"Freaks and Geeks’" Linda Cardellini takes the Marketplace Quiz
"Freaks and Geeks’" Linda Cardellini takes the Marketplace Quiz
No matter who you are, you’ve probably had a rough day at the office that changed your perspective, or maybe you made an impulse purchase you really, really wish you could take back. This week, actress Linda Cardellini takes our money-inspired personality questionnaire. You might know her from classics such as “Freaks and Geeks,” and most recently she stars in the Netflix show “Bloodline,” whose third season is out now.
Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy you _____________
Big parties.
Do you throw a lot of big parties?
I have before. I have a giant families. I like to throw a big party.
What is the hardest part about your job that no one knows?
Finding new ways to field any kind of rejection. I think you have to constantly be evolving your defenses without putting up a wall and still being vulnerable. That is sort of an evolving skill because not everybody is going to love everything that you do. So you have to sort of forge ahead and at the same time let it roll off of you while still being vulnerable. That’s a balancing act that I’m always trying to understand.
What was it like when you first started as an actress?
It was hard, but I was resilient because I was determined that I would do it. There’s this part of you that, you know, they say that you have a little bit of a screw loose in order to believe that you can fight against all those odds and do something that seemed impossible, but for some reason, I thought somehow it would be possible. You sort of start to concentrate on the positive things that happen, and you try to eliminate the negative ones as you go along. But that’s not always easy.
What is something you bought that you now completely regret buying?
Oh, wow. That’s a big, long list. Well, right now I have a 10-foot table in my front room that is taking up the majority of my front room. My friend aunt was getting rid of a lot of her things and I thought, “Well, that’s a beautiful table, let’s take that home.” And it’s actually just served to collect 10 feet worth of things that we should actually be putting away.
What is your most prized possession?
I have about eight place settings of this Depression-era milk glass that my grandmother collected [while] going to the movie theater back in the day. [Back then it was] an incentive to get people to come out. They would give them gifts because, you know, so many companies were going under during that time, and so in the ’20s and ’30s they gave away this milk glass as you went to the movie theater. So I have eight place settings that my grandmother collected going to the movie theater as a kid in San Francisco. To me, that’s one of my most special things that I have, because it reminds me of my grandmother and also it reminds me of her sort of struggling and coming up. My grandmother kept everything perfectly.
Is there any advice that you wish you had received when you graduated college, whether it be about work or life, that you think 2017 graduates should hear?
You know, the world’s really wide open. Whatever it is you studied or whatever it is that you are passionate about, if it’s not what you studied, that’s OK, but find what it is that you love because life is too short. Do what you love and do it passionately if you can. That will take you further spiritually than anything.
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