With 'Bloodline,' Linda Cardellini tackles drugs, murder &#8212; and a fair bit of drinking

With ‘Bloodline,’ Linda Cardellini tackles drugs, murder — and a fair bit of drinking

On the Netflix series "Bloodline," Linda Cardellini plays Meg, an accomplished attorney who risks it all to help her family bury dark secrets in the Florida Keys.

By Lorraine Ali

June 9, 2016 2:42 PM PT

Meg Rayburn of “Bloodline” has had a tough year.

The fictional character, played by Linda Cardellini in the Netflix original series (now in its second season), has become increasingly entangled in her affluent family’s messy mistakes — i.e. drug trafficking, extortion and murder. Meg is an accomplished attorney who knows better, yet still risks it all to help the morally compromised Rayburn clan bury dark family secrets in the Florida Keys.

“What happens really changes who she is,” said Cardellini, who recently dropped by the L.A. Times to speak with The Envelope regarding Meg’s downward spiral, the building tension among “Bloodline’s” siblings and her character’s unhealthy coping skills.

“She’s developed a little bit of a drinking problem. … Someone on the Internet called her Boozy Meg,” laughed Cardellini.

Linda Cardellini talks about Meg Rayburn’s downward spiral on the Netflix series “Bloodline.”

Cardellini co-stars alongside Sissy Spacek (Meg’s mother, Sally Rayburn), Kyle Chandler (Meg’s brother John) and Norbert Leo Butz (brother Kevin) in this suspenseful drama that takes family dysfunction to a whole new level.

The mess they created in Season 1 has snowballed, and Meg is perpetually the one left cleaning things up. “She does have a lot on her shoulders,” said Cardellini.

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The series, created by Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman of “Damages,” is Cardellini’s most recent recurring role in a television series. It follows her run on “Mad Men” as Don Draper’s neighbor and lover Sylvia (lucky girl), her role as Sam in “ER” and, of course, Cardellini’s television debut playing Lindsay in the cult favorite “Freaks and Geeks.”

“I still love when people ask me about that show,” said Cardellini of the series that essentially kickstarted her career more than 15 years ago. “I take it as a huge compliment.”

See what else she had to say in the video below.

The Los Angeles Times’ Lorraine Ali talks with Linda Cardellini about “Bloodline.”

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Lorraine Ali

Lorraine Ali is news and culture critic of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she was television critic for The Times covering media, breaking news and the onslaught of content across streaming, cable and network TV. Ali is an award-winning journalist and Los Angeles native who has written in publications ranging from the New York Times to Rolling Stone and GQ. She was formerly senior writer for The Times’ Calendar section where she covered entertainment, culture, and American Arab and Muslim issues. Ali started at The Times in 2011 as music editor after leaving her post as a senior writer and music critic at Newsweek Magazine.