An Actress Who's As Great as the Sum of Her Parts

"Honestly, I don't think there's any one thing I can point to," she says. "For different people, it's different things."

Whether on the stage or the screen, one part of the acting craft Linney often returns to in the interview is the crucial nature of "connection," the process of give-and-take between performers.

"There's a connection made when you're working in the arts, as an actor, dancer or musician," says Linney. "When you're interdependent on one another, you become close in a way that you don't in any other profession. You just don't. You rely on each other and you're vulnerable with each other. You're kind to each other and you're harsh."

And the secret to this connection? "Simple. Just listening to each other, because, if you're truly listening, any decision you make is the right one. You usually get about 10 seconds of this feeling, if you're lucky," she says with a ringing laugh that fills every nook of the theater. "But the moment you think about how connected you are, you're not."

The connection sometimes extends into real life. Linney has enduring relationships, she says, with Jeff Daniels (her narcissistic husband in "The Squid and the Whale"), Philip Seymour Hoffman (her co-star in "The Savages") and Liam Neeson, who performed with Linney in "Kinsey" and a 2002 Broadway production of "The Crucible." And her experience working with Mark Ruffalo on "You Can Count on Me" was so intense, she recently told Entertainment Weekly, "I always see him and I always tear up."

Asked about this, she explains: "I tear up around Mark because of what a pure and wonderful person he is. I have never met anyone like him. He's a warm, unique human being and he touches me deeply."

She pauses, weighing her words.

"That was a very difficult, weird time making that movie. It was fantastic. Some of the best material I've worked on, and there was stuff in my life that was difficult. And he was wonderful."

That friendship took place just before her divorce with stage actor David Adkins (they were married in 1995), we observe.

"It was before," she responds. "I had had my house burn down. It was just one of those years. My life was seismically changing and I wasn't even aware of it. I had no idea that my marriage was about to fall apart. And unfortunately it did."

She declines to discuss this further, or her recent engagement to Telluride real estate agent Marc Schauer. "I'm being protective," she explains. "It's not easy to have your name all over the papers."

(Linney's new life in the Rockies -- where she lives with Schauer between acting engagements -- has made for some memorable power meetings. When director Tom Hooper came to offer her the part of Abigail Adams in the upcoming TV miniseries "John Adams," he recalls, "she turned out to be a massive fan of the musical '1776.' And she walked down Main Street singing two of the songs, word perfect, . . . by heart.")

Daniels says Linney's attention to connection enhances other performers' work as well: "Too many actors act like they're in front of the mirror. Laura takes down the mirror. Her reactions are as important to her as her actions. And she makes you better. All you have to do is plug into her, and connect with her, and you'll become better. It's Ping-Pong. Meryl [Streep] is the only one that does it this well -- that back and forth."

Like Streep, Linney is often categorized as an actor's actor. Respected, revered within the trade. And yet her many awards don't include an Oscar, though she's been nominated twice (for "You Can Count on Me" and "Kinsey") and has two Emmys. Perhaps she'll get to grip that golden statuette if she ever chooses to work from the outward in, rather than the inside out. That would mean considering those exclamation point roles -- an alcoholic, perhaps? Or a prostitute. Or anyone in a big, flowing gown.