Linda Cardinelli had to audition for ‘DTF’ and ‘Mad Men’

Linda Cardinelli has starred in many critically acclaimed shows over the years, but she is still sometimes called in to audition for roles.

“Not always,” but she did have to audition for her current role in the HBO miniseries “DTF St. Louis,” she told Page Six exclusively at the Gotham Television Awards Monday.

The actress, 50, added that she also had to audition for her role as Sylvia Rosen on “Mad Men” as Don Draper’s lover, and the audition took place shortly after she had given birth.

“It’s never my favorite thing,” Cardinelli confessed. “It’s very vulnerable.”

Still, there is something about the process that she appreciates.

“There’s something about it that reminds you how hungry you were when you first started,” she shared, “and I think that’s good for me once in a while.

Cardinelli first gained notoriety for her role in the critically acclaimed series, “Freaks and Geeks,” which only ran for one season, but was lauded by critics and has become a cult classic. It also launched the careers of Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps and James Franco.

She followed that with parts in “ER,” “Bloodline,” “Dead to Me” and movie roles in “Scooby-Doo,” “Legally Blonde,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Daddy’s Home.”

Cardinelli said that she “just feels very lucky, very grateful,” for her long career and noted that even when she was starting out in “Freaks and Geeks,” “I was interested in the material and I thought that was some of the best material I had ever read and I really fought to be in there.”

“That’s still how I operate,” she noted, and why she fought for a role in “DTF St. Louis.”

The dark mini-series, which also stars David Harbour and Jason Bateman, picked up a Gotham Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.