‘Blood’ Related: Sissy Spacek and Linda Cardellini Talk About Their Netflix Show, Carrie, and Kissing Bob Barker
Actress Linda Cardellini in Season 2 of Bloodline. (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
“We know nothing,” says Sissy Spacek. “Nothing.”
She’s been briefed by Netflix publicists — who remain in the room during our interview — to steer clear of spoilers for Bloodline, the binge-watch delight about an extended family with some cursed skeletons in their Florida Keys closets.
Spacek’s co-star, Linda Cardellini, is here, too. She plays Spacek’s daughter, Meg, and says, “we’re friends in real life and we honestly love each other” — and she means it. That’s why we interviewed them together, and found out they have more in common than they knew. (Hint: TV game shows and prom queen problems.)
Bloodline is addictive! Is the set as intense as the show?
Linda Cardellini: No, but it does get hot down there in the [Florida] Keys. So hot and so humid. And that atmosphere often makes things feel intense.
Sissy Spacek: The biggest challenge for us the first season wasn’t the intensity; it was acting together onscreen as a family. We’re all so different — Linda, Sam [Shepard], Kyle [Chandler]. … We all really do like each other. But working together as a family —
L.C.: In the first season, Sissy and I would try to copy each other’s movements and gestures. She’d have her arms crossed, so I’d cross my arms. We would try to mirror each other all the time.
S.S.: We thought it was so good; that it made us look so related … and then it all ended up cut from the final scenes!
L.C: And we worked so hard. [Laughing.]
S.S.: Right from the beginning though, it was easy to “be” related to Linda. You know, she’s like a little pixie. She’s fun and she’s sweet, and then I met these big, sweaty men who were supposed to be my sons. These hulking men. And to relate to them in the same way was difficult at first … and then sometimes they’d come to blows.
What?!
L.C.: Well yeah, they’re in the middle of these very heated scenes. The air is stifling. So hot. And they’re just ramped up in the scene, their energy level is at a hundred percent, and they got very close, a couple of times, to fighting each other!
What stopped them?
S.S.: They’re all incredibly talented, fine actors who are in charge of their bodies. And they’re all genuinely good people. Both of those things stopped them.
Wow. Coach Taylor almost punched someone. …
S.S.: I know! Coach Taylor! Boy, I love Coach Taylor, don’t you? I love him. He’s not in this [show], though. Kyle in this show is a different man.
Can I ask you the strangest question? How do movie stars get health insurance?
L.C.: That’s a cool question! [Laughing.] It’s weird! But it’s cool! We get it through the union, through the Screen Actor’s Guild.
S.S.: So you have to keep working if you want to hold on to your health insurance.
L.C.: It’s the most stressful thing when you’re younger. It was, I mean, for me.
There’s no special movie star insurance once you win an Oscar?
S.S.: You know, when I got my first Oscar, I was still thinking, “Okay, I need to figure out my health insurance.” You can win every award, but your work is what gets you health insurance! Not your Oscar!
L.C.: Give us another [strange question].
Actress Sissy Spacek in Season 2 of Bloodline. (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)
Uh … Sissy, did you know that Linda won a fireplace on The Price is Right?
L.C.: I did! That’s true!
S.S.: Oh yeah? Well, I was on The Dating Game. I won a trip with an ex-motorcycle cop, but I didn’t go. And while I was in the soundproof booth, a producer asked me out on a date, too! But I didn’t go!
L.C.: I kissed Bob Barker. But that’s just because I was really excited that I won a fireplace.
And before Sissy was Carrie, she was her school’s actual homecoming queen.
L.C.: Me too! St. Francis High School!
S.S.: We really could be related! See? Yes, I was homecoming queen. …
L.C.: Okay, but can I tell you that when it happened, I was afraid it was a prank, and they were going to pour blood on me, like they did in Carrie?
S.S.: Oh no. I made you nervous for homecoming!
L.C.: I remember when the crown hit my head, the relief — “Oh, thank goodness, it’s not like the movie.” Because that movie had such an effect on me. You were so good. Your expression when you think you’ve actually won —
S.S.: I met a young woman who rolled up her sleeve, and showed me a tattoo. A Carrie tattoo. But it wasn’t of her with the blood. It was her smiling, in her beautiful dress. And I said two things to her. I said, “Thank you.” And then I said, “Do your parents know you have a tattoo, and do they blame me?”
L.C.: Your expression when you realize what’s about to happen — it’s heartbreaking. It’s so good.
S.S.: Everyone sees a little bit of themselves in Carrie, I think. Every girl thinks she could be a victim like that at some point. Hopefully, they also learn not to be as cruel, you know?
L.C.: It’s haunting.
S.S.: No, you want to know what’s really scary? [Laughing] I got a Google Alert yesterday for myself. I clicked it, and it was the shower scene in Carrie. The shower scene! I just laughed and laughed.
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