She was once upon a time, Hollywood’s “It” Girl. She was beautiful, talented and sought-after by casting agents. She also appeared opposite De Niro, Pacino and Brando. So in theory, all signs pointed to Penelope Ann Miller being a household name.
shareI second Penelope Ann Miller for all the people who've mentioned her. NEVER understood how she got SO many leading roles: Carlito's Way, Other People's Money, The Freshman, Awakenings, Kindergarten Cop. Her own starring films: The Relic, The Gun In Betty Lou's Handbag. While far from unattractive, she was no beauty and as an actress she had some talent but hardly gifted. For all her film roles she never got talked about in the same breath as Julia or Michelle or Melanie or even Diane Lane. WHY did she work so much? I don't mean to pick on her but it really is inexplicable to me that someone could be the leading lady in so many high profile films and still elicit a "who?" from most people when you say her name now.
by Anonymous reply 226 January 31, 2022 5:59 AM
The Shadow (1994) was a box office flop and it probably hurt her career. Her next movie was The Relic (1997) which was also a flop. Seems like she went to indie films and supporting roles after that.
shareHow come Penelope Ann Miller went from being a big 90s movie star to barely scraping by in the following decades?
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zz0nhu/how_come_penelope_ann_miller_went_from_being_a/share
In the 90s, she seemed to be everywhere. She nearly got nominated for Carlito's Way. She was not the most amazing actress but she was cute and likable and always afforded the token romantic interest. But then KAPUTT. She was nowhere to be seen. I think her last big movie after the near vanishing was THE PHANTOM. After that, I only saw her in THE MESSENGERS and THE BUTLER.
It made me think of other actors who seem to be used often but then pretty much disappeared. I remember Wendy Crewson was used often in supporting roles in mainstream movies but now she works strictly in Canada.