Like-minded Linney, Hoffman become 'Savages' and siblings

HOLLYWOOD -- Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are among Hollywood's most respected actors. Versatile and chameleonic, they have tackled an array of roles in various genres throughout their careers. Hoffman, 40, won an Oscar two years ago for his dead-on portrayal of author Truman Capote in "Capote." Linney, 43, is a two-time Oscar nominee (for "You Can Count on Me" and "Kinsey").

Linney, a New York City native, hails from a theater family. Hoffman grew up in upstate New York and studied drama at NYU. Both got their training in the theater before becoming Hollywood stars.

Linney and Hoffman are stalwart performers who have taken roles in lavish studio productions as well as independent projects with minute budgets. The key for both is to find intriguing scripts. They appear together as emotionally underdeveloped siblings who have to learn responsibility in the comic drama "The Savages," which opens today in limited release.

Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins ("Slums of Beverly Hills"), the serio-comedy examines a pair of adult siblings, Wendy and Jon Savage, who are suddenly plucked from their self-absorbed lives and forced to care for their estranged elderly father (Philip Bosco).

Hoffman says he read the script several years ago, but when "The Savages" didn't come to fruition right away, he moved on to other projects. A few years later, the script resurfaced with Linney attached to star.

"I always had wanted to do it, so I was glad that it came back around," Hoffman says.

Of Linney, he says, "I think we have a very similar work ethic."

Linney agrees: "We're somewhat like-minded, so it was very easy."

Very easy except for the hectic 30-day shoot in Arizona, New York City and Buffalo.

"These films are made very quickly, and it often feels like one long day," the actress observes. "You become so sleep-deprived when you do these marathon shoots."

Still, the material proved irresistible. Linney began thinking about how she would play the part of Wendy, a single, aspiring playwright with few responsibilities aside from taking care of her pet cat.

"My actor brain just turned on," she recalls. "All of a sudden, ideas started coming, and I heard the rhythm and the sounds. For a script to be that evolved that early on is very rare. It's happened a few times, luckily for me, but it's not typical."

Wendy and Jon's journey to place their father in a nursing home also resonated with the actress on a personal level. She not only saw her once vital grandparents move to a nursing home, but she also witnessed her stepfather's decline from the effects of dementia. The experience wasn't entirely grim, though.

"Dementia can be so funny," Linney says in her bubbly way. "My stepfather thought he was in Paris; it was fantastic. It made me feel better that he was in some sort of place that was not painful."

Hoffman hasn't had the experience of placing a relative in a nursing home but says it's "impossible to go into a film like this and not think of your family."

Because she typically is cast as a smart and strong-willed woman, Linney thought it was a nice change to play someone vulnerable and emotionally stunted like Wendy.

"My character has this romanticized vision of what her relationship is with her father and what has to be done … she's not your typical protagonist, that's for sure," she says. "She and Jon are at different stages of arrested development. While he's coming off that sense of abuse, she was just ignored."

When she first considered "The Savages," some people suggested she pass on the project because she had so capably played a character with sibling issues in "You Can Count on Me."

"I was like, 'What? Do I never play a wife again? Do I never play a lawyer again?' " she recalls.

Both Linney and Hoffman have been working on back-to-back projects, and they admit they're feeling a bit fatigued.

Linney recently wrapped production on "John Adams," a miniseries in which she plays the second president's first lady, Abigail. She is set to return to the New York stage next spring for "Les Liaisons Dangereuses."

Hoffman can be seen in the upcoming political drama "Charlie Wilson's War," and is next slated to star in the film adaptation of the play "Doubt," in which he will play a priest facing accusations of child abuse.