In youth-obsessed Hollywood, Laura Linney's career defies the laws of gravity almost as much as the implausibly taut faces of many of her fellow actresses.
At 49, her continued success is emblematic of a small but significant trend: the growing ranks of A-list actresses over the age 40 who are still commanding good roles and high salaries because no younger stars have been able to take their place.
But the Juilliard- and Ivy Leagueeducated Linney stands apart from the likes of more mainstream 40something stars such as Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz - she has a knack for choosing low-profile but interesting parts and her ascendancy has been a bit of a slow burn.
So despite being one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation - with three Emmy wins, two Golden Globes in hand and three Oscar nominations - relatively few people can identify her by name.
"I'm not that much of a celebrity," she says matter-of-factly in an interview with Life! and other reporters in Beverly Hills this year.
"I'm really not. I've been very lucky in that I've been doing this job long enough that it has sort of layered over time."
An example of this combination of acclaim and relative obscurity is her most recent work in the television series The Big C, in which she plays Cathy, a suburban mother grappling with a diagnosis of terminal cancer.
This comedic drama, the third season of which has just begun airing on Diva Universal (StarHub TV Channel 522), has received stellar reviews despite its small audience, earning her the 2011 Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy.
To be sure, she does not have the name recognition or star power of peers such as Julia Roberts, 45, but then she was a bit of a late starter in Hollywood, choosing to work on Broadway upon graduating from Brown University and the prestigious Juilliard drama school.
Her film career began in the 1990s with a smattering of small film roles.
Some of them caught the eye of critics, including Primal Fear (1996), The Truman Show (1998) and You Can Count On Me (2000).
The last film earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her fine performance as a single mother in a small town, which again was seen by relatively few.
More awards and nominations followed, including a Golden Globe win for the 2008 historical drama John Adams and three at the Emmys for television work such as her recurring role on the series Frasier in 2004.
She also has three Tony Award nominations for plays such as the 2002 Broadway production of The Crucible, and Oscar nominations for the biopic Kinsey (2004) and the drama The Savages (2007).
In a business known for its divas, she has also acquired an impressive reputation for thoughtfulness. Stories about her include the one about her giving first aid to a crew member whose fingertip was severed in an accident and another about her massaging the feet of a director with bunions.
Sitting at a table with a dozen or so journalists, her clear-eyed gaze radiates warmth as she insists on being introduced to each one - a rarity at such press events.
The actress considers each question carefully and talks articulately about everything from the flawed health insurance system in the United States to the changing nature of television viewing.
She seems to eschew glib answers - for example, when asked if playing a woman with cancer has prompted any lifestyle changes in her.
"I would love to give you a quote that says the whole show changed my life. I'm sure it has, as every experience that I've had has changed my life, but I can't tell you specifically.
"I'm too close to it all to say what things in my life have shifted or not shifted because of the show," says Linney, who adds that a lot of her knowledge about cancer came from her mother, who was a nurse at a well-known cancer hospital in New York.
The series did, however, enhance her appreciation for the fleeting nature of life.
"I did the show because I've always been very aware that there is a limited amount of time that we're given," says Linney, who reveals that her own father, the respected playwright Romulus Linney, died of cancer in 2011 while she was filming the series.
The show has also distinguished itself because of its unflinching approach to the fact that Cathy is in her 40s: She looks like a real suburban housewife rather than the Botoxed and siliconed ones from a series such as Desperate Housewives.
Linney, who is glowingly beautiful in person but also looks, refreshingly, her age, loved this about The Big C, which she hopes will "provoke conversations about time" among viewers.
"It's a privilege to age. That's a deep truth to me. And to live in a culture that doesn't always value that and to be in an industry that doesn't always appreciate that is an interesting sort of vortex to live within," says the actress, who has been married for four years to her second husband, Marc Schauer, a real-estate agent.
"A lot of people don't get the opportunity to grow old. And I don't want to waste my time. I want to be someone in her late 40s and enjoy being in my late 40s.
"I don't wanna be in a nervous swivet the whole time and trying to pull back time and wish that I was something else.
As opposed to, 'Hey, I'm here and I'm going to lose this experience if I'm constantly distracted about wanting to be something else.'"
It is the sort of introspective observation that those who have worked with her have come to expect from her.
She does not shy away from speaking her mind either, whether it is to criticise gender inequality in Hollywood or to disagree with network executives.
To the TV honchos who were worried that a series about terminal cancer might not "translate internationally", she said:
"But people die from cancer everywhere!" In a speech after receiving The Crystal Award for Excellence in Film in Los Angeles last month, she pointed out that the industry has "a problem".
"Rarely do you have a scene with other women, very few women are on the crew and what few female executives arrive tend to keep to themselves", which means there are "fewer women to turn to for help or advice".
To address this, she urged women in the business to mentor someone, "reach out to a younger actress, junior executive, crew person, office worker or student" and take the time to share their insights so that "our experiences are not wasted".
With the three-year series recently coming to an end in the US, where the last episode of the fourth and final season aired in May, she seems set to continue on her path of doing small but satisfying roles.
Audiences will next see her in The Fifth Estate, a movie about WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange (played by Star Trek Into Darkness' Benedict Cumberbatch), which is due out this year.
The actress has also been tipped for another Emmy nomination for the final season of The Big C.
Although many fans of the show would have liked to see it continue, the network and producers - one of whom was Linney, who says she was hands-on in the role - were happy to have it end.
"From the beginning, everyone involved hoped it would last four seasons and that was how it went. I'm relieved that we were able to tell the story all the way through."
Now that it is over, she needs to take a rest before committing to another hectic television production schedule.
"It was four seasons in three years and that was an awful lot. It's a wonderful privilege to carry a show on your shoulders, but it is very tiring and stressful. I just want to go home and spend time with my husband and friends.
"I'm a terrible cook, so I'm going to try to get better at that."
It is the most prosaic thing she has said all morning, but she never seems to stay in this gear for long.
Asked what she wants to accomplish at this point in her life, she says: "It's not about where I want to go or what I want to do, but who I want to be.
"For me, it's about dealing with things better, not being as afraid and connecting with people more deeply. I hope to accomplish those things."
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