Editor’s Note: At the time of writing, Laura Linney declined an interview in support of the Screen Actors Guild labor union strike. All information gathered was pulled from previously published stories and releases.
Headshot from UTA
Linney Laura
The New Albany Foundation’s yearly lecture series will open its 2023-2024 season with a Q&A session between interviewer Neda Ulbay, an award-winning journalist at NPR, and interviewee Laura Linney, an actress who stars on the hit Netflix show Ozark.
This season will be the 11th year of the annual lecture series. Over the years the foundation has brought well-known and respected medical researchers, journalists, economists, politicians, military leaders, authors, actors and more to New Albany.
Broadway to the Silver Screen
Linney was born and raised in New York City with a father who was a playwright, immersing her in the art of theater from a young age. She attended Brown University and The Julliard School before starting her acting career on Broadway.
Linney made her debut on the silver screen in the early ‘90s in movies like Congo, The Truman Show and Love Letters. She has since been credited as an actress in 75 movies, TV shows and TV show episodes, an executive producer in three TV series, and a host in two TV series, according to IMDB. She continues to add to her repertoire, with two starring roles in upcoming films: Wildcat, expected to hit theaters this fall, and Suncoast.
She is also highly decorated with two Golden Globes, two Emmy’s and nominations for 19 other awards including Tonys and Academy Awards.
In addition, she received the Tower Cancer Research Foundation’s Humanity Award for her cancer advocacy efforts.
The Big C
Linney uses her platform to bring awareness to funding cancer research as well as promoting cancer detection and prevention. She previously starred in the leading role of the Showtime series The Big C, which tells the story of a terminally ill cancer patient who lets go of her inhibitions and embraces the limited amount of time she has left to live.
Cancer advocacy is an important cause for Linney who has seen friends and family be affected by the disease. Growing up, her mother was a nurse treating cancer patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Both of her grandfathers died in their 30s due to cancer and she lost her father to lung cancer.
In addition to her role in the show, she has also been featured in an ad campaign for melanoma awareness and has presented in front of audiences across the country.
Keeping happy and healthy
In an interview with Huffington Post UK, Linney shares that her mother’s friend passed away at a relatively young age due to melanoma. At the time of her death, Linney was filming The Big C, and this gave her some perspective on how detrimental the disease can be.
In the same interview, Linney says she doesn’t always do the best job of balancing work and her health. However, she loves her career and keeping that passion for acting has been great for her overall health. In an interview with WebMD, Linney shares that one of her healthy habits is meditation.
Contrary to what others in the limelight might experience, Linney says she’s not afraid of aging. She believes growing old is a privilege because time is so valuable.
She hopes that someday the culture and shame in Hollywood around growing old will change. While not everyone can relate to battling cancer, Linney says we can all relate to mortality and reevaluating priorities to focus our time on what’s important.
Meet the interviewer!
Neda Ulbay
Dolby Photography
Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulbay was born in war-torn Jordan to an American mother and a Syrian father. After moving around the Middle East to escape violence, her family eventually relocated to Kansas where she grew up among other Middle Eastern immigrants. Ulbay later studied at Bryn Mawr University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago.
Ulbay worked at numerous publications before she started reporting for NPR’s art desk, where she has been reporting on culture, the arts, politics and economics for almost 25 years. In addition to her reporting, she has written and contributed to numerous academic journals, taught humanities at the University of Chicago and served at-risk high schoolers. In 2012 she hosted the Emmy award-winning documentary series Arab American Stories on PBS.
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
