Trust Me, I’m a Doctor star Linda Hamilton spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese about her new film. She discussed why she didn’t meet the real-life lawyer she plays, working with Kal Penn, and more. It’s out in theaters on October 16, 2026.
“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor follows Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after his life is turned upside down when he is implicated in the death of his former patient, model and reality television star Anna Nicole Smith. Set against the height of the early 2000s tabloid era, the film chronicles Kapoor’s fight to clear his name as paparazzi descend on his office, police raid his home, private journals are leaked, and every aspect of his personal life becomes public. With the guidance of respected attorney Ellyn Garofalo, Kapoor must navigate a high-stakes drug conspiracy trial while confronting the intersection of celebrity, justice, politics and personal redemption,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Great, thank you. Tyler Treese from ComingSoon. Linda, such a pleasure to speak with you, and congrats on Trust Me, I’m a Doctor. This was such a pleasant surprise. I thought the film was so much fun. In the film, you play Ellyn Garofalo, who was his lawyer. Your character always has a plan, and she’s navigating these male-dominated spaces with tact and swiftness. What really appealed to you about this character?
Linda Hamilton: Exactly what you just said. She was also a woman who didn’t kill anybody in the film. No, she was so fleshed out on the page. She was a full-on character right there the first time that I read it. And boy, it was daunting. She’s a lot.
It was while I was doing Stranger Things, so I had to carve out and beg Netflix for time. It was an interesting time for me. Really, part of me hoped it wouldn’t work out because it was so daunting. And then it worked out, and I’m like, “Jesus, I have got so much to do.”
But she’s a fully fantastic character, and playing a defense lawyer, a really savvy defense lawyer. She was just a really vital woman on the page, and I knew I could work with that and build on that, right?
I really enjoyed the interrogation scenes early on when you’re really grilling Kal Penn. You really get to play up that intense side of your character. How was it filming those and working with Kal?
Well, the whole movie was intense because there was just too much work to do every day. And that creates a certain level of… But I like that. I like working under pressure.
I mean, that’s not necessarily how you see a film when you take it. You don’t know how many days or what you’re going to get on set. But we had so little time that we really had to just knock it out and build that trust.
And he’s a real actor’s actor, and we just had a ball. Just one day after the next, we got better and better. Felt really like we were in the trenches.
Tyler Treese: I love that. Did you ever get to meet the real-life lawyer that you play? Kal was mentioning he met her and that there were similarities. She’s also not a bullshitter.
Linda Hamilton: Ah, very good. No, I didn’t, and I regret that. There wasn’t time at the time.
And I have played living women and had them right there at my side telling me what songs they were listening to and this and that, and informing me of their states of mind. However, this, because it was all on the page, and it’s not Ellyn’s story, I thought that it would be distracting in a way to add more to what was already there because what was there was huge.
I just didn’t feel like I needed to get her talking rhythms exactly because the world doesn’t know what Ellyn Garofalo said. I mean, sorry, Ellyn. But do you know what I’m saying?
I was like, okay, Abby playing Anna Nicole. Now that’s a hard job because everyone in the world knows Abby—I mean, knows Anna Nicole and what she was like. But there wasn’t that much riding on it other than I hope that Ellyn likes the performance.
It really felt very authentic on the page, and that’s why I didn’t have to reach real big for other things to add to flesh it out. It was there.
Thanks to Linda Hamilton for taking the time to talk about Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.
The post Linda Hamilton’s New Movie Role Was So Daunting She Hoped It’d Fall Through | Interview appeared first on ComingSoon.net – Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
