Speaking of Laurence Fishburne, the scene you to have together is very intense. What was it like working with him?
Lin Shaye: He was awesome. He was totally professional. I met him while he was wearing his hazmat suit when I got out of my trailer, and he came over, shook hands, very low-key, very quiet and just said, “Would you like to run lines?” And I said yes, so we went and sat into little chairs in the corner in the middle of a hot, hot day in New Mexico, and he had those little hand fans to keep himself cool. There was not a peep of complaint or impatience. He’s a total actor. He was there to work with me and work out the material with me, and I got great feedback from him. He was very excited by what I did, which was very exciting to me. All in all, he is a true class act in every way.
You played Mrs. Neugeboren in Dumb and Dumber. Are you going to be reprising that role in the upcoming sequel, Dumb and Dumber To?
Lin Shaye: No. I think they’re done shooting. I don’t even know the storyline, but I’m wishing them really well with it. The original Dumb and Dumber is one of my all-time favorite movies. Mrs. Neugeboren, or as Jeff Daniels lovely called it, Mrs. Neuburger, was how I met the Farrellys. They really changed my career because then after that was Kingpin, and then there was There’s Something About Mary, and those films really put me in the light. I had been an actress for a long time. I did theater in New York for years before coming out here. I never even thought about films to be honest. I was a theater actress all the way, but now I love making films. It’s such a great puzzle. It’s really hard work.
People think the life of a film actor is easy, but they are wrong. It is really hard, gruelling, investigative work. It’s like being a detective and it’s never the way you think it’s going to be which is part of the excitement, and fear (laughs). You think you’ve got it all figured out in your living room until you get there and you’re facing left instead of right. It’s definitely a whole new ballgame when you get on set with all the commotion because you’ve got a ton of people on set. Your focus has to be very clear and pure, and the bottom line is it’s about you and the relationship to the other people onto the story. It takes a lot of focus and endurance, so it’s definitely not an easy job, but it’s so much fun and so fascinating to me. I hope I love it till the day I say bye-bye (laughs), and I hope no time soon. I always say I’d like to be 115 and still know my lines.
You’re absolutely right, being an actor isn’t easy.
Lin Shaye: It’s really not. I’m not so interested in the movie star part to be real honest. It comes with recognition and appreciation which is of interest to me, but I don’t want to have to dress up all the time (laughs). It’s fun once in a while, but to be hounded by paparazzi and fans is really not so much fun. Sometimes you have to deal with that if that’s where your career is taking you, but that’s not what’s of interest to me. What’s of interest to me really is figuring out the detail of the character and making that work. It’s like doing a great crossword puzzle, you know? That’s kind of my crossword puzzle.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Lin very much for her time. Be sure to check out The Signal, as it’s now playing in theatres!
