Linda Cardellini is a grounded actor with a wide range of films and television under her belt. Getting her first break as Lorna on the hit T.V. series 3rd Rock from the Sun, she quickly gained traction as a versatile performer with a universal look. This helped her gain roles in everything from Kenan and Keel to ER. Yet somehow Horror evaded her. This wasn’t by choice, however. Sitting in a creepy cabin on the backlot of Warner Bros., we sat down with Cardellini to discuss her career and her new, role as a leading lady in what is arguably one of the more anticipated horror movies of the year.

“The Shining is probably one of my all-time favorites.” Explained Cardellini. “Jaws terrified me, which, I mean, I don’t even know if you could call that a straight up horror movie but it was horrifying for me,” Confident and warm, we effusively discussed our mutual love for the genre and how it affected our earlier years. “I remember Freddy Krueger was the most terrifying thing. Nightmare came out when I was at a young, tender age and the idea that someone could get you while you were asleep was the most terrifying thing because you were afraid to go to sleep anyway. I used to love having Halloween parties and staying up all night watching scary movies, then inevitably no-one would sleep. Which turned out to be the greatest slumber party of all time.”

Coming off of her involvement with the Daddy’s Home film’s and the Oscar-winning Green Book, Cardellini was cast as clueless single mother of two in the James Wan-produced The Curse of La Llorona. Finally a chance to be scary. Of the project Cardellini explained, “It was something I thought that I would like to do sometime because I love them (Scary movies) and there are certainly some great characters in horror, especially for females. La Llorona has 4, counting the little girl, strong roles for females. You usually don’t get a script like that. I was so fascinated with that. I mean even La Llarona has her own full-circle story. Then my character, I was a widow, I’m not somebody’s wife, I was somebody fighting on her own.”

There were many reasons Cardellini jumped at the project. As she explains, “I loved The Conjuring. I think it was great. I think they pick really interesting people to tell their stories.” She continued, “It’s funny as an actor, I always try to do different things, and I was just coming off of DADDY’S HOME 2 and I thought “Oh I will do something different” and this came up. I actually shot La Llarona before I shot Green Book.”

As a mother herself, Cardellini tended to feel protective of the kids on the set. Not just the ones playing her children but all of them. Being La Llorona you go into it knowing that kids are going to be in peril. “You are trying to protect the innocents and, I mean, that is what the character is trying to do with the first set of kids, she was really trying to save them. Of course, because of her whole ignorance, she dooms them and dooms herself. But yes, you do get protective.”

Being that the very first scene is a flashback setting up La Llorona’s story, the character of Anna was not there, hence Cardellini wasn’t on set. However, she explains, “Yeah, I wasn’t there for the filming of those scenes. When I read the script, with her, you know, drowning them. I mean that is the most horrifying thing I have ever read. If that is what they are going to do in the first few scenes, imagine what they are going to do later. This movie is going to scare you. Nobody is really safe.”

Hailing from Redwood City, Cardellini came to Hollywood to begin her acting career and jumped right into TV. When asked if she grew up with the legend of La Llorona she said, “No but I was familiar with the Weeping Woman. The idea of a woman in white, crying. When I talked about the project to my friends, all of my friends knew, they were terrified. One of my friends told a great story about his grandmother telling him, “you better get inside or she’s going to come and get you.” So he was sleeping in his bed with his window open, and this was in Los Angeles in the summer, and he could hear her crying outside. Then later on when he was older he figured out it was two cats in heat. (laughter)”

Getting back to being a fan of horror Cardellini expressed her love of haunts and haunted attractions too. “I loved going to Halloween Horror Nights and Knott’s Scary Farm.” said Cardellini, “Knott’s Scary Farm was the first. I’ve even been to Queen Mary. When I first moved to Los Angeles I never missed a year. Now though, They’ve all gotten a lot scarier”

See you in the Fog Linda! Thank you for the chat!

The Curse of La Llorona opens tonight in theaters nationwide.