I love Tuesday Weld in this movie- I wish she had more screen time. She seemed to be chanelling Marilyn Monroe in this film. Not so familiar with the rest of her work although I have also seen 'Play it as It Lays'- she's a terrific actress but it seems she had personal demons which prevented her from a prolific career in film.
shareI agree that Tuesday Weld is fantastic here, and I also wish she had more screen time though of course it's not her character's story. That's an interesting comment about channeling Marilyn Monroe – her character does call to my mind Marilyn the person, not the actress.
What are these "personal demons" you refer to that held Tuesday back from a prolific career? I suspect a lot of audiences didn't take seriously a woman who was as beautiful as she was early in her career. It's rare to have that much beauty and that much talent in the same actress. As a total about-face from this film, she's terrific in her comic role in "Serial" three years later.
I don't know- something about her performance in this film reminds me of Monroe in 'Bus Stop'. As for her demons- didn't her son, Patrick, allege that she had a drug problem. She also didn't get the role in 'The Stepford Wives' because of her 'migraines' according to the trivia, not to mention that she was considered for and offered a lot of choice roles which she claims to have turned down- it all just sounds ever so slightly flakey to me. From what I've read about her she seems to have been a somewhat tortured personality. In terms of not being taken very seriously- a lot of other pretty actresses were starting out/establishing themselves around the mid/late 60's, actresses such as Faye Dunaway and Jane Fonda and they became two of the biggest names throughout the 60's and 70's.
shareThanks for the details. Tuesday did keep an extremely low profile in the '70s (and beyond), and I guess it's no surprise that substances may have played a role in it.
I've just read her bio on this site, and it sounds like she had a Drew Barrymore-like childhood: nervous breakdown at 9, started drinking heavily at 10, began having affairs at 11 and tried to commit suicide at 12. Whew! We should be thankful she made it to 20.
I've seen Tuesday in a half-dozen or so films, and she's always been fantastic, particularly in this one. She was also excellent in "Who'll Stop the Rain" with Nick Nolte a year later and "Serial" a few years after that. "Once Upon a Time in America" in the '80s and "Falling Down" in the '90s are also terrific. The last film I saw of hers was "Chelsea Walls" about a decade ago, and I don't even remember her in it. But I did see "Feeling Minnesota" in the '90s, and it was dreadful, and sadly, Tuesday looked very bloated.
Tuesday was astonishingly beautiful and very talented in her prime, but for various reasons, she didn't get the career she deserved. It seems like this was partially out of choice. It certainly wasn't for lack of talent.
I agree, she is an excellent character actress, and thankfully, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role. I'm not sure why her career never really "took off". Perhaps it was due to personal demons, or rumoured substance abuse, or by choice. I think a lot of her later acting choices were offbeat, and perhaps not what many mainstream actresses would take. I mean, even this film, her character is a pill-popper, engages in orgies and has abortions. Her character in Once Upon a Time in America is even more reckless, especially one infamous scene featuring Weld and Robert DeNiro.
I learned about Weld when Matthew Sweet put her photo on the cover of his album, "Girlfriend." Yes, she was extremely beautiful, but like Michelle Pfeiffer, she's a superb actress.
The strange thing about "Girlfriend" is I've had that CD since it was released in the early '90s, but I didn't realize that was Tuesday Weld until a few weeks ago, when I Googled up on her history after reading posts here.
She is disarmingly beautiful -- but also very talented and underused. I wonder if gorgeous actresses like her have to work even harder to prove themselves, that maybe there's an assumption that they got a role because of their looks or some other, more insidious, reason. Anyone who has seen Tuesday act knows what an incredible talent she is.
I've had a copy of "Once Upon a Time in America" gathering dust for months now. I have to take it out one day soon when I have the time ... a lot of time.
She was great in LFMG but my favorite Tuesday film is Pretty Poison. She's sublime.
shareWarpedRecord
No, you keep going back to beautiful actresses who can't get a break, like a broken record. There is no sexism going on. Weld just sounds like a person who can't make up her mind from one day to the next, or never could decide what she wanted.
Weld just sounds like a person who can't make up her mind from one day to the next, or never could decide what she wanted.
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Weld has always been terrific in the films I have seen her in and she appears to have been a wasted talent and had fallen into the Patty Duke syndrome, due to her refusal of some meaty roles in now classic films, and perhaps some other odd choices. I have only seen the t.v movie CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE-86' once, in which she plays a stressed and troubled woman who has her mother living with her and gets physically abusive towards her. I recall her performance being excellent. The film also has a good cast with Geraldine Fitzgerald as her mother and River Phoenix as her son.
Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩
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I think Weld was a bit spoiled in her early career and had a touch of narcissism, self-importance and self-absorption to go along with it. Not to mention her alcoholism. She knew she was gifted and talented, yet one her best performances in Noel Black's PRETTY POISON-68', she claims she couldn't stand her director, or bear to have him even say 'Good Morning' to her. I wonder what that was all about? If she didn't want big stardom, that is her call and prerogative, yet as a talented actress, she was also very fortunate and privileged. Why squander the talent and looks she was blessed with and not be openly giving of what she had to offer, especially when she was sought after and offers came rolling in? She could have had the world at her feet, yet still be humble about it. At the same time, she got what she wanted, not being seen as big star, yet doesn't appear to be humble about that either.
Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩
Tuesday Weld began as sort of the Brooke Shields of her era. She was a successful child model from the age of 3 or something in Manhattan, and singlehandedly supported her brother and mom. (Her dad died early.) She didn't like modeling and didn't like her mom, either. But she had to live with both.
When she came to California as a very young teen, she was in the smash TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. She then did a lot of routine starlet roles...and I think that cinched her distaste for working in Hollywood just to work. She'd kind of had it with fame simply for fame's sake by that point.
She continued to work in films once she became an adult, but turned down highly commercial properties and focused on more offbeat sorts of films. Later she sometimes turned to TV movies to pay the bills, but I don't think she was rvrt very interested in conventional material.
It would be very interesting if she wrote a book (a reporter once asked her what "drove her into seclusion," and she wryly answered that she thought it was a Buick), but she seems to be a very private person. She's hardly ever given interviews.
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