Linda Hamilton

Linda Hamilton attended the Lee Strasberg school of acting. She has been married to James Cameron. In Sarah Connor, Hamilton portrayed one of the strongest, most iconic depictions of femininity in the history of cinema in one of the most popular and financially successful franchises ever. So after traversing the heights of the movie industry, is she happy to climb the lower peaks, and can she move on from the Terminator? LWLies caught up with Hamilton recently to discuss her latest role, in Tom Reeve’s Irish comedy, Holy Water.

LWL: So you’ve known Tom Reeve for a while?

Hamilton: Yes, I met Tom 15 years ago when I was working with his Dad and Tom was producing a series for the BBC, a little miniseries called The Way To Dusty Death. I never saw it. Cut to 12 years later, Tom sent me a script and I just loved it immediately and I was like “are you kidding, of course I’ll be in this.” I love the script.

What do you love about it?

It’s genuinely funny without over-reaching and it’s character driven. I just thought it was a perfect little script, not so much my part in it which was perfect for the film. It wasn’t like I looked at and though “oh, this is a direction I’ve never taken I would love to do this.” I just loved the film and I really loved those shows from the 70s like the Last of the Summer Wine, these shows about the little parish towns and all of the assorted characters. I find them fascinating, I’d be very happy to be a regular on one of those shows for 15 years.

The Last of Summer Wine was filmed pretty close to where I grew up.

So that’s why I love it.

Which parts of the script really stood out for you? You mentioned it was character driven…

The four boys just being so in over their heads, and the way they deal with the situation. Here are these four men who have stolen a truck-load of Viagra and have to get rid of it fast because they are terrified of this US team that comes and tries to find them. They were just lovely, and all of the teeny-tiny moments add up to a great film. Just precious little moments. Nothing flashy, but its kind of like life isn’t it? Just a bunch of little moments strung together.

Sure. So how do you feel it fits into your career? Is this the kind of film you’ve always looked to make?

Erm… Do I think it’s going to reinvent my career? No. But I don’t think a whole lot about my career, I just take it part for part, and I just found this so charming and cute. And yes, I have been pursuing comedy so it did fit into the way that I saw myself – a lighter touch, just something that reflected me, Linda Hamilton. I’m not about loss and grief and death and gravitas, you know? People would be amazed at how light and breezy I am, so I’ve had a career that’s very much at odds with who I am inside and it would be nice to do a few things that reflect who I really am and what I like to see, which is that kind of film.

Really? Because we get the impression you have a reputation for playing these very strong, strident women. Is that something you’re actively trying to move away from?

Well, what’s done is done and my strength is something that can’t really be taken away. I think it would be very hard after playing Sarah Connor to play, or to play successfully, somebody who is weak or ineffective. The audience wouldn’t necessarily buy me as that. It’s been very hard to win back that kind of work just because I’ve done one thing so convincingly. But one doesn’t always want to play emotionally strong women. Comedy is based on weakness for the most part so, you know, you want to have a chance at playing everything. I think Terminator stood in the way of that but, in time, hopefully, one can win over audiences, all it takes is one successful role, right?