Linda Cardinalelli has appeared on many critically acclaimed shows over the years, and she still gets called to audition for roles.
“Not always,” she had to audition for her current role on the HBO miniseries “DTF St. Louis,” she exclusively told Page Six at Monday’s Gotham Television Awards.
The 50-year-old actress also had to audition for the role of Sylvia Rosen, Don Draper’s love interest in Mad Men, adding that the audition took place immediately after giving birth.
“It’s never been my favorite thing to do,” Cardinalelli confessed. “It’s very vulnerable.”
Still, there are things she appreciates about the process.
“There’s something about it that reminds me of how hungry I was when I first started eating,” she said.
Cardinelli first gained notoriety for his role in the critically acclaimed series Freaks and Geeks. Although the series only aired for one season, it was praised by critics and became a cult classic. It also launched the careers of Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, and James Franco.
He went on to appear in “ER,” “Bloodline,” and “Dead to Me,” and appeared in films such as “Scooby-Doo,” “Legally Blonde,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “Daddy’s Home.”
Cardinalelli said of his long career that he was “really lucky and very grateful,” and that even when he started appearing on “Freaks and Geeks,” he “fought really hard to be on it because I was interested in the subject matter and thought it was one of the best things I’d ever read.”
“That’s still the way I do it,” she said, explaining why she competed for the role on “DTF St. Louis.”
This dark miniseries, which also stars David Harbor and Jason Bateman, won the Gotham Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
