Linda Cardellini could stand beside a Scooby-Doo poster without anyone noticing she was the actor who played Velma. For her, looking so different from the character meant she could step away from work and keep her life private.
“I kind of go under the radar, which I love.” — Linda Cardellini
“Back when I did Scooby-Doo, I was costumed and I could stand right next to the movie poster and nobody paid attention,” she said. “But now those kids have grown up and seen it so much that I actually get recognized more for that now than I did back then.”
The 51-year-old discussed that balance on SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett after winning her first Primetime Emmy for DTF St. Louis.
Her career spans 30 years, from Lindsay Weir in Freaks and Geeks to roles in ER, Bloodline, Mad Men and Dead to Me. Mad Men and Dead to Me had previously earned her Emmy nominations.
Asked whether acting means exploring herself or becoming someone else, she chose “Other people.” She explained: “Which inevitably has yourself in it because you’re only yourself, but what I’ve tried to do is just play as many different versions or people as I can.”
Her Emmy-winning role put her alongside Bateman and David Harbour in Steven Conrad’s HBO miniseries. Accepting the award proved harder to prepare for than she’d hoped: “I had it on my phone and I was going to try to read it… my hands were shaking and I was crying,” she recalled.
She compared the joy of hearing her name called to being picked for The Price Is Right in 1994. Then a Loyola Marymount student, she’d skipped class with friends to join the audience and ended up winning a gas fireplace.