{"id":2867,"date":"2026-06-03T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/03\/linda-cardellini-loves-a-challenge\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:40:00","slug":"linda-cardellini-loves-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/03\/linda-cardellini-loves-a-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Linda Cardellini Loves a Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tDTF St. Louis<\/a><\/em> might have been in a categorical pickle if it weren\u2019t a limited series. As anyone who\u2019s watched the seven-part HBO series can attest, it can be both devastating and deliriously funny. That\u2019s not easy to pull off. Unless, of course, you\u2019re Linda Cardellini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tIn some of the series\u2019 more memorable moments, Cardellini is swimming in an oversized umpire\u2019s uniform. It\u2019s something her character, Carol, wears for the part time job she\u2019s taken to make ends meet \u2014 providing physical comedy to a woman navigating a lost marriage and a troubled son in a manner that keeps things from ever getting too dark. \t<\/p>\n

\tCardellini\u2019s eclectic career has been punctuated by quite a few tragicomic performances: Dead to Me<\/a><\/em>\u2019s Judy Hale, perhaps the most notable. But in DTF St. Louis<\/a><\/em>, where she\u2019s one point of a love triangle that also includes Jason Bateman and David Harbour, she treads an even finer line. This is something Cardellini quite enjoys. \u201cI feel grateful that I\u2019ve had a career for this long, for sure,\u201d she says. \u201cBut the idea that I\u2019ve been able to do this for many decades, and things are really fun right now? I\u2019m especially grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tDuring a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter,<\/em> Cardellini spoke about her work on DTF<\/em> (she trained with a real umpire!), the movie that most frequently comes up when she\u2019s stopped by fans and why she\u2019s got two horror projects lined up.<\/p>\n

\tLooking back at the time between a first audition and getting an offer, what\u2019s been the longest or most circuitous route to a role you\u2019ve ever taken?<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

\tThe longest are ones that I don\u2019t get. When I first started, I think I went in for a television show almost 10 times \u2014 and then did not get it. That year broke my heart. The following year, I got Freaks and Geeks<\/em>. So I think I learned early on that when you go in too many times, it\u2019s not going to be you. And that\u2019s OK. But you still get your heart broken.<\/p>\n

\tAnd you were like, what, 20 years old when they had you come in 10 times?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tBack in the day, it was just a big, long process, which I\u2019m happy to be out of at this point in my career. Offer only as a huge perk of having a long career, but it doesn\u2019t always happen.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tLinda Cardellini in DTF St. Louis<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Tina Rowden\/HBO<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tI read somewhere that people thought you\u2019d left the industry when, in reality, you were starring on six seasons of ER late in its run.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tI had somebody say, \u201cWhere did you disappear to?\u201d And I didn\u2019t know that that had happened. (Laughs<\/em>.) Meanwhile, I remember going to Europe and people coming up and saying, \u201cEmergency room!\u201d Sometimes, what the industry is talking about is not necessarily what people who come up to you on the street are talking about.<\/p>\n

\tWhat were the indications that you got from the industry that you had no longer \u201cdisappeared?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tWhile I was on ER<\/em>, I was also in Brokeback Mountain<\/em>. So, by that point, if you believed that I had disappeared, I think I was back in your eyesight. I\u2019ve been lucky to be able to support myself since I started. So I may have disappeared here and there, but I was probably still working somewhere on a set. \t<\/p>\n

\tWhat did you think DTF St. Louis<\/em> was going to look like when you were making it? Tonally, it\u2019s one of the more unique shows I\u2019ve seen in a while and I imagine there could have been many different versions of it depending on the edit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tI loved the script so much. I loved how it was written. I remember reading Carol and thinking, \u201cI know who she is.\u201d By episode three, she\u2019s this one person. Then, when it gets to be four or five, you realize she\u2019s different than you thought. The idea that she\u2019s not as dishonest as you think she is was fascinating to me. Because what you\u2019ve seen [up until then] is this manipulative, kind of greedy person. And that\u2019s not exactly who she is. The men, you get to know them really easily. But her, not so much.<\/p>\n

\tIn your experience, is it often not like that?<\/strong>

<\/strong>Somebody like Judy in Dead to Me<\/a>,<\/em> you know her. You know her heart. You don\u2019t know what she\u2019s done, necessarily, but you know her heart right away. Somebody like Carol, she\u2019s impassive in a lot of ways. I thought that the show had a beautiful tone. The outcome of anything you never truly know, but I just thought that everybody involved was so incredibly talented.<\/p>\n

\tThis show could have strictly focused on male loneliness and mostly followed Jason and David\u2019s characters, making you the wild card. What did Steve tell you about Carol when you were talking about coming on board? <\/strong>

<\/strong>Well, Steve always contends he loves Carol. He loves her as a character. So, his care for her and us discussing her always made her feel vital to that triangle. Even though the men and their relationship is really the center focus, I think her being the third in there really helps with the mystery. It helps you see what is happening beyond just the two of them. \t<\/p>\n

\tMost importantly: what did you learn about umpiring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tI learned it\u2019s a good way to make cash. You get to be out in the sunshine. I learned how to do strike and the counter in my hand. I took a little class with a local umpire. It was great. I don\u2019t know that I could really ump a game, but Carol wasn\u2019t the best umpire either.<\/p>\n

\tThe show was billed as limited, but, by all accounts, was incredibly successful. Do you think there\u2019s a world where it keeps going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tI think that would be wonderful because it would be fun to see what Steve would do with it. As far as the St. Louis crowd goes, we are limited for sure. It\u2019d have to be DTF Omaha<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\tSome of your most prominent TV work \u2014 Freaks and Geeks, Dead to Me, DTF<\/em> \u2014 really straddle the line between comedy and drama. That\u2019s more common now, but it wasn\u2019t at the top of your career. Has this throughline been by design or accident?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tI never really thought about it like that. Thank you for noticing. (Laughs<\/em>.) At the helm of those shows, they had people with very specific voices who had a very specific vision of what they were going to do. What they thought was funny. What they thought was dramatic. And I think that really is something that separates it. And those [people] also chose me. So there\u2019s something, I guess, about me that sort of straddles that line.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tLinda Cardellini in DTF St. Louis<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Tina Rowden\/HBO<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tYou\u2019ve been in a lot of cult hits and many mainstream successes. So, if you\u2019re at the mall, what are people approaching you about the most? What comes up the most with interactions with strangers?<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

\tScooby-Doo<\/a><\/em> comes up a lot. A lot. It\u2019s shocking to me because, when it came out, it wasn\u2019t the same as it is now. Those kids have grown up. They watched it so many times when they were young and now they\u2019re grownups. It means something to them that it did not for the grownups watching it during the time. That\u2019s one that I have noticed, as years have gone on, I\u2019ve gotten more and more and more. But it\u2019s also Judy from Dead to Me <\/em>and then Freaks and Geeks<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\tIn recent years, you\u2019ve really leaned into horror: La Llorona<\/em>. You\u2019re filming the new Bill Hader movie. You wrapped Crystal Lake<\/a><\/em>, the Friday the 13th<\/em> prequel series<\/a> for Peacock. Were those roles not your thing earlier in your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tYeah, I didn\u2019t really do that. I didn\u2019t really do that. So now I\u2019m doing it! Sometimes they\u2019re just really great roles for women. With La Llorona,<\/em> it\u2019s just this story about this woman trying to protect her kids. And we shot it in L.A. and it took place in the seventies and all those things just seemed fun to me. With Crystal Lake<\/em>, A24, Peacock and [creator] Brad Caleb Kane all came together and they just had this concept for making this story about Pam Voorhees. And if you watch the original movie, it really operates like a whodunit. Spoiler: at the end, you find out that it was Pam Voorhees.<\/p>\n

\tA character who\u2019s barely seen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tShe\u2019s only in the movie for the last little bit, but she leaves this impression on the entire franchise. There\u2019s so many movies subsequent that you\u2019d think Jason\u2019s always been in that mask doing what he\u2019s doing. But that wasn\u2019t the case. I don\u2019t think he gets the mask a few movies down. It just seemed like something that I had never done. I haven\u2019t seen that many female slashers like that. To dive into who she might have been, I thought, well, that\u2019s something I\u2019ve never done. When I\u2019m looking for things to do next, I ask myself what\u2019s something I haven\u2019t done yet. And that was one of them. \t<\/p>\n

\tTo your point, the original Friday the 13th<\/em> is just about a pissed off mom who\u2019s seeking vengeance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tYeah, because they let her son drown! There\u2019s fertile backstory there!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text DTF St. Louis might have been in a categorical pickle if it weren\u2019t a limited series. As anyone who\u2019s watched the seven-part HBO series can attest, it can be both devastating and deliriously funny. That\u2019s not easy to pull off. Unless, of course, you\u2019re Linda Cardellini. In some of the series\u2019 more memorable moments, Cardellini is swimming in an oversized umpire\u2019s uniform. It\u2019s something her character, Carol, wears for the part time job she\u2019s taken to make ends meet \u2014 providing physical comedy to a woman navigating a lost marriage and a troubled son in a manner that keeps things from ever getting too dark. Cardellini\u2019s eclectic career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1693,1694,1695,2,1696,1697,85,335],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-lake","category-dead-to-me","category-dtf-st-louis","category-hollywood","category-linda-cardellini","category-scooby-doo","category-tv","category-tv-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}