{alltv} Linney finds laughs in 'The Big C'

Laura Linney, are you a happy person? We're all a little worried about you.

"Yeah, I think so," Linney said. "I have a lot to be happy about.

"I'm not a Debbie Downer."

The suggestion that Linney might be a Debbie Downer, at least by proxy, has nothing to do with Linney's disposition, which is quite pleasant and bright.

But the fact is, the 46-year-old Linney has a lot of heavy subject matter on her lengthy acting resume.

And that includes her role in the new big-buzz TV series The Big C, which originates on Showtime in the United States and debuts across Canada Wednesday on the Super Channel cable service.

In The Big C, Linney plays Cathy Jamison, a reserved and stifled Minneapolis wife, mother and school teacher who has a reputation for not being very much fun. She isn't grumpy, mind you, but she isn't exactly a daily ray of sunshine, either.

When Cathy is diagnosed with a serious and advanced form of cancer, she makes some intriguing, comical and even controversial decisions about how she wants to live out what remains of her life.

"More than trying to have a 'Bucket List', I think (Cathy) is trying to figure out who she wants to be, more than what she wants to do," Linney said of her character.

"However, there is a lot of fun stuff she does, because there's a sense of liberation in a way. It's so odd that when you're dying, you're sort of liberated to do what you want to do. You give yourself permission."

While the overriding theme in The Big C obviously is life and death, the general feel of the series is not depressing. Rather, it resides in the "realistic comedy" realm.

A lot of that has to do with Linney's deft skill set. But also easing the tension are the others in the cast, such as Oliver Platt (who plays Cathy's fun-loving husband), John Benjamin Hickey (who plays Cathy's tree-hugging brother) and recent Academy Award nominee Gabourey Sidibe (who plays Cathy's most aggravating student in a guest-starring role).

Linney has three Academy Award nominations of her own, as well as three Emmy Awards on her mantle, for her work on the series Frasier, the made-for-TV movie Wild Iris and the mini-series John Adams. She seems to have a knack for playing characters who bravely face things that most of us don't want to face.

"I think (life and death) is the universal theme," Linney said. "No one gets out of it.

"If you're lucky and you live long enough, your parents go before you. But if you're ill, you're ill. So I think it's the human thing that connects everybody, that connects the human race to each other, through history. There are certain things that are unavoidable and that we all share.

"But life has a way of blowing a breeze through you, even in the most horrible circumstances. Absurdity will creep in when you don't think it can get there."

It's all about finding a way to be happy, we suppose. And despite the trials and tribulations of her characters, Laura Linney has found a way to do that.

"When this is over and I go on vacation, I think I'll enjoy it a little more," Linney acknowledged. "I'm enjoying things a little more because of this show."