NBCU; Netflix; Warner Brothers; BI
Linda Cardellini had been patiently waiting for the chance to play somebody terrible.
After three seasons embodying the sweet, passive Judy Hale opposite Christina Applegate's hotheaded Jen Harding on the Netflix comedic thriller "Dead to Me," the actor, 49, was ready for something new.
"I was like, 'Well, won't it be fun if I can be a real jerk?'" Cardellini tells Business Insider.
She got her wish thanks to "Dead to Me" creator Liz Feldman, who dreamed up the role of Margo in her newest Netflix dark comedy "No Good Deed" with Cardellini in mind.
The selfish, manipulative, and deliciously glamorous Margo is one of several people vying for a 1920s Spanish-style home in Los Angeles that grieving couple Lydia (Lisa Kudrow) and Paul (Ray Romano) put on the market, and she'll do just about anything to make it hers.
Sporting designer clothes, long nails, and a fake tan, Cardellini's Margo commands attention in any room she walks into, though the true extent of her cunning isn't made clear until later in the series.
Saeed Adyani /Netflix
It's exactly the kind of role Cardellini was longing to play, and she's grateful she could reunite with Feldman, now a close friend, for the opportunity.
"Who wouldn't want some incredibly talented person to be writing for her? It just is a dream," Cardellini says of Feldman. "She writes really challenging and good roles. Especially as a woman my age, it's just wonderful to have that."
For the latest interview in Business Insider's Role Play series, Cardellini reflects on how the heartbreaking cancellation of "Freaks and Geeks" changed her approach to her career, playing an unlikable character (and murderer) in "Legally Bonde," and the best business decision she ever made.
NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Business Insider: You got your big break on "Freaks and Geeks," and I read that you passed on two other promising projects in favor of that show. Do you think your career would look different if you hadn't done "Freaks and Geeks?"
Linda Cardellini: That's a great question. I would imagine so, although that show didn't do well back in the day. It really didn't. Now, it seems like a success, but back then, it did not seem like that to a lot of us and to the general public. [Laughs.] We could have never imagined that people would still be able to watch it on demand anytime they wanted somewhere. That just didn't exist at the time.
So I do think that things would've been different if I had never taken on that role. I don't know how, but definitely it's one of my favorite roles that I was ever in and one of my favorite shows I was ever involved with.
I just can't imagine if I had taken one of the other jobs and then had to watch somebody for years and years and years play that role instead of me. Not that I watch it — I don't — but I think that would've always been a massive regret.
Can you share what the other shows were, for context?
They were shows that didn't make it, actually, funny enough. I had gotten a phone call from somebody at the network being like, "You really should look at those other two shows. They're much more promising." And luckily, they were wrong.
How did experiencing that cancellation early in your career impact how you viewed the industry? What did you learn from that disappointment?
That's a good question. It's interesting because I learned a lot from that. I learned in some ways to go with my gut about how I felt about a script because a lot of people told me I was wrong — not that they thought the script was bad, but they thought other things were going to move forward faster or better. And that, I don't know how or why, just didn't matter to me in that at that time.
That show spoke to me for different reasons. I was reading a lot of things about teenagers where they were super cool and they were doing things that I just didn't relate to. I related to more of the "Freaks and Geeks" version of being caught in the middle of not feeling a hundred percent comfortable in your own skin, not doing the cool things, and not having all the right answers. And also, the fact that there was something about her where she still loved her parents even though she was trying to get away from them was interesting to me.
What that also taught me is nothing's guaranteed. You can love something, you can have the best experience on set. Everybody, as we have all seen now, everybody's done so well. What a talented, fun group of people to be with. And then it could be canceled. So nothing's a given, but if you do good work, maybe somehow it comes back, and people care about it.
On the flip side of that, I also learned that maybe I'll be a little careful with my heart because I was so heartbroken when it was canceled.
There's a picture that I saw that you can tell from my face that I've been crying all day on the last day of shooting. Since then, I kind of realized, OK, things just get canceled. You can't do anything about it. I sort of guard my heart sometimes in terms of not wanting to get my heart broken again.
Pivoting to "Legally Blonde," you have a very memorable scene where we find out that your character, Chutney, is the murderer. What was it like filming that moment and having that big perm?
That was my real hair. I have straight hair, so every piece of it was curled, and it was a long process. I didn't mind. As ridiculous as it could look, I didn't have any vanity about that.
MGM
I remember going to see it in the theater for the first time because I had missed the premiere for some reason; I think I was working or something. I went with a friend of mine, and we were sitting in the audience, and when I came on screen, someone was like, "Ew!" in a full theater, and I thought, "Oh my God."
On one hand, my feelings were really hurt because it was a visceral reaction someone was having to me on screen. And then on the other flip side of the same coin, I was really proud that I was willing to have this crazy look on screen and that maybe I did gross some people out.
Well, you did the job. She's not supposed to be the most likable person.
That's right, thanks. But that was really fun. I got to sit in there and work with everybody, and it was a really high-stakes scene.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Another fan-favorite role of yours is Velma in the live-action "Scooby-Doo" movies. There's been renewed appreciation for them more recently, but when they were released, they didn't get the best reviews and the second one didn't perform as well. Did that affect you at the time, when the movie's performance didn't go the way people thought it would?
I loved the second one. Velma had so much fun stuff to do in the second movie. By now, I was aware of the process of you could love something and somebody could hate it. It's always just the way it's going to go. And also, if everybody hates something, you might find one person who loves it. People really love those movies, and they're typically people who are younger who loved them when they were kids, which, how cool to have that place in somebody's heart?
I had so much fun making that movie, both of them. I got to play a character who was extraordinarily broad, broad comedy, where I was a cartoon, which was really fun for me. I'd come from doing "Freaks and Geeks," which was very grounded, and we weren't even allowed to wear very much makeup and looked like real kids. And then on the flip side of that, I got to play something that was my favorite cartoon as a kid.
That's all you have at the end of the day, is the experience you have on set. The rest of it is out of your control. You don't know how things will be edited. You don't know if you'll make it into the movie or not, especially when you're just starting out. I've learned that the best thing you can do is have a great time making the movie and having the opportunity to do your art.
That's all I ever wanted to do since I was a kid, so the idea that somebody gives me that opportunity, I can't take for granted.
A few years ago, screenwriter James Gunn said that he wrote Velma as "explicitly gay" in the original script, but it got watered down by the studio, became ambiguous, and then she got a boyfriend in the sequel. Were you aware of the studio pushback at the time?
I was not involved in any of those conversations. I was aware of the intentions and some of the stuff that was in the script that later got cut, for sure. But no, I wasn't in on any conversations like that at all.
There were lots of things that got cut. I think that the original script had a lot more things that sort of pushed the envelope in a lot of different directions. And then it also had that Velma was gay, and I think that those were things that were in the original script, but then the movie sort of geared towards children more at a certain point.
Marvel Studios
A lot of people know you from playing Laura Barton in the MCU. And in the "Hawkeye" series, we got to learn a lot more about her. It's been a couple of years since we saw you in that role. Have there been any discussions with Marvel about bringing Laura back?
No, I haven't had any discussions. But I was lucky enough to be back with them on "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and that was really fun.
There's nothing like going to one of those premieres. Any time I get to be involved with any of those, they're just so enormous and impressive and phenomenal. I finally took my daughter with me to the last one because I was like, she's got to see this because it's just an incredible experience, the fans that are there. It's really huge.
What's the best business decision you ever made for your career?
To stick with it. There are times that it's undoubted that you're going to hear no. You get a certain resilience to it, but it definitely hurts. So I think the most important thing that you can do is just stay with it, stick with it. Try to do the best work that you possibly can.
Having been in this business for decades now, it's really nice when the wonderful relationships you have with people work out and you get to work with them again, and you get to have something written for you, and you appreciate them, and maybe somebody appreciates you. That's the real stuff. You spend a lot of time with people at work and when you're able to surround yourself with people who are creative and kind, it's the best.
What advice would you give yourself when you were starting out as an actor, knowing what you know now?
That the fears you have are also part of the fun. Sometimes I tell kids, those butterflies you feel before you go onstage, what an exciting feeling. You're feeling some kind of danger, but you're not really in any danger. You're only in danger of somebody's opinion. And that can be scary, and it is. But what an exciting thing to be able to do, to put yourself out there and to be able to express yourself. So, it's OK to be afraid.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
"No Good Deed" is now streaming on Netflix.
