um that's a good place to be. Um and so of course, part of the part of the concept behind that was the sort of role swapping of it. Did you find that the kind of challenges of that and the takeaway of that from you for you, is that something that you could then go on is that unlike any other gig, or could you then apply that to another role that you've done or how you approach um.

[12:48] Laura Linney: No, that was completely different. That's what I wanted to do. I loved it. And I loved it. Yeah because I loved what it did to everybody. It wasn't just about Cynthia and I switching parts. The whole company had to shift. You know. The dynamics changed across the board. So it was really fun to have version A and then version B, and they were their own thing.

[13:08] Gordon Cox: And that helped keep everyone on their toes, I imagine.

[13:10] Laura Linney: Yes. And it so it wasn't just Cynthia and I who were switching. I mean, Richard Thomas had a different wife and a different, you know, and Francesca had a different mother, and you know, everybody it was it was just great fun. I loved it. I had no idea what a good play that was. I really I really didn't know. It was fantastic.

[13:32] Gordon Cox: Is there for Lucy Barton, was there a thing that you discovered in either of the runs that you did that you are looking forward in particular to exploring further here?

[13:44] Laura Linney: Well that's a good question. You know, a lot of it is just seeing like can I get out how much more can I get out of its way? You know? How can I sort of surrender and let it you know, I'm just there to execute it. You know, and let the power of the story, like not to um really just let it go and and see if I can the more relaxed I can get, the better it will be. So hopefully I'll, you know, in a theater that I know very well in a city in which I grew up with an audience, you know, who I love working for, you know, hopefully it will stew even a little bit more.

[14:27] Gordon Cox: Right. And of course you've worked many times with Manhattan Theater Club, which is praising this. Is that does it feel like something of an artistic home for you?

[14:35] Laura Linney: Oh sure, yeah. Yes, absolutely.

[14:38] Gordon Cox: What's valuable about that for an artist to have?

[14:40] Laura Linney: Well, security. I mean emotional security. I mean you know the people, you know how things work here, you know and and the space. There's a lot to be said about being familiar with the theater itself.

[14:52] Gordon Cox: Right. You know the acoustics, you know the scale, you it's familiar.

[14:58] Laura Linney: You know, it just is familiar. And I would imagine, not never having performed on the Friedman stage, but it's a particularly intimate sort of Broadway house. It feels at least.

[15:10] Gordon Cox: I imagine you feel that also on the stage.

[15:12] Laura Linney: Yeah, absolutely on the stage. You know, and it's and I know the space, I know where every seat is.

[15:16] Gordon Cox: Right.

[15:17] Laura Linney: You know. So I if I'm looking out, like I know where I'm looking.

[15:20] Gordon Cox: Right.

[15:21] Laura Linney: And you know, I even and I know the front of front of door house, like I know the guys who take the tickets, I know the people in the box office, I know, you know, I know the crew, like I've known them, and they've known me for a long time.

[15:34] Gordon Cox: Right.

[15:37] Laura Linney: I'll have more with Laura right after the break.

[15:46] Gordon Cox: And I'm back with Laura Linney. You work in film and TV all the time, but you're always it seems like you're always making time to do theater. Why is that important to you? Why is that what keeps bringing you back about it?

[15:58] Laura Linney: Well, I'm a theater actress. I mean, primarily. I mean, that's really what I am as a theater actress. And I'm just lucky enough to be able to work in film and television. But you know, it's this is what I do. Um it's where I you know sort of learn the most, and it's where I'm challenged in ways that I like to be challenged, and um, and I love the community, and I think theater is important. I think theater is just very important. I believe in it deeply, and it has taught me every valuable lesson of my life. So I need to be close to it.

[16:37] Gordon Cox: How has your experience and training and grounding in theater influence the way you work on your screen projects?

[16:45] Laura Linney: Oh, it's interesting. You know, they're very different. Yeah. They're very, very different. And the job requirements are different and the expectations are different, and um but what theater has that the other two don't is time. And that's a very powerful thing. You know, what time does to a production, what time does to the execution of a performance. You know, that's something you can't just create. That's something that has to be earned, and you have to be patient, and you have to, and it but it's it has a magical effect. And it's it's deeply gratifying. You know, I always tell people do not go to an opening night. Go two months after. Like let a show have time, let it gel, let it stew, let the actors get deeply comfortable.

Let them bond to each other, to the material, the language, the space, like let time make it rich and good. Um so I'm so happy that I get to do this again. I'm really so grateful for it, because of that. Because A, it's been marinating in my bones a bit and now I get another opportunity to hopefully take it to the next level.

[17:58] Gordon Cox: Do you ever want to do a solo show like this again?

[18:01] Laura Linney: I can't imagine I would. I really can't imagine I would. I'm so glad I have done it. It it so I mean I don't mean to sound over dramatic about it, but it is such a frightening thing to do that it doesn't seem real really. Like I can't think about it too much or I'll psych myself out.

[18:19] Gordon Cox: Do you um yeah, I was just gonna ask if you needed to take an unusual amount of care with yourself in terms of like I mean you're talking for an hour and a half. Maybe you need to maybe not talk so much during the...

[18:27] Laura Linney: I have a five-year-old.

[18:30] Gordon Cox: Right.

[18:30] Laura Linney: You know, and little children are Petri dishes of infection. So I'm you know, I have a little awareness of that and and it's really you have to stay very healthy and um you sort of have to live your life bit of like an athlete. Um and so you learn a lot.

[18:48] Gordon Cox: Do you have a routine to sort of get the day off you and move into the acting space?

[18:55] Laura Linney: Well, it would be great if I was the only person on the planet, but I do have a family, so you know, so I'm up early and I have to, you know, get my son to school and and and my husband's extremely helpful and I'm sure he'll take him to school on certain days and let me sleep in. But you know, there's life. And um but I guess I always get I've always gotten to the theater early, no matter what I'm doing. Um and I run through this on my own completely once through before I do it at night. So I just to get it just to wake it up and wake me up and yeah.

[19:30] Gordon Cox: Have you had many terrifying alone moments on stage?

[19:33] Laura Linney: Absolutely. Yeah, and I'll have more. You know, that's the thing. There's the reality. You know, I'm you're a human being and you're gonna go up and you're gonna make mistakes and you're gonna and you just have to learn how to sit in the discomfort and let it pass.

[19:47] Gordon Cox: Right.

[19:47] Laura Linney: And have faith that something will save me.

[19:52] Gordon Cox: Oh God.

[19:54] Laura Linney: So far something has every time though, right?

[19:56] Gordon Cox: So yeah.

[19:57] Laura Linney: Yes. Yeah, so you have to hope, but you know, it's a wild thing. You can't think about it too much, or you really do get unnerved.

[20:06] Laura Linney: Um I don't actually know the story of how you came to theater and how you came to acting.

[20:20] Laura Linney: Well, you know, I would I would love to say it had nothing to do with him. But of course that's not that would be foolish of me to say. And I'm sure his influence had a great deal to do with it, and I was exposed to it. But there is a feeling there is a sort of vocational pull, I've got to say. Like I don't think of it as a profession. Uh you know. It is a profession, and I'm and I certainly you know know the responsibilities of business, and I I, you know, understand all that. But there is a a sort of vocational pull to it for me. You know. Are there projects uh that you consider particularly formative for you in your development as an artist? They all are. Yeah. They really even the bad ones.

Even the ones that are really bad. And I've been really bad in some things. I've been in some bad productions that have been painful and would you like to elaborate on that? No, I mean I mean everybody are famously bad productions. I was in a really bad production of The Seagull, I was in a really bad production of Heda Gobbler, I was in a fairly mediocre production of Uncle Vanya. I've I've been in some really painful, bad performances with wonderful people. They just didn't work. Yeah, and they just don't work all the time. And sometimes you are bad in them, and no one wants to be that.

[21:38] Gordon Cox: What do you learn from those then?

[21:41] Laura Linney: Well, you learn it's not all that you are. You know, you learn that it is a thing. You try and learn lessons along the way if you've misstepped or if you've gone if you've been distracted and gone the wrong way, or you know, you've learned you you learn a little bit about red flags and how to notice them and then how to avoid them in the future. And sometimes things just don't work out. You know, so in some ways what it it makes you be is kind and for a little more forgiving of people. You know, nobody no one wants to be bad in something. No one. Yeah. No. And yeah, no one is trying to be bad and setting out to make a bad play, right? Or a bad show. You know, it just sometimes it just doesn't work.

[22:22] Gordon Cox: Right. Yeah. Are there uh parts that have surprised you with the sort of longevity of you know people recognizing recognizing you for and that people have really connected with over the long term?

[22:35] Laura Linney: Well, Love Actually certainly has a following. It sure does. And Mary Ann Singleton has a big following. Yeah. And hosting Masterpiece Theater, that's the thing that's the most surprising. I have nothing to do with that show. I went on and did like, you know, a little uh nod to Alistair Cook, and and that's the thing that surprises me the most. And then turns you into a meme or something like that. Yeah, like it I I think of it as it has the least to do with me, and and it's and I get um reminded of that a lot. And I'm very happy for it, don't get me wrong, but I just I sort of I I find it puzzling. The uh sort of longevity. And I can't quite tell if I'm being made fun of or if it's genuine. I think there's and I think it's both. I think it's both. I think they're I think they're holding both in there and I think if it's it would do that to anyone who was doing that, right? I know. It's it was it was uh that's a s that's the biggest surprise.

[23:31] Gordon Cox: Right. Yeah. Um you mentioned Marianne Singleton. I imagine the the sort of just sheer longevity of Tales of the City as a screen property must have surprised you all those years ago, right?

[23:43] Laura Linney: Oh no, I was just with Armistead last week and in London, and I you know there was surprise, I just I was like, I can't believe this. It's almost 30 years of us knowing each other and doing this. And you know, it's it has given me a lot. Can you tell me? Can you tell me more?

[23:57] Laura Linney: Well, it i you know, I never ever thought I would do film and television. I mean, I I just found it I was thoroughly intimidated by the idea. I didn't have much interest in it. I just loved the theater and that's where I wanted to be. And Tales changed all of that for me. I because I enjoyed it. You know, I did it and I I thought, oh, maybe I could could I really enjoy this? Could I actually do this? And the relationships that I made while making it, the friendships that I made have, you know, been seminal in my in my life and big deal. Yeah.

[24:34] Gordon Cox: And what do you recall what specifically it was that you enjoyed about the process that you're talking about?

[24:40] Laura Linney: It was fun. That was like that was the this is fun. That can't be fun, yeah. I was like, oh, this is fun. And the challenges of telling a story out of sequence. Yeah. You know, the the the technical requirements of filmmaking. And you know, creating something when you don't have time. Right. You know, with the theater you have time. It's built into the process. It's intrinsic to the experience. And with film and television, so much of it's out of your hands.

[25:07] Gordon Cox: Right. Well that was going to be an my next question is how hard how hard did you find it to sort of surrender your performance to you know the editor ultimately?

[25:14] Laura Linney: Well no you just know that's just the reality of it. So that's what you do. You know, so you do the best you can and then you hope it's passed on to someone who has a good eye and a sensibility and and is connected to the material the way that you are who have been some of your favorite co-stars to work with there's so many.

[25:30] Laura Linney: Yeah. You know Mark Ruffalo and Phil Hoffman and Liam Neeson and Richard Gere and I mean there's so many people. I've just worked with Janet McTeer for you know on Ozark. I love Jason Bateman. I mean I can go on and on and on. They're just I just I I really love actors.

[25:50] Gordon Cox: What over your years of being on stage, what do you consider your sort of the most memorable mishap?

[25:59] Laura Linney: Mishap? Yeah like so something you've lost a line or something. There are all sorts of crazy stories about stuff. But I think the the thing I remember the most is I was in a really bad production of Heda Gobbler in college and in undergrad or in undergrad I went to Brown. Yeah, okay. Right. But the gun didn't go off. I think I had to I think I ended up yelling bang or something ridiculous. You like can't believe like the gun's not bang. I mean something you know absurd and uh you know community theater-ish. It was it was funny. I mean, but everybody remembers that performance.

[26:42] Gordon Cox: I imagine.

[26:46] Laura Linney: Oh Lord. Oh Lord. God help us all. Have you ever thought about writing or directing?

[26:50] Gordon Cox: No. Why not?

[26:54] Laura Linney: I still feel like I have so much to learn. Honestly. I have so much to learn. And I sort of feel like if I don't have a real deep desire to do it, like why would I take that space from someone who does? And you've produced a couple of the projects that you're involved in. Is that a thing you're also interested in in the world?

[27:12] Laura Linney: Doing more. I really do enjoy that. Yeah, what is it about that that you've enjoyed? I just well, it's just, you know, when you've done something for a long period of time, you just have an understanding of how it all works. And so I've I find that my mind can be helpful to a production. You know, I I understand the timing of things. I understand what makes a crew happy. I you know, you know, I there's certain things you just you're you become more and more aware of the more you do it. Um so you know, hopefully I can help there in some in some way.

[27:39] Gordon Cox: You mentioned uh season three of Ozark, which is not how yep, but uh you finished filming it, I imagine by now.

[27:46] Laura Linney: Yes, I had a great time. Yeah. Yeah. And you're not getting any more out of it.

[27:53] Gordon Cox: Not at liberty to say.

[27:55] Laura Linney: What is it about that role that you enjoy? Oh, well, I love how immature she is. You know, I love that she's really powerful and really strong and a mess. Yeah. You know, she's really immature. She's impulsive. She makes terrible decisions, but she's smart and she has grit. And uh I I I love that.

[28:19] Gordon Cox: Yeah. And so you've got that coming up. You've got uh My Name is Lucy Barton. What else do you have coming up?

[28:25] Laura Linney: Um what else is I can do? There are two small parts. I was able to do uh one scene in Vigo Mortensen's movie called Falling, which he directed and wrote. I think that's going to Sundance. And then I did a small part in a Sally Potter movie called Um Molly. I think it's still called Molly, uh, with Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning. Great.

[28:44] Gordon Cox: Yeah. What's your next play?

[28:46] Laura Linney: I don't know. I'm not sure. One at one at a time.

[28:50] Gordon Cox: Yeah. Are you are you uh an actor who has a you know, oh I want to do these a bucket list of the Shakespeare plays you need to do or the opposite roles you need to do.

[28:59] Laura Linney: I like an assignment. Okay. Like I like an assignment. Like anything Dan Sullivan wants me to do, I'm gonna do.

[29:07] Gordon Cox: Yeah. What is it about your collaboration with him that has been so?

[29:11] Laura Linney: Yeah, I just love him. I just love him. And I trust him completely. Yeah. You know, the man has such a theatrical mind. It's really it's just great.

[29:23] Gordon Cox: How many projects have you worked with him now?

[29:25] Laura Linney: That was the three. Yeah, right. Three of the and then the two Donald Marshall. Sight unseen, Time Sand Sill, and um Little Fox.

[29:32] Gordon Cox: Right. Yeah. Well, we look forward to seeing uh My Name is Lucy Barton and your next show at the Friedman Theater. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[29:39] Laura Linney: You bet. Bye.

[29:44] Gordon Cox: That was Laura Linney, now starring in MTC's Broadway production of My Name is Lucy Barton. If you like what you're hearing on this and other episodes of Stagecraft, I'd so appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or tell a friend about us. Next week, I'm talking to the playwright Bess Wall, who's making her Broadway debut with her play Grand Horizons. Until then, see you at the theater.