When Linda Cardellini first auditioned for DTF St. Louis, she was given 15 pages to acquaint herself with. “It was a lot of text for an audition,” she says. “One of the scenes, I think, was eight pages long.” But creator Steven Conrad’s audition scenes would turn out to be the best indication of what the writer-director was out to capture with his darkly comedic drama. “That’s how Steve writes,” Cardellini tells Deadline. “At first, you think, ‘Oh wow, how are we going to do this? We don’t move.’ It’s amazing that his words are so beautiful to play that you can sit there with them for that long…He takes these beautiful, tragic and hilarious moments and makes them feel so human.”
The limited HBO series, which is set up as a murder mystery from the start, stars Jason Bateman and David Harbour as weatherman Clark Forrest and ASL interpreter Floyd Smernitch. These two friends are trying to pull themselves out of middle-age malaise by signing up for a dating app that allows married couples to have affairs. Of course, it all ends poorly. Cardellini plays Floyd’s wife Carol Love-Smernitch, whose intentions initially seem unclear – even somewhat suspicious. Here, Cardellini breaks down the professional challenges that came with playing an “impassive” character and the roles that await her next in Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake and Bill Hader’s feature directorial debut They Know.
DEADLINE: What did you learn about Carol from those 15 pages you were given to audition with?
LINDA CARDELLINI: I mean, not a ton. [Laughs]. I knew she was a hard, sort of impassive, almost opaque character, in some respects. I knew that she was exhausted in her relationship, but this other relationship with Clark was something new. I remember asking questions and trying to figure who she was. The writing leads you, in so many ways, to who the people are. And with Jason and David, you understand who they are, even though you don’t know who’s done what yet. But Carol, you can’t quite get into who she is, right away. That, to me, seemed really fun to play. I knew that there was a difference in how she behaved with Clark from how she behaved with the police or how she behaved with Floyd, for the most part. There were a lot of different sides to her.
CARDELLINI: I thought the writing was so beautiful. In reading the script, what you think is going to happen isn’t what ends up happening. You think you know Carol and you don’t know who she is. I loved the way that it was written. Certain words repeated. It almost felt like a dialect, how they spoke, and that was fascinating to me because – especially going into an audition – you don’t know if your take on it is right at all. So, I really loved the idea that I could experiment with something and see if I was on the right track. There are many ways you could play something like, “No way, Jose” – it could be big, it could be small. I just felt like this is who she is and how she talks. It was really fun to make all of those things seem commonplace for her.
I remember reading the script and realizing that Floyd knew all along and what a brilliant surprise that was – especially for everybody who had judged Carol, even more so than Clark.
CARDELLINI: Not everybody warms up to her, and that’s by design, but Steve always contends that he loves Carol, so one of my first questions to him was, “What is her social lubricant? What is something that people who love her notice about her?” We talked about how she has this thing where she likes to do voices. So, I found parts in the script where these voices could come out and I said, “Is she good at them?” And he said, “No, not at all.” That allowed me to have this lighter side to Carol in my mind about who she was – because she does these things that are funny, but she doesn’t know they’re funny. I mean, her in the umpire outfit is not funny to her at all. And that’s also really fun to play – that you have this giant costume on, but the sentiment is very small and real. It is a fun juxtaposition.
DEADLINE: Why do you think Carol doesn’t give things away?
CARDELLINI: I think she desperately wants to feel in control of herself and her life. To her, being in control means taking care of her family. Her son is the number one thing in her life. Everything that she does is in service of taking care of him. People think she’s manipulative or greedy in the first few episodes, but if you really watch, Floyd tries to give her these beautiful diamond earrings, and she doesn’t want anything to do with them. She’s trying to save up for her son’s school, and she really just wants to buy a better bedspread for his room and more grown-up furniture. Everything she’s doing is in service of the family. I also don’t think that she’s a people pleaser. She says what she wants to say. She doesn’t really disguise any of it or camouflage it with any niceties.
DEADLINE: With sex scenes, the conversation is usually about whether they are gratuitous or not. But here they’re imperative to the storytelling. How did you feel the sex scenes were different from what we usually see?CARDELLINI: Exactly what you said. I felt like they were really vital to the story. I feel like that refuge of the Quality Garden Suites was an interesting place for them to be. And you think it’s one way and then you realize that it’s not a two-person party, that’s a three-person party. I think that changes everything. I remember reading the script and realizing that Floyd knew all along and what a brilliant surprise that was – especially for everybody who had judged Carol, even more so than Clark.
DEADLINE: What was the professional approach to this? Was it different from other sex scenes you’ve done?
CARDELLINI: They handled it so beautifully. There were storyboards and we would have a meeting where we would talk about the storyboards and Steve would say, “This is what we need. We don’t need any more than this. Here’s what we’re going to see. Here’s how we’re going to do it. Do you feel comfortable?” And the answer was always, “Yes,” because it was so well-thought-out and you knew exactly what to expect going in on the day. There were no big question marks as to how any of it was going to be handled, and I think when you know how things are going to be handled and you appreciate and respect the scene within the larger picture of the show, and what it means to the show, it made for such an easy way to do something that could otherwise feel intimidating.
I love [Bill Hader]. I think he’s so talented and so smart and the script was really wonderful. I thought it would be so much fun to work with him and it was. The set was so much fun to be on. We just wrapped [They Know] and nobody wanted it to end.
DEADLINE: You’ve said that you really had to let go of your vanity shooting some of these scenes. What does that mean for you?
CARDELLINI: I think there’s a lot of things you worry about, being on camera, whether you’re young, old, male, whatever. I think anybody taking a picture of themselves, they’re always scrutinizing themselves in the picture afterward, right? I think it’s one of those things where you know you’re going to be in situations that are incredibly intimate, which I don’t typically do a lot of that, so that can feel unusual, but the idea of doing that… On one hand, it’s a sexual situation that is heated and on the other hand, it’s basically this story about a man talking about how he’s turned off by his wife’s attire for her job, and the disconnect between those two things, I think, is really interesting.
She is trying her best to make ends meet by doing a job that she really doesn’t feel like doing. She doesn’t know anything about baseball and she has to put on this outfit every single day – which, by the way, is a process. It takes a lot of time. You have to put the balls in the belt, you have to put the shin guards on under the pants, you have to put the big chest guard on under the shirt. That, in itself, can be exhausting. And then she’s got to run around on the field with a bunch of kids. But she thought she was doing what was good for her family and it turns out that, to him, it is the biggest turnoff. I think that’s a really fascinating way to look at a character and to look at the problems within the relationship.
DEADLINE: You’re doing Crystal Lake next. What is that project like, tonally?
CARDELLINI: I think it’s a mix of things. There are slasher elements and there are dramatic elements. There are funny elements. I think it’s an interesting mixtape of all the things that Brad [Caleb Kane] as a fan wanted to bring to a series, as opposed to a two-hour movie.
DEADLINE: What drew you to playing Pamela Voorhees?CARDELLINI: I had never played anyone like her and the idea that she is there at the beginning – in the very first movie, she is the original murderer – and the idea that we don’t know much about her, and in knowing something about her you will know more about Jason, I thought was interesting.
DEADLINE: You just co-starred in Bill Hader’s feature directorial debut, They Know. What was that project like?
CARDELLINI: I love him. I think he’s so talented and so smart and the script was really wonderful. I thought it would be so much fun to work with him and it was. The set was so much fun to be on. We just wrapped and nobody wanted it to end.
DEADLINE: Can you tell us anything about the character or plot line?
CARDELLINI: He and I play husband and wife and it’s sort of a psychological horror.
DEADLINE: You also completed Way of the Warrior Kid, with Chris Pratt, what can you tell us about that?
CARDELLINI: That was really fun. It’s a sweet family movie. I knew Chris a little bit from Guardians of the Galaxy and mutual friends, so it was really fun to get to work with him and Jude Hill who plays my son. Chris and I play brother and sister. He’s a wonderful actor and it’s a really sweet story based on Jocko Willink’s books that sets out to try to help kids feel more capable.
DEADLINE: What’s joyful about this stage of your career?
CARDELLINI: A lot. I have been hit with a lot of feelings of gratitude lately. I really am appreciative of my job and being able to work as much as I do and to be able to have the very roles that I do and to work with such talented people. I love acting. It’s been my dream since I was a little kid, and to be able to have made a life out of it… It’s not lost on me how lucky I am. And I’m being totally serious. I know it sounds very positive, but that is how I feel about it at this point. You have your ups and downs. People have to allow you to do this for a living. People have to hire you, people have to watch you, and I’m just very grateful to everybody for all of those opportunities.
DEADLINE: Lastly, would you want to do a cameo in the new live-action Scooby-Doo?
CARDELLINI: Oh, I would never rule that out. I loved that cartoon growing up more than anything and the idea that I got to be in the movie was so shocking to me – and that kids who grew up with it talk about it to me, to this day. I’m so excited for Abby [Ryder Fortson] and the rest of that cast because they are going to really be part of something that is television history. I’m very excited for them and I’ll be there in support of it in any way I can.
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