Wednesday, April 15, 2015

In Character: Marcia Gay Harden

It’s no secret that, unfortunately, the film business is notoriously unkind toward women. But amongst all the horror stories and latent misogyny, it’s always very affirming when a talent like Marcia Gay Harden is able to brave through and keep her insanely impressive career going. Harden caught her first big break when she was 31, and her second, even bigger career launch, exactly 10 years later. Since then, she’s remained one of our finest working actresses. Her filmography is stacked with excellent characters, women who make whatever they’re in, that much better.


Five Essential Roles
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Verna Bernbaum
Harden’s breakthrough role was as femme fatale Verna Bernbaum in the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing. Verna is a Prohibition-era dame who is willing to do anything to protect her idiot brother, Bernie (John Turturro), from local mob bosses. This includes sleeping with one such boss, Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney), while carrying on an affair with Leo’s right hand man, Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne). Basically, Verna is a hot young babe making good on a hustle by playing every man of importance. It’s sexy, confident and fiercely good work. An announcement of a raw new talent who was looking to change the game.

Casa de los babys (2003)
Nan
Casa de los babys is about six white women waiting out their residency requirements in a South American country in order to adopt children. The women all come from various walks of life, but the most insufferable of the bunch is Nan, a bully who constantly asserts her aggressive opinions. Nan is Harden at her most emotionally vile; you won’t like her, but you’ll never be able to take your eyes off her. Most interestingly, toward the end of the film, our perception of Nan completely changes as two of the other women (played by Mary Steenburgen and Lili Taylor) talk shit behind Nan’s back. It’s a great conversation, written to perfection by writer/director John Sayles. Validation that you never really, fully, know someone else.

Mystic River (2003)
Celeste Boyle
I’ve often considered Celeste the most conflicted character of Mystic River. She’s initially a dedicated wife who helps her husband cover up a crime he committed. But soon enough, Celeste realizes she may have been too dedicated, and her suspicions slowly eat away at her. Most of the characters in this post are strong independent women who don’t tolerate shit from anyone, especially men. Celeste is different. She’s anxious and vulnerable and, above all, completely terrified. Terrified of her husband, terrified of her extended family, and terrified of what her fear will drive her to do.

The Mist (2007)
Mrs. Carmody
Shortly after a blinding mist, and the deadly creatures that lurk within in, descend on a small town, many of the townspeople are forced to hide in a small grocery store. One of the most loathsome characters in the store is Mrs. Carmody, who says that in order to survive, the group must sacrifice people. According to Mrs. Carmody, these sacrifices are the orders of God, or at least the God she believes in. Mrs. Carmody’s logic is clearly deranged, but the real horror is that, slowly but surely, Mrs. Carmody gains dozens of followers who are willing to kill for her. It’s a haunting and maddening performance, one of the most disturbing portrayals of a religious fanatic that I’ve ever seen.

The Newsroom (2013-2014)
Rebecca Halliday
It’s Harden’s cool delivery as ace litigator, Rebecca Halliday, that I was so taken with. She’s the type of character Aaron Sorkin loves to write: razor sharp, wildly articulate and impossibly sarcastic. Rebecca first appeared on The Newsroom in the Season 2 opener as a lawyer defending the ACN television network from various First Amendment cases. She was a reoccurring character on the show through the rest of its run, always defending the employees of ACN with controlled vigor and hyper intelligence. Rebecca Halliday was the type of character who made every scene she was in better. Whenever she appeared, you knew you were going to get something good.

The Best of the Best
Pollock (2000)
Lee Krasner
At the 2000 Oscars, Kate Hudson was a sure lock to win Best Supporting Actress for her whimsical performance in Almost Famous. But when Nicolas Cage called out Marcia Gay Harden’s name, a truly great Oscar moment was born. Harden had won virtually no major awards for her towering performance as Lee Krasner. Hell, she wasn’t even nominated for a Golden Globe or a Screen Actors Guild award. Pollock was literally the little movie that could at the Oscars, and Harden executed her role to glory.

Lee Krasner was Jackson Pollock’s long suffering wife; a woman who endured his genius, alcoholism, infidelity and wild temper all in the name of love. Krasner was an accomplished abstract painter in her own right but, as depicted in the film, she always stood in Pollock’s shadow. Watching Harden battle endlessly with Ed Harris’ Pollock is nothing short of mesmerizing. The film so expertly captures the pain and torment of Harden’s performance. It’s remarkable, star making work that was awarded justly.

Other Notable Roles
in Whip It
Late for Dinner (1991)
Crush (1992)
Sinatra (1992)
Safe Passage (1994)
The Daytrippers (1996)
Spy Hard (1996)
The Spitfire Grill (1996)
Flubber (1997)
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Desperate Measures (1998)
Space Cowboys (2000)
P.S. (2004)
Bad News Bears (2005)
American Gun (2005)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2005-2013)
American Dreamz (2006)
The Hoax (2006)
The Dead Girl (2006)
Rails & Ties (2007)
Into the Wild (2007)
Whip It (2009)
Damages (2009)
Detachment (2011)
Parkland (2013)
Trophy Wife (2013-2014)
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
How to Get Away with Murder (2015)

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31 comments:

  1. Oh, I absolutely hated the Nan character in Casa de los Babys. She was vile and definitely lived up to what the Spanish characters were saying in the film. She was great in that while I was amazed into how she was so unlike that on-set during the making-of portion as she was talking to the crew in Spanish and very fluently as her character in the film doesn't speak a lick of it.

    The Oscars made the right choice in giving it to Harden in Pollock which she kicked ass in. I love her in Whip It as well. She's just awesome.

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    1. Hell yeah man, so happy you're a fan. I'd love to see those behind the scenes clips from Casa de los babys. She seems like such a genuinely good person, which is always nice to hear and see. I'm thrilled she won that Oscar as well.

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  2. Love me some Marcia Gay Harden. She's so great in 'Pollock' and 'Mystic River'.

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  3. The only essential role of hers I've seen is The Mist (and no way am I going to watch that over again) and her character was despicable - her performance was good. I enjoyed her performance in Trophy Wife.

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    1. Exactly, she plays such a despicable person in The Mist, but you can't deny that she's absolutely great in it.

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  4. She's so good. I loved it when she joined The Newsroom (and now I'm mad all over again that Sorkin pulled the plug on that show)

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    1. Did he pull the plug, or did HBO? I honestly never got the full story. Though I do remember him saying that he's done with TV now, which is interesting. Either way, she was so good on that show!

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  5. Yes!! Marcia Gay Harden is definitely one of those actresses that you're so happy to see whenever she shows up. I loved her work on The Newsroom (especially all her scenes with Fonda). I really want to check out Casa de los babys now.

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    1. Casa de los babys is SO good. Pretty hard to find (unless you have Hulu Plus), but totally worth it. John Sayles really knows how to write women.

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  6. While I've seen Marcia Gay Harden in many different things, she seems to be popping up in every TV show that I watch, these days. The problem is that I pretty much can't stand her characters that she has been playing. Don't get me wrong, I think she is a great actress, but I just always want her to go away!

    Her character in The Newsroom was so annoying and did nothing but slow the narrative of season 2! Also, Trophy Wife was FANTASTIC... aside from Harden's character. Unfortunately, she was necessary for that show to succeed in telling the story that it wanted to tell, but, nonetheless, I would have been fine with her absence. She was a little more bearable on How to Get Away with Murder, probably because she was only on like two episodes.

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    1. She has played some pretty unlikable characters. But it is very difficult to play unlikable characters so well. Vincent Kartheiser does a great job of it as Pete on Mad Men. I hated that guy for years, until I realized, as an actor, he knew exactly what he was doing. Harden has the same skill.

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  7. Haven't seen Pollack so for me her work in The Mist is my top choice. I don't even like that movie, but she is spectacular in it. She's pretty great in everything I've seen her in, actually. Great choice.

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    1. Thanks Dell. It's a real testament to her acting that while a lot of people aren't fans of The Mist, they are fans of her work in it.

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  8. Love Marcia! She's like that great character actress that everyone has seen and yet not many people know by name, which is a shame. She also deserves a better career than the one she has. I think she's taken for granted, which is just plain wrong.

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    1. So good! I actually think she has a damn fine career, but I would love to see her get more Pollock-type of roles. She can bring it full force when pushed.

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  9. Miller's Crossing is probably my favorite performance from her.

    Your mention of Mystic River made me realize something I should have mentioned on your Laura Linney In Character a few weeks back. In Mystic River Linney has a small role, but she gets one great scene where she goes from practically non-existent to full on Lady MacBeth right in front of us. It was a great moment for me in that film.

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    1. Probably the most polarizing moment in that movie, but I absolutely love it as well. You don't know what someone is capable of until they're pushed to the edge.

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  10. Her character in Mystic River was so heartbreaking. :-(

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    1. Oh definitely. Her final scene... that wave...

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  11. Great choice, as usual. I could've sworn you'd already done a piece on her. She's so good! I love her in Pollock, but I'd probably rank her performance in Mystic River just ahead. Though, I still need to see The Mist and Casa de los babys.

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    1. Thanks man! I thought I had covered her too haha. But no time like the present! She's soooo good in Mystic River. So confused and desperate. I absolutely adore her in that film.

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  12. Definitely in my top 10 favorite actresses. Maybe even top 5. She is fantastic. I love her in everything, even when she plays the one of my most hated movie characters of all time in The Mist. She really made you HATE that character. I recently re-watched Mystic River again for the first time since it's release as well and that has to be one of her greatest performances. Her loss against Renée Zellweger at the Oscars that year has to be one of the worst mistakes they have ever made.

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    1. Awesome man, LOVE this comment. Yeah, Zellweger would've been my 5th choice in that category that year. I think Harden's role was too subtle compared to Penn and Robbins' for Oscar voters to take notice. But either way, yeah, damn shame there. Least she has one for Pollock!

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  13. Yay Marcia!! I love her work so much. She is so fearless, always ready to take on a wide range of different characters, even if they are intensely unlikeable. She always gives it her all.

    She was great on Trophy Wife. Her Mystic River performance is my favourite from the film. Her final scene where she is waving to her son at the carnival KILLS me. But I think Lee Krasner is and always will be her crown jewel. What a force of nature she is. The only problem I have with her Oscar win is that is she really supporting? I always felt she was just as much of a lead as Ed Harris.

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    1. Ohhh that wave is definitely a killer. It's so rough. And the way she can't even say anything to Kevin Bacon and his wife... ah, devastating. Those scenes are very different in the book, but all of Eastwood's choices are wise ones.

      Lead vs. supporting is rarely up to the actor to decide. The studio is footing the bill for the marketing campaign (it costs literal millions to win an Oscar), so they typically decide which category to put an actor in. Still, I agree Krasner is a lead performance. But she NEVER would've won against Julia Roberts, so Harden's studio wisely placed her in Supporting. So many damn politics to those awards.

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  14. Love this actress. She is so memorable, her and Laura Linney have this vulnerability to them and at the same time they are so fierce, it was wonderful seeing them both in Mystic River. I need to see Pollock after what you wrote about her work there

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    1. So happy you like her. I think you'd enjoy Pollock a lot. It's one of the best films about a tortured artist that I've ever seen.

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  15. Very nice job. I've always been quite fond of Marcia Gay Harden's work. I have yet to see her work in Pollock, but I thought she killed it in The Mist and was perhaps, along with Kevin Bacon, best in show in Mystic River. If she had won the Oscar for Mystic River, I certainly wouldn't have had an issue with it.

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    1. So happy you like her work. Also LOVE that you praised Bacon's work in Mystic River, which has always been over shadowed by Penn and Robbins' more aggressive performances. But Bacon is great in the film, no doubt.

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  16. I think she is one of the worst working actresses, I just find her awful.
    However, I did really love her in The Mist.

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