Oscars Flashback '01: Linney's Dreams Come True

It's the dream of nearly every young aspiring actor to clutch a sparkling award in one's hand, thank one's co-stars and loved ones, and then raise the long-awaited award with one hand or hold it to one's chest with a smile or tears as a well-dressed audience claps away. Laura Linney wasn't one of those people.

In 2001, Linney was nominated for her first Oscar for the drama You Can Count on Me, in which she starred alongside Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick. When asked on the red carpet before the show by ET's Mark Steines and Jann Carl if the nomination was a dream becoming realized, she revealed that it was never a dream at all.

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"I didn't actually, to be honest," she says in the flashback. "People say that; I really didn't. I dreamt about being an actress, but I didn't quite take it as far as this, so I'm way beyond all my expectations at the moment."

While Linney never tickled the idea of winning an award as a child, she admits to having fantasized about the award upon receiving the nomination for Best Actress for the Martin-Scorsese-produced film.

"I think as a nominee you do sort of let yourself run wild with the fantasy of it," she says, "but I feel like I've won so much over the past few months especially that I am just thrilled out of my mind to be here."

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Unfortunately for the awards show's producers, Linney is in the minority, and the majority of actors have dreamt of their acceptance speeches their entire lives, which can throw off the show's time schedule when actors excessively bask in their long-awaited moment on stage.

While producers have enacted many measures to prevent an overrunning show including playing music when the award receiver's allotted time has expired, nothing beats the incentive of an HD TV set for the one who delivers the shortest speech.

Linney wouldn't be able realize her nonexistent childhood dreams of receiving an award nor have a shot at the TV, as she would lose out to Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich.

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In some twisted stream of logic, her dreams came true.