Actor Laura Linney, Class of ’86, speaks at Brown University.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

PROVIDENCE –– Laura Linney is an actress you may never have heard of, but almost certainly would recognize.

The 1986 Brown University graduate has acted on Broadway, starred in dozens of films and TV shows, and worked alongside the likes of Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson and Hugh Grant in Love Actually, and Kelsey Grammer in the hit TV series Frasier.

To Linney, who studied theater at Brown, the fact that she has eluded fame has been a good fortune.

“I’m well-known, but I’m not famous,” Linney said. “I’ve been very fortunate for a long time that I’ve been able to go about my work and be able to concentrate on my work and not be distracted by the strange energy that shifts when you become famous.”

Linney spoke at Brown last night as part of the university’s fifth-annual Don Wilmeth Endowed Lectureship in American Theatre.

Salomon Hall was packed mostly with students who peppered her with questions about her time at Brown, about acting techniques and her roles in various movies, and about her life in “the business.”

She said her time at Brown was shaped more by her relationships with friends as well as teachers rather than any particular event.

“It’s the all-nighters you pull, it’s really about the people and relationships I had.”

Linney described a “penny-dropping” moment at Brown when she developed –– seemingly overnight –– the ability to memorize pages and pages of lines from a script.

About her acting career, she said she wanted to be a stage actress all her life, but it wasn’t until high school that she “came out” to her mother.

She said she nearly left the profession while studying at The Juilliard School in New York. She had terrible stage fright, she said, bursting into sweats and panic attacks. She considered joining the Peace Corps until a teacher said something to change her mind.

“This is where you’re supposed to fail,” the teacher told her. “Fail here. Fail big.”

“I was still sort of in agony, but it made me stay. The shame was gone,” she said. “There’s no shame in not doing something perfectly. There’s no shame in the process of learning, however awkward or painful or difficult it might feel. It takes bravery and a commitment to get better.”

tbarmann@projo.com