Laura Linney has an exceptional palette of films under her name. Coming off the critical success of "Love Actually," "Mystic River," and "Kinsey" Laura stars in "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," a supernatural thriller loosely based on the events of a real 19-year-old girl. Laura plays Erin, a lawyer tasked to represent Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson). Father Moore is on trial for being accused of the "negligent homicide" of Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), who told Emily to abandon her medication in order to pursue a more religious endeavor to rid her of her demonic possessions. Was Emily Rose suffering from epilepsy and mental instability, or was she really possessed by demons?

Below, Laura talks about her role as well as the questions the movie asks about spirituality and law.

Q: You recommended Jennifer Carpenter to the director...

LAURA: Jennifer and I did "The Crucible" together, and I have never been so impressed with anyone in rehearsal In My Life as I was with her. She is exceptionally talented. Physically she’s an athlete, so there’s a physical component that is very rare, vocal capabilities…but more than that, it’s her approach to things, how she thinks about her work, how she prepares for it, the connections that she makes, the imagination that she has, it’s her integrity in knowing what her responsibilities are, it’s her selflessness, she will serve the project that she is in. I have enormous respect for her. I also love her to bits, I love this girl.

When I knew it was the most critical piece of casting, and THANK GOD, I threw her name in the pot and then stepped away. And they saw her, and Scott will tell you the rest of it.

Q: What appealed to you about the film?

LAURA: It was challenging. There was a lot about it that made me…first off, I wanted to make sure it was going to be an equally balanced examination of these events. I was not interested in any way in making a movie that told people how to think. One way or the other. That’s not interesting to me. So I wanted to make sure…and once Scott told me that was the case and the producer told me that was the case- we had LONG conversations about it- you know, then I signed on. And what interested me, I didn’t know it was going to work, really, was how do you combine the tension of a courtroom drama and the fear of a supernatural horror film- how do those things fit together? Can they fit together, does the tension of one and the fear of the other- do they work together? Do they cancel each other out? Do they move the story forward. Usually a movie has one or the other, but rarely both. And this flips back and forth, and what does that do to an audience, is it too much? Does it…is it specific, I just didn’t know. And I won’t know personally for about five years. I can watch a movie that I’m in, I’ll watch it once to see everyone else’s work cause im curious, and to be able to talk about it intelligently with you guys, and then I can’t watch it anymore. I’m too close to it. My experiences are too…you know, I’m influenced too much by what I see. So I’ll watch it in five years and then make my own opinions about it.

Q: Do you feel a certain responsibility working on a film inspired by truth?

LAURA: Yes, absolutely. Sure. Of course you do. And you don’t want…it’s based on true events, there’s a lot of the movie that’s fictionalized. I’m completely fictional. But sure. I can’t imagine, you know, having someone you know go through that.

Q: The studio is trumping based on truth, how much back story did you develop on your own for the film?

LAURA: Not much. What’s amazing is that someone could go through an exorcism, die, and then the priest would be put on trial for homicide. It’s just interesting. And that’s really the issue of the case, is he guilty or is he not guilty of negligent homicide? Not whether or not she was possessed, but did he contribute to her death?

Q: Did you research exorcism?

LAURA: A little bit, yeah, I went to Amazon and I typed in exorcism, and I went to Google, and I typed in exorcism and I ordered a bunch of books, and the ritual of it is very interesting.

Q: Your character is a self obsessed lawyer…

LAURA: (laughs) Right. There is the personal story, I believe she is really dealing with personal demons, that’s written into the script. So you’re seeing someone who’s dealing with personal demons and is confronted with religious demonology and having to research all that and what connections happen. And she’s also someone who’s rather arrogant and flippantly convinced about certain opinions she has, and she’s forced to reevaluate all that. And then as far as all the law stuff is concerned, I did an enormous amount of research when I did Primal Fear. So I recycled a little bit there, I must admit. But what’s fun, in playing lawyers, is lawyers represent themselves in different ways, with their agendas, their means to an end, and there are lawyers who are very flashy, and there are lawyers who thunder and assert themselves, and there are lawyers who are scared and al little bit messed up, and to see what, how, are you trying to convince a jury of something or are you just giving them the truth and trust that they will make the right decisions. So there are all of those kind of things. The shades of what she’s trying to do.

Q: What are your thoughts on demonic possession?

LAURA: I think it is irrelevant, what I think who cares? I have a defense…I don’t have any answers. There are certain things I don’t believe in, certain things I don’t understand, and I don’t know how they happen, I don’t have any answers. I think there’s a real knee jerk response to make very certain opinion about something you don’t know a whole lot about. So being forced to re-evaluate, rethink stuff is good regardless of what your opinions are?

Q: Does your character starts as an agnostic?

LAURA: A respectful agnostic, yes I think so. I think she’s open to the idea, the possibility, I think she has a respect for other people’s faith whether she believes in it or not, I don’t think she knows.

Q: Can you talk about working with Tom Wilkinson?

LAURA: He’s fantastic. You’re just working with a great person. The better they are, the easier it is. That’s one of the great joys of acting with someone of that caliber. I’ve had certain experiences working with certain people and it is easy, easy, easy. Because they are just so good. And you make them better and they make you better, it’s about letting the chemistry, letting stuff go. A lot of it is just trust.

Q: And when you’re working with people who are not as good?

LAURA: Sometimes you quickly access and go “ok,” and you stay as kind and as giving as you possibly can without letting yourself be abused. And things can happen, it’s just a different…you work in a different way. I love actors, regardless of where they are in their skill level. There’s something terribly satisfying about working with someone who’s really learning, who you can see is- you can see what they’re doing. I love actors.

Q: Are you personally in the flush of success?

LAURA: Life is good. Life is very good. The past two years in particular, the things I’ve been able to work on, the people I’ve been able to work with. The projects that were difficult to get made, that were worthy, that were actually made and turned out well. You feel like you’ve contributed something, you believed in something that you know is right, and there’s something very very nice about that.

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose" opens in theaters this Friday.