‘Times’ Profile Guessing Game: Laura Linney? Or Patricia Clarkson?

Two profiles diverged in a gray newspaper-and sorry I could not read both. Let’s play: Which Times’ actress profile was it? Was it… Patricia Clarkson or Laura Linney?

1. “It’s a paradox in keeping with a career built on contradictions: over 25 years she has reserved the right to be both chameleonic outlier and known quantity, self-effacing artist and scene-stealing operative, consummate mother and quintessential dame, indie stalwart and A-list darling.”

2. “She bumped into Antonio Banderas, then Cate Blanchett: hugs all around.”

3. “And yet her sense of wonder endures. Either that or she’s a more gifted actress than even her fiercest admirers realize. “

4. “’There’s something about her personality that comes through,; he said, describing the mixture of character immersion and personal impact he needed. ‘Yet she’s able to be totally convincing in the role. I have been fooled by her many times.’”

5. “In her 20s, with her classic features and elegant figure, she was more 1940s femme noir than 1980s ingénue; a film career would have to be custom made. ‘I really wanted to have an artistic life,’ she said, reflecting on the Hollywood hustle. ‘I wanted to do things that thrilled me, that sent me, that mattered.’”

6. “To write about her is to succumb gradually to desperation and hopelessness — there just doesn’t seem to be any route around the fluffiest of the puffiest of articles — and to grovel for even a grain of dirt. Is it possible she doesn’t recycle? Files her taxes late? Chews her cuticles?”

7. “These days her thoughts turn frequently to how lucky she is — how lucky anyone is — simply to experience the pleasure of being alive. It’s a cliché, yes, but isn’t it true? And isn’t it often forgotten?”

8. “’Things got weird,’ she said, referring to a dearth of roles and damnably silent phone. ‘Things suddenly just became very difficult for me. I had to dig way deep down inside and figure out: Do I have the stamina? Can I withstand this hailstorm of rejection to get what I really want?’”

9. “In fact, she has done much of her highest-profile (and best) work since she turned 40. “

10. “In fact she’s a borderline cutup, a warm, often antic presence who searches our every exchange for comic points of entry.”

11. “’I’m not someone who likes to have my picture taken, let alone see it plastered all over the place,’ she said. ‘And I don’t know what the reaction will be.’”

She went on to add, philosophically: ‘I just have to concentrate on doing what I do. I signed up for this.’”

12. “Although she dreamed from an early age of being an actress, she was initially reluctant to articulate that. She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, didn’t want to denigrate the profession by implying that it required anything less than years of preparation. At Brown she majored in theater arts, then continued her studies at Juilliard.”

13. “’I have very strong ideas and strong convictions, and I think I have brought to fulfillment the life I’ve really always wanted,’ she said. ‘There isn’t really anything I would change about my career right now.’

She paused, the mischief returning to her eyes. ‘O.K., a few things,’ she relented. ‘Usually involving a check with some zeros.’”

14. “She didn’t have the distinctive beauty of many a leading lady; she didn’t have the edge or flagrant sexiness to pull off a femme fatale. A surface reading of her said ‘vanilla’ — or maybe, given the air of Southern graciousness passed down from her mother, ‘butter pecan’ — but nothing more complicated than that.”

15. “As we sat in the new Jean-Georges­ Vongerichten restaurant ABC Kitchen, she worked her way through a curious pea-centric lineup of pea soup and pea salad and talked about aging, and about her mystification and frustration with so many people’s rebellion against it. She conceded that sagging skin, waning energy and creaky joints aren’t fun, but said that the early deaths of beloved friends had opened her eyes to the fact that growing old is the greatest of blessings. ‘A lot of people don’t get that privilege,’ she said. ‘And there’s an extreme disrespect toward that that’s cuckoo.””

It’s a good thing Hope Davis wasn’t profiled this weekend, right?

Answers: