Overheard: On Marisa Tomei
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 1:20PM Last night my girlfriend Kay and I saw Marisa Tomei in the revival of Wallace Shawn's 1979 play Marie and Bruce. (I'll tell you a bit more about it and how it compares to that very underseen Julianne Moore film in next week's theater column). As you walk into the theater, before the show starts, Marisa and co-star Frank Whaley are already on the stage, tossing and turning in bed.
Marisa aka Marie is obviously NOT sleeping. In fact, she's chain smoking in between fights with the blankets and jabs at her snoring husband. Two older women walk past me.
Elderly Woman #1: ... [unintelligible] My Cousin Vinny.
Elderly Woman #2: That must be so frustrating, to win the Oscar your first time in a movie and then... nothing!
UHHnnnhh. So I say...
'First things first, ladies. Tomei has had quite a healthy early-skeptics-defying film career... complete with two follow up Oscar nominations and, one might argue, ever increasing levels of respect for her endurance and range. Just because you haven't been to the movies since 1992 does not mean she hasn't been making them. And with major directors, too -- Aronofsky, Winterbottom, Lumet, Clooney .... Also: she can hear you. There's no music, she's already on stage, it's a small house, you are four rows away from her'
Well, that's what I said in my head. In reality I just gave Kay a sideways look and she fully understood my grievance. Then we mentally projected "Break a leg, Marisa!" up to the stage. But she didn't need the help; she killed it as usual. Don't you totally love her?
P.S. Also on the way in I heard theater patrons talking about how weird it is for Wallace Shawn that people always want to talk to him about Clueless (1995) since it's such a microscopic part of his career. (Perhaps these people knew him?) But, come to think of it, that must be true of all character actors who have showy parts in mainstream hits. That people wouldn't know everything else you've accomplished in life? [cue Princess Bride voice] "INCONCEIVABLE!"
