Q&A Pt. 1: The Queens (by which we mean RuPaul, Helen Mirren, Best Actresses)
Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 3:53PM Ask Nathaniel column time. You ask. I answer. Herewith seven recent reader questions. Since last night was the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race, we'll end with two similar questions about that show but first, more typical actor questions. You're always asking them. Not a complaint. Just a fact.
PAUL OUTLAW: Which directors would you most like to see work ASAP with these performers (it can be someone new or a former collaborator): Tilda Swinton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Fassbender & Tom Hardy?
Tilda: Anyone. I'd even watch her in a Michael Bay movie though I'd prefer her in an Olivier Assayas. Oh wait, that's my answer.
Gugu: Anyone. She's new enough that we don't know what we have yet other than GREAT POTENTIAL.
Fassbender: We know he can do intense heightened drama and various masculine genres with the best of them, but I'm wondering if he has something more low-key naturalistic in him or how he'd fare in more typically feminine genres. One of my favorite performances of his is Inglourious Basterds which I know is neither of those things but I like how arch and cerebral he seemed as opposed to physical. It was a different mode for him. So a little more of that. I'd be curious to see him in an Alexander Payne style dramedy or Joe Wright in swoony romance mode.
Tom Hardy: It's time for something really erotic. Filmmakers keep covering up his beautiful face and this must stop. We know from Bronson that he's completey unafraid of gratuitous nudity so I wanna say Jane Campion and/or another A lister who is ready to dabble in an erotic drama, their own Ang Lee Lust, Caution type detour if you will.
TYLER: There are four women who are winners of the Cannes Best Actress prize twice over: Barbara Hershey (USA), Isabelle Huppert (France), Helen Mirren (UK), and Vanessa Redgrave (UK). What do you think of this group? Your favorite performance from each?
To help readers catch up if they didn't know this statistic, those women won for the following films
Vanessa Redgrave - Morgan! in 1966 and Isadora in 1969
Isabelle Huppert - Violette Noziere in 1978 and The Piano Teacher in 2001
Helen Mirren - Cal in 1984 and The Madness of King George in 1995
Barbara Hershey - Shy People in 1987 and A World Apart (shared with co-stars) in 1988
More Questions after the jump...
Barbara Hershey and Jodhi May in "A World Apart"
Of that group I've always loved the Hershey stat the most. She's the only consecutive winner ever (actor, actress, palme d'or, director whatever) and the least acclaimed of that quartet. But it's a happy weird stat because both of those performances are strong and totally different. In one she plays a paranoid Bayou matriarch in Louisana and in the second a crusading liberal in South Africa. For those of us who loved Hershey in the 80s (guilty!) there was a very brief period of hope that she'd start getting Streep calibre chameleon leading role offers as a result but it didn't happen. Both films got limited releases in the US in the summer of 1988, which was arguably Hershey's biggest year (a second Cannes prize and 4 films released including the hit Beaches and talking point The Last Temptation of Christ). Hershey has worked steadily since 1968 (!) but she never quite ascended.
But you asked for favorite performances by each - Redgrave (Julia), Huppert (The Piano Teacher), and Hershey (I kind of like her in everything but one signature performance? Hmmm), Mirren... well, she's the next question.
MORGAN: I often find myself sitting down in Winter with a cup of tea and Gosford Park. British acting at its finest. Who do you find to be best in show in the film?
NATHANIEL: At the time I totally agreed with Oscar's decision about who to single out (Helen Mirren & Maggie Smith) but this movie is such a distant memory now that I should revisit. I can safely say that it's my absolute favorite Mirren performance with probably her Morgana in Excalibur in second place. She always does good work but she's not special to me in that personal fandom kind of way, if you get me. I sometimes walk past the theater in Manhattan that she's performing in for "The Audience" (Tony nominee, Best Actress) and I realize I have not one iota of desire to see her doing The Queen again.
Her category at the Tonys on Sunday night - Best Actress in a Play
- Geneva Carr, Hand to God
- Helen Mirren, The Audience
- Elisabeth Moss, The Heidi Chronicles
- Carey Mulligan, Skylight
- Ruth Wilson, Constellations
I assume she's the favorite to win but I'd much rather see any of the other shows! Of the nominees I've only seen Geneva Carr in Hand to God. She was good but that's Steven Boyer's show through and through. He's nominated for Best Actor and it's a great night of theater.
But I don't mean any of this as a diss on Mirren. It's just a personal preference thing. I am glad that Streep isn't the only still-bankable actor from the extremely malnourished (by Hollywood) mid-sixties to mid seventy-something set. I wish at least two handfuls of their contemporaries could fine a plum lead role in the next few years just for some variety. Speaking of: let's all go see Blythe Danner's film. I tried once this weekend but missed it timing-wise. There are a ton of actresses born in the 1940s who are still working (in small parts or irregularly) that could carry a leading role with aplomb. If I started listing them we'd literally be here for hours. So many!
AARON: Also, are there any actors/actresses/filmmakers in the past or present where it's virtually impossible for you to enjoy their work because of their celebrity, politics, off-camera antics, etc., even though they may be very well respected or critically acclaimed?
I don't really have this problem. I still like Tom Cruise's Acting despite his Crazy offscreen. Maybe it's because actors and filmmakers whose politics disgust me are not, by and large, the sort I'm drawn to anyway (that stuff usually bleeds through in the work). I don't like to be negative and acting is a tough profession so I tend to cut people a lot of slack. It probably helps that I'm by and large disinterested in celebrity's personal lives even when I love their work. I'm all about what's on the screen. But there are two performers whose work I avoid so I guess there are exceptions. I really dislike Patricia Heaton -- not just for her politics but her barbed comments about other actresses (not cool) and I had to do an about face on Mel Gibsonn back in the day.
Mel getting a butt tattoo in "The Bounty". As one does in Tahiti.
I was really into him when I was young; from Mrs. Soffel (1983) through Maverick (1994) I was buying my tickets if he was in a movie. But he got crazier and crazier and more unsavory with the homophobia, sadism (onscreen), and anti-semitism and I just couldn't anymore. Braveheart, ironically given its reception elsewhere, was what finally broke us up. I've only seen one of his performances since 1995 (Signs, 2002) and though I've seen all four of his directorial features the first one (The Man Without a Face, 1993) was the only one I didn't immediately regret seeing. The others were sick-making with their explicit sadism and blood fetish.
MAREKO: Nat, if you could have Woody Allen give a mammoth, Blue Jasmine-caliber role to any actress who would it be? (For me it would be Angela Bassett, Elisabeth Shue or Joan Allen, but that's just me.)
Oh wow. Such an open ended question. Can I just list all of my favorite actresses. Can you narrow it down? I haven't seen Irrational Man yet but when I heard that Parker Posey'd been cast I thought "how perfect!" -- frankly, I'd be a lot more interested in that film if she was the lead rather than Phoenix & Stone. I wish Woody would stop wasting his time with pretty young things and shift to the funnier weirder screen energy of the type of stars he used to employ (Keaton/Farrow/Ullman/Wiest/Kavner etcetera), women who were sexy through force of character and wit rather than through their starlet-in-demand position in Hollywood. So why not the familiar but underchallenged. I'm just going to list three names that have already done great work but I sense there's a lot more there if people gave them bigger roles: Natasha Lyonne, Jennifer Ehle, and Andrea Riseborough.
But Joan Allen is a great suggestion. She's so toweringly good in Upside of Anger (2005) and just imagine if that dramedy were up to her level? It would be the greatest movie. Sigourney Weaver would also be great in a huge complicated comic leading role. She made me laugh so hard on stage in Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike. It's a total shame that she's not headlining great movie comedies that use her intelligence as well as her gung-ho abandon when it comes to silliness.
CARMEN: What are your favorite movie performances that you would love to see lampooned by the Queens on the Snatch Game?
DENNY: What has been your favorite RuPaul's Drag Race Snatch Game imitation?
My favorite impression from that show ever was Ben DeLaCreme's Maggie Smith. So unexpected / funny. Jinkx Monsoon's Little Edie I was living for briefly but I've soured on Jinkx quite a lot (previously one of my all time favorites) after seeing him on stage with "The Vaudevillians". I took some friends who loved it but they had never seen Kiki & Herb and the act was so derivative of that genius now disbanded duo that it felt almost plagiaristic at times.
In truth the Snatch Game, everyone's favorite episode, fills me with dread each year because it's always terrible. So many of the contestants just can't do improv comedy or voices to save their lives. Some celebrities or characters I'd like to see on this episode? I'm tired of reality tv show stars so it'd be fun to see classics like: Carrie White, Nina Sayers the Black Swan, Catwoman, Tilda Swinton, Ursula the Sea Witch (think about it), "Rizzo" from Grease, Bette Davis and/or Joan Crawford (attempted once but it was godawful), Olivia Newton-John, and Madonna (seriously, you'd think we would have seen a few Madonnas).
Oh and what did you make of the finale this year? It's the first time I haven't cared about the outcome! Congrats to Violet Chachki but wow that was an underwhelming crop/season (save Katya & Trixie Mattel, the true keepers and neither of them in the finals. Sigh)
SPEAK. In the comments.
Reader Comments (41)
I have never seen a Wilt Stillman movie. And since briefly looking at who he follows on Twitter, I'm fine with that.
Helen Mirren is awesome. I initially thought she was overrated. But her 80's and early 90's filmography are filled with gem performances.
I love Barbara Hershey too. Certainly deserves the Blue Jasmine treatment along with Pfeiffer and Close.
I want a black filmmaker to get their hands on Swinton (Lee Daniels and Steve McQueen).
I want Kathy Bates to work with David O Russell.
Sharon > Bianca > Raja > Jinkx > Violet > Bebe > Tyra
It's a happy thing that RPDR7 is over, though.
Mirren is picture perfect in Gosford Park-great choice there.
I am always a little flummoxed as to how beautiful Mel Gibson was in the 1980's. Had I been alive or remotely nearing a teenager, he would have been the poster I secretly hid under my bed. Thankfully it was Leo DiCaprio, which hasn't proven despicable just yet.
Isn't "Fish Tank" the definition of a low key, naturalistic film and performance? It's also Fassbender's best work, in my opinion. He needs to find that register again. I'd actually like to see him try a romantic comedy as well. Frank pointed to some real talent with physical comedy, but I didn't love the movie.
I agree with your prescription for Tom Hardy, an actor I do not love at all. I don't find his brutish theatricality very convincing or interesting. He's at his best in Tinker Tailor and Inception, dialed-down performances where he relies more on natural charisma or wit. He does seem to have an untapped sensuality that should be exploited.
That Barbara Hershey stat is kind of amazing. If you polled people with just a general knowledge of film & asked which American actress had won two Cannes awards, no one would ever guess her.
Unfortunately, Joan Allen has screwed up her face too much for me to believe that she'll be given a plum part again. But she's mega talented. I miss her.
I feel the same about snatch game. When it's great it's great but when it's bad I have to mute the TV from secondhand embarrassment. I read somewhere that snatch game doesn't allow copy written characters to be explicitly imitated, which I suppose is why DeLa was "Maggie Smith" and not "Dowager Countess." It's a fine line to play but their options are still seriously limited. Also, Katya said she did Tilda in one of he audition tapes, which makes me love her even more (even though that's impossible).
There are a ton of actresses born in the '30s that could still carry a leading role with aplomb, too. How about another star turn for my favorite, Ellen Burstyn?
Thanks for answering! I pray that Tilda never does a Michael Bay because it would mean that I would finally have to see something he directed/produced. I've avoided every single one of them so far. But let's combine your Fassbender and Hardy suggestions and pair them in a British Brokeback set in the 1920s or 1960s.
Thank you for answering! Yes, you should totally revisit it - make a plan for the next rainy day! Tea, toast and Gosford Park. Helen is aces in that last scene but man, Emily Watson as the maid is just brilliant. That scene with her in the bath. Sigh.
Anyway, yes to Barbara Hershey and Vanessa Redgrave.
I love Violet. But What a shitty season. Honestly.
That Gosford Park question is so tough, the film is such a mosaic of quality work. Maggie and Helen are great but so is Eileen Atkins, Clive Owen, Kristen Scott-Thomas, Emily Watson (I love her in this she's so spunky a quality that was never used often in her work) but I've always had a soft spot for Kelly Macdonald's observant performance of Mary, the quiet mouse who sees everything.
My favorite Barbara Hershey movie is Beaches but I think her best performance was in Shy People. She really has been around and doing good work for so long to not be more venerated. I happened to be watching a rerun of the old Western series High Chapparral the other day and she was in it (as a character named Moonfire!) and that was from 1968. I also remember her from the time in the mid-70's where she became involved with David Carradine and went all flower child, changed her name to Barbara Seagull and they had a child named Free (who goes by Tom now) and she didn't work much. It slowed the trajectory of her career which previously was moving along well but once she came back it took her a while to get back to features.
I would love to see Fassy playing a gay character.
I love Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I and as Jane Tennison in the Prime Suspect series .
Barbara Hershey is fantastic in Shy People. She goes so deep in that role.
I watched The Drop because of a friend and though Hardy gave an endearing performance as a somewhat shy, awkward guy. His Brooklyn accent was very good, too, even though I couldn't help but question why they would cast him and Mattias instead of actual Americans. "Come look at these foreign fellas doing American character work", the poster should say. My point is, this was the first time I was interested in him as a character on screen. To me, he has always been either too out of control in his creations or just replaceable by any standard male who can act tough (my least favorite archetype).
I second Kate's opinion on Fassbender's best performance being in Fish Tank.
As far as favorite Redgrave performance, I would say The Devils.
It's extremely difficult for me to separate the artist and the person, so I gradually tend to lose interest in the art they are part of or produce. I'm only interested in artists whose work is an extension of their sensibilities as human beings and if there is a lack of moral or ethical values in the person, I naturally shut myself off to what they wish to communicate. I watched Edge of Tomorrow and enjoyed the movie immensely and Cruise was good in it, but I have little to none interest in him as a person or an artist.
Love your suggestion for Tom Hardy. Even if it isn't something overtly erotic, I think a romantic drama in the vein of something like "Two Lovers" would be interesting for him.
That picture of Mel Gibson is giving me all kinds of conflicted feelings...ugh.
Gosford Park is my comfort movie! I've even watched it with the Fellowes commentary, which is fantastic. I think Kristen Scott Thomas is best in show, along with Maggie. Kristen is just perfect playing haughty yet vulnerable.
Hi. I'm a LONG time reader of The Film Experience but a first time commenter. Just wanted to say, how much I love this blog, and that actressexual is now my favourite word, :)
As a dream suggestion for a mammoth-leading role for an actress who certainly deserves it, the only woman I could think of (who I'm always thinking about actually) is Anne Heche. IMO the best working actress in America.
How in the world did Helen Mirren win Best Actress at Cannes for 'The Madness of King George?' I adore her off-screen persona and think she's talented, but she's really been over-awarded throughout her career.
Would love to see Isabelle Adjani get a crack at a mammoth role in a Woody Allen film like 'Another Woman.' She's brilliant and never got the crossover career she deserved.
" I'd be curious to see [Fassbender] in an Alexander Payne style dramedy or Joe Wright in swoony romance mode."
He did play Rochester in Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre.
Paul Outlaw: Aw, but Pain and Gain actually works on the overall and I'd tell everyone to at least watch that before dismissing him outright.
Nat: Honestly, Tilda Swinton in Michael Bay is an idea that would never actually happen. To be interested in Tilda is to be interested in androgyny and have you SEEN Michael Bay's movies? Whether you like them or not, the men are super masculine, the women are super feminine and someone like Tilda would have no place.
What's to like about Trixie Mattel?
On one hand I feel like I would do anything for Tom Hardy to be an erotic/sexy movie. On the other hand I'm afraid that most of us would liquefy in the theater.
Bianca > Jinkx > Sharon > Chad > Raja > Bebe > Violet > Tyra
Sadly, Violet was the best of the final three though.
AR -- she's so funny, great look. but mostly just so funny. I guess it didn't transfer completely to the on air show but her videos are great.
Eurocheese -- ooh, i shoulda done that.
Bianca > Sharon > Raja > Jinkx > Chad > Violet > Bebe > Tyra
But really it's more like
Bianca > Raven > Sharon > Katya > Raja > Chad > Jinx > Nina
Amanda -- thanks for commenting. I love hearing from longtime readers who dont comment. good to know you're out there.
Outside of Bronson & Inception, I am really not a big fan of Hardy at all actually.
Nat - I like your thoughts on Fassbender - and I agree, he is fantastic in Inglorious Basterds in a performance that feels very different from his best elsewhere (12 Years a Slave, Fish Tank) where he is much for gruff (?). So another performance in the sophisticated intelligent vein would be great.
Mel - I'm still a fan of Gibson. Was super dissapointed his VIKINGS film with Leo fell thru due to that controversy.
Trixie Mattel needs to rethink her makeup. I know she is going for the plastic look. But, onstage, it comes across as though she has no range of facial expressions. The blank/sad face hurt her during the lip syncs. She looked the best in the episode where Pearl did her makeup. Ru likes facially expressive queens.
I am with you guys on Gosford Park being a comfort movie. I watch it several times every year.
There are folks whose work I can no longer reward with my moviegoing dollar. I will never pay to see another Roman Polanski movie, for example...at least, not until he serves a complete post-conviction sentence (if convicted after a trial) in a California prison.
Agree on Sigourney she has gr8 comedy chops but her size an suffer no fools attitude often gets her cast in tough roles but remember Working Girl,Jeffrey,The TV Set,Ghostbusters,Dave & You Again plus her almost comic playing in A map of the world..
For the record, Ginger Minj was serving Ursula the Sea Witch on EVERY episode EXCEPT Snatch Game this season.
You were only joking when talking about Tilda in a Michael Bay movie, but I would really love to see her in a role that demanded a lot of physicality. Maybe it is shades of her performance in Michael Clayton, sticky pits and all, but I just can't help but wonder how great she would be carrying a psychological thriller, or a war movie. I get really excited imagining her in a role like Jeremy Renner's in The Hurt Locker. Also, post-ZD30, I look forward to see Kathryn Bigelow directing another picture carried by an actress, rather than big all-male ensembles.
As for Tom Hardy, any director with a strong gaze for a sexually intoxicating male lead would do, but Tom Ford is the one that initially occurred to me. Baz Luhrmann or Lee Daniels would be interesting choices also.
I know little of Barbara Hershey, but I love her performance in Hannah and her Sisters. I love all three sisters, actually, and that restaurant scene, with the camera circling around the ladies still is one of my favorite scenes in any Woody Allen movie. So tense, so many emotions playing at once, great dialogue, layered subtext, and Farrow and Wiest and Hershey, all bringing their A-game. Just brilliant!
For Vanessa Redgrave, probably Coriolanus. The movie is a mixed bag, but it is my favorite Shakespearean play and she is mammoth in it. Anger is her meat and I'll gladly join her in supping upon her and that massive talent! Talk about a banquet!
Huppert is one of the greats I am cool on (I know, heresy!), but I like her a lot in The Piano Teacher.
As for Helen Mirren, I like her more than the average cookie (I loved her even in Hitchcock, so there you have it!), and I love her offscreen personality, sense of humor and showy performances (especially in comedies). Still, her best work is often when she goes stoic, and I would rank The Queen and Gosford Park as her top efforts.
Speaking of Gosford Park, favorites from that ensemble would be Mirren, Watson and Smith, in that order, with a special shout out for Charles Dance who delivers my favorite line in the movie "Stop snivelling! Anyone would think you were Italian!"
As for the actress I'd hand Woody's next Blue Jasmine to, it would be Mo'Nique. She is just so towering great in Precious, it saddens me to believe she will likely never get a lead role worthy of her talent.
Tom Hardy in a Jane Campion in her Ang Lee Lust, Caution type detour, can it be with Fassbender as his co-star?
It's the cash that stops Mo'nique working i've read.
Chad doesn't count. I'm a purist and it was a filler "season." I think even Ru said "Only six queens know what it feels like..." at the finale.
At the risk of getting too embroiled in Drag Race (I could talk about it all day), I rate the winners based on how strong their mix of camp and glamour is. I don't think you can value one too much more highly than the other. I think that's partly why Jinkx's win has aged poorly (I preferred Alaska), and why Bianca is less impressive than Sharon. Sharon is high fashion and also sharp as a whip while Jinkx has reverted to basically pre-RPDR status. Anyway.
Stella-Yeah, all of these Hardy/Fassy pairings sound like something I just couldn't stop watching. I would probably need to have blood pressure medication before I entered the theater.
OMG Gosford park is one of my top 5 all-time movies. If 2 weeks go by without me watching it, I've probably died. Not a single bad performance in the film, and though I've seen it hundreds of times I always find myself watching something or someone differently. But I do love me some desperately aching British drama pieces... so that makes sense.
BD - that's kinda true, yeah.
Whoa, Nat, you prefer Bianca to Raven? Raven *definitely* should've won season 2, and it's frankly crazy she didn't (although Tyra did best her in that Lipsync for Your Life).
@AmandaBuffamonteezi, Anne Heche is a TERRIFIC suggestion. I think about her often, too, and know she is a much better actress than people give her credit for being. [sigh]
Anyway, Mel Gibson was sex on a stick back in the day, but he's such a deplorable human being that I wouldn't even @#$% him retroactively now.
P.S. Sigourney Weaver was *aces* in Heartbreakers, too. Let's not forget.
Mareko -- maybe not on Bianca over Raven. it was a moment of weakness as I often call Raven my favorite contestant from any season.
Tom Hardy needs to take notes from Matthias Schoenaerts's career. Schoenaerts always finds meaty, sexy, hunky roles that Hardy would do great in if he weren't focused so much on being an action hero.
Also, I am not a regular Drag Race watcher, but I did see a Snatch Game compilation once and some contestant's Carol Channing had me rolling. "Broadway Actresses Against Scurvy" should become a 501c3 immediatement .
I saw Bianca del Rio's Rolodex of Hate tour and if it is in your city, GO. Tickets are expensive because she plays theaters, but she's a wonderful mix of vulgar and vulnerable. The last half hour is all Q & A from the meet and greets, and I thought that was the most interesting thing of the whole show. She showed up at the bar I was at after the show but I was depressed about something else so I didn't try talking to her (and she's one of the few adult men I've met who are as small as I am -- 5'7, 120 -- which was kind of jarring. It's not a bad thing by any means! She just never came across as that physically small on TV. It might have been the big personality)
I wasn't invested in the outcome of S7 once Katya left. Although I *did* meet Trixie as a boy about a month before the show started airing and she looks and acts just the way she does on TV.