Recasting 2025 (supporting): "Weapons"

When I completed my original recasting project in 2021, and then the supporting series a year later, both of the final entries were roles that won the original actress an Oscar. Perhaps it's fitting that I conclude this updated series with Weapons. The great Amy Madigan of course secured the supporting win for her thrilling performance as Aunt Gladys.

With the exception of my recasting addendum to include The Silence of the Lambs, I don't think I've selected a horror film for this series. Or really anything that's sort of supernatural in theme. But I just couldn't pass up this role. The premise of the movie is that all but one kid from an entire class disappears at the same time in the middle of the night, running from their homes with their arms spread wide. It turns out that Aunt Gladys, who is a witch, had been invited to the home of Alex (the lone child who did not run away) by his parents, only to bewitch them and to force Alex to collect items from his classmates for Aunt Gladys to then bewitch the kids, effectively feeding off their energy. There are a handful of side stories that all play out from different characters' points of view (Julia Garner as the class's teacher, Josh Brolin as the determined father of one of the missing children), with the story culminating in Aunt Glady's ritual being used against her and the kids all ripping her to pieces. 

One of the creepiest things is when someone you know or suspect is sinister acts almost excessively nicely. It's a manipulative and disarming tactic that so often works because other people have such a hard time being anything close to unkind to them, even if they're suspicious of said person's intentions. Madigan showcases this brilliantly in her interaction with the principal (Benedict Wong). One thing I'll mention is that we know Meryl isn't historically thrilled with portraying witches. Although she played the Witch in Into the Woods, she has stated that since it's a Sondheim musical it's a "complicated" witch, and therefore okay to play, versus the "oh I'm over 40 now, women are old and ugly after that age so these are the parts I'm going to get offered" kind of witch. Aunt Gladys is a little bit of the latter, but I'd argue that her character, particularly in the context of this story, has more layers to her beyond simply wanting to hurt people. I'm reminded of a Vanity Fair interview from writer/director Zach Cregger, where he stated that he gave Madigan the option of choosing between two options for Gladys's origin: 

...one where she was a regular person using witchcraft to prevent her dying from an incurable condition, and one where she was instead an immortal creature performing an approximate simulacrum of a human being, but that he did not ask her which one she chose.

I think Meryl could empathize with the former example; a human being trying to extend her life by whatever means she knows, even if it happens to hurt others. That could be an interesting complication to try to work out in a character. I of course don't know which version Madigan chose (I don't know if she's ever commented on it), but if I were to guess, I imagine it was the human example. 

Weapons did extremely well with critics (93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 81 on Metacritic). The box office receipts were rather staggering as well, grossing $270 million worldwide against a $38 million budget. Horror sort of feels like it's having an auteur resurgence in recent years, which makes the prospect of the news from about a year ago at this time about director JT Mollner having penned a horror script for Meryl. Given the right character, I would be thrilled to see Meryl cast in a true, smart horror film. 

Below you can see the full updated lists of both lead and supporting recasting selections, including the number of roles originated by specific actresses. Hopefully I'll update again in another five years!

Lead:

1976: Hester Street (Gitl) 

1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Jillian Guiler) 

1978: Julia (Julia) 

1979: The Rose (Mary Rose Foster) 

1980: American Gigolo (Michelle Stratton) 

1981: Reds (Louise Bryant) 

1982: Frances (Frances Farmer) 

1983: Romancing the Stone (Joan Wilder) 

1984: A Passage to India (Adela Quested) 

1985: Agnes of God (Dr. Martha Livingston) 

1986: Crimes of the Heart (Rebecca Magrath/Babe Botrell) 

1987: Anna (Anna) 

1988: Gorillas in the Mist (Dian Fossey) 

1989: Dangerous Liaisons (Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil) 

1990: The Grifters (Lilly Dillon) 

1991: Fried Green Tomatoes (Evelyn Couch) 

1992: Blue Sky (Carly Marshall) 

1993. The Piano (Ada McGrath) 

1994: Dolores Claiborne (Dolores Claiborne) 

1995: Copycat (Helen Hudson) 

1996: Dead Man Walking (Sister Helen Prejean) 

1997: As Good as It Gets (Carol Connelly) 

1998: Primary Colors (Susan Stanton) 

1999: American Beauty (Carolyn Burnham) 

2000: Requiem for a Dream (Sara Goldfarb) 

2001: The Contender (Laine Billings Hanson) 

2002: In the Bedroom (Ruth Fowler) 

2003: Panic Room (Meg Altman) 

2004: Vera Drake (Vera Drake) 

2005: Elizabeth I (Queen Elizabeth I) 

2006: Notes on a Scandal (Barbara Covett) 

2007: Frozen River (Ray Eddy) 

2008: Grey Gardens (Edith Bouvier Beale) 

2009: The Last Station (Sophia Tolstaya) 

2010: The Kids Are All Right (Nicole Allgood) 

2011: The Debt (Rachel Singer) 

2012: Saving Mr. Banks (P.L. Travers) 

2013: The Hundred-Foot Journey (Madame Mallory) 

2014: Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge) 

2015: Hello, My Name is Doris (Doris Miller) 

2016: Julieta (Julieta) 

2017: Feud (Joan Crawford) 

2018: The Wife (Joan Castleman) 

2019: Catherine the Great (Catherine the Great) 

2020: Nomadland (Fern)

2021: Mass (Linda)

2022: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Ada Harris)

2023: Nyad (Diana Nyad)

2024: The Room Next Door (Martha)

2025: The Summer Book (Grandmother)

Roles by originating actress:

Helen Mirren (5)

Jessica Lange (4)

Kathy Bates (2)

Anette Bening (3)

Glenn Close (3)

Frances McDormand (2)

Sissy Spacek (2)

Emma Thompson (2)

Sigourney Weaver (2)

Joan Allen (1)

Ellen Burstyn (1)

Judy Davis (1)

Judi Dench (1)

Ann Dowd (1)

Melinda Dillon (1)

Sally Field (1)

Jane Fonda (1)

Jodie Foster (1)

Helen Hunt (1)

Holly Hunter (1)

Anjelica Huston (1)

Lauren Hutton (1)

Carole Kane (1)

Diane Keaton (1)

Sally Kirkland (1)

Melissa Leo (1)

Lesley Manville (1)

Bette Midler (1)

Vanessa Redgrave (1)

Susan Sarandon (1)

Imelda Staunton (1)

Emma Suárez (1)

Tilda Swinton (1)

Kathleen Turner (1)

Supporting:

1976: Marathon Man (Elsa Opel) 

1977: Jesus of Nazareth (Mary the mother of Jesus) 

1978: Coming Home (Vi Munson) 

1979: All that Jazz (Angelique, The Angel of Death) 

1980: Ragtime (Mother) 

1981: On Golden Pond (Chelsea Thayer Wayne) 

1982: Annie (Grace Farrell) 

1983: The Big Chill (Meg Jones) 

1984: Witness (Rachel Lapp)

1985: Clue (Miss Scarlet)

1986: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Iza) 

1987: Empire of the Sun (Mrs. Victor)

1988: Working Girl (Katharine Parker) 

1989: Parenthood (Helen Buckman)

1990: Goodfellas (Karen Hill) 

1991: The Prince of Tides (Lila Wingo Newbury) 

1992: Damage (Ingrid Thompson-Fleming)

1993: In the Name of the Father (Gareth Peirce)

1994: Bullets Over Broadway (Helen Sinclair) 

1995: Rob Roy (Mary MacGregor) 

1996: The Birdcage (Louise Keeley)

1997: The Ice Storm (Janey Carver)

1998: Pleasantville (Betty Parker) 

1999: Tea with Mussolini (Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan)  

2000: Almost Famous (Elaine Miller) 

2001: The Royal Tenenbaums (Etheline Tenenbaum) 

2002: White Oleander (Ingrid Magnussen)

2003: The Station Agent (Olivia Harris)

2004: Sideways (Maya)

2005: Alexander (Queen Olympias)

2006: Children of Men (Miriam)

2007: Hairspray (Velma Von Tussle)

2008: Rachel Getting Married (Abby Buchman)

2009: Animal Kingdom (Janine "Smurf" Cody) 

2010: The Fighter (Alice Ecklund-Ward)

2011: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Harriet Vanger)

2012: Mildred Pierce (Lucy Gessler) 

2013: Top of the Lake (GJ)

2014: Snowpiercer (Minister Mason) 

2015: Trumbo (Hedda Hopper) 

2016: The Wizard of Lies (Ruth Madoff)

2017: I, Tonya (LaVona Golden) 

2018: Sharp Objects (Adora Crellin)

2019: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Marilyn Miglin) 

2020: Succession (Nan Pierce)

2021: Mare of Eastown (Helen Fahey)

2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once (Deirdre Beaubeirdre)

2023: Women Talking (Agata Friesen)

2024: Queer (Dr. Cotter)

2025: Weapons (Aunt Gladys)

Roles by originating actress:

Michelle Pfeiffer (3) 

Dianne Wiest (3) 

Patricia Clarkson (2) 

Jessica Lange (2) 

Melissa Leo (2) 

Miranda Richardson (2) 

Sigourney Weaver (2) 

Joan Allen (1) 

Lorraine Bracco (1) 

Cher (1) 

Jamie Lee Curtis (1) 

Pam Ferris (1) 

Jane Fonda (1) 

Holly Hunter (1) 

Olivia Hussey (1) 

Anjelica Huston (1) 

Judith Ivey (1)

Allison Janney (1) 

Angelina Jolie (1) 

Cherry Jones (1) 

Marthe Keller (1) 

Judith Light (1) 

Amy Madigan (1)

Virginia Madsen (1) 

Lesley Manville (1)

Frances McDormand (1) 

Kelly McGillis (1) 

Penelope Milford (1) 

Helen Mirren (1) 

Mary Kay Place (1) 

Pamela Reed (1) 

Ann Reinking (1) 

Joely Richardson (1) 

Jean Smart (1) 

Mary Steenburgen (1) 

Tilda Swinton (1) 

Emma Thompson (1) 

Lesley Ann Warren (1) 

Debra Winger (1) 

Jackie Weaver (1)

Recasting 2024 (supporting): "Queer"

I would love nothing more than for Meryl to be in a Luca Guadagnino movie. I doubt we'll ever get to see it, but part of the fun of this recasting project is getting to imagine her in roles with directors or other actors that she's never worked with. I was unaware of Guadagnino prior to 2017's Call Me by Your Name. I had really enjoyed the book, so I was excited that the movie was excellent as well. Anytime I see a queer storyline with a great screenplay and top-notch actors, it's a delight. 

So, too, was his 2024 movie Queer. The movie is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs's 1985 novella, which follows an American expatriate named William Lee (Daniel Craig) in Mexico City in the 1950s. He becomes infatuated with a younger man named Eugene Allerton (Craig Starkey). Lee is addicted to opioids, and he invites Eugene to join him on a trip to South America in search of a plant called yagé, which is said to provide telepathic abilities. Lee hears about a medical doctor in the Ecuacor who might be able to help him find the yagé, which is where we are introduced to the very eccentric Dr. Cotter, portrayed by the great Leslie Manville. I unfortunately couldn't find a single clip of Manville in the role online, but there's a little bit of it in the second half of the original trailer:

It's a very quirky character, but Manville shines pretty brightly in the scenes we get of her. Dr. Cotter comes off at first as a possible lunatic, but we learn that she's actually a brilliant researcher who has cultivated a close relationship with the native people in the jungle. She has tons of yagé and she brews some for the guys, which causes them to hallucinate in a very graphic and mesmerizing scene. 

Lee doesn't hear from Eugene after they leave South America, and the movie ends with Lee and old man, yearning for and remembering his time with Eugene. So not exactly an uplifting ending. 

I admit that a lot of the appeal for me choosing this role is the fact that it's a Guadagnino movie, not just the character itself. The role actually reminds me (on paper) of Dr. Swenson from the Ann Patchett's novel State of Wonder. But the real similarities between Dr. Cotter and Dr. Swenson sort of end at the fact that they're doctors and that they do research in a South American jungle. But Dr. Cotter is the kind of small character-actress part that we've seen Meryl do. She's taken glorified cameos in The Homesman, Suffragette and The Giver and Little Women. Had she been offered, I wonder if she would've accepted. 

Queer is the kind of film that is easy for me to revisit. Unsurprisingly, it's visually stunning. And I love the setting and styling of that period in Mexico City. The movie did fairly well with critics, earing a 77% o Rotten Tomatoes and a 72 on Metacritic. Manville managed to snag a supporting actress nod from the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards (so prestigious!), and Craig was nominated for everything except the Academy Award. 

Recasting 2023 (supporting): "Women Talking"

When it was announced that there was going to be a feature film adaptation of Miriam Toews's novel, Women Talking, I got a little excited in anticipation of a possible role for Meryl. I hadn't actually read the book yet, but I was and am a huge fan of Toews's novel, All My Puny Sorrows, so I quickly got my hands on a copy of Women Talking. Alas, Meryl was not involved in the picture, which was brilliantly directed (and written) by Sarah Polley (Away from Her). But I nonetheless clocked it as a great option for my supporting recasting project. 

First off, I've bumped this movie from 2022 to 2023 in order to have included Everything Everywhere All at Once for my official 2022 pick. I'm not sure if all the same actors would've been available to shoot it a year later, but I'm not letting that get in the way. 

The premise of the story is based on a real-life event where Mennonite women in a remote colony in Bolivia were being gassed and raped by the men in the community. The book/movie bring this to North America. And although I don't recall if we get an actual location named in either, the setting could be anywhere in the Midwest, Northeast U.S., or southern Canada, as far as I can tell. Most of the movie depicts the women (elders of the colony, their children, and their children's children), discussing and debating what to do about the rapes. It may seem like an obvious answer about what to do (get the f out), but the beauty of the story is that in this community, such questions come with a host of complications. They ultimately decide to take a vote, with one of three options to select: stay and fight, leave, and do nothing. After the vote is a tie between staying/fighting and leaving, the debate ensues. The following clip showcases the recasted role of Agata Friesen, exquisitely portrayed by the great Judith Ivey. 

I just feel that this is the kind of material that Meryl would eat up. Being that the culture, while contemporary, is so far removed from what most movie-goers have ever lived, it's hard for us to not immediately jump to a conclusion that simply remove the women from the space of the men. While that ultimately is the decision the women in this story make, they battle with reaching such a decision. There are questions of their Christian faith, loyalty, fear out of leaving the only home they've ever known and venturing into a big wide world so unlike their existence that might as well be Timbuktu. And all this not mentioning the emotional, physical and spiritual trauma most of them are experiencing in the aftermath of being violated by rape, and in some cases, incestuous instances of it. 

It's a powerhouse cast, with Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand, and Ben Whishaw (pretty much the only man in the cast with much screen time, portraying the sensitive August, invited to join the meetings to take written account of them).  While not an exhilarating film, it's beautifully shot and exceptionally acted, and, like I suspect Meryl would've liked, it's a thinker. Those/these types of movies get me excited to watch and discuss them. It made no money of course, but I can't imagine it was the type of movie that producers thought people would flock to. Regardless, I'm glad it got made. 

The film did very well with critics, with a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 on Metacritic. It made it into the cut for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and Polley won for her adapted screenplay. Well done, as it's a very wordy film, the kind that seems more like it had been based off of a play instead of a novel. The cast earned several ensemble nominations from critics groups (including SAG). And while Jessie Buckely received the most supporting actress notices, I think Judith Ivey's performance was excellent, and did earn her a nomination for an AARP Movies for Grownups Award and a win from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle for Best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film.

Recasting 2022 (supporting): "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

Somewhat unexpectedly, my lead recasting project from two years ago ended up being a tidy 365 days between first and last selections. That timeline worked out pretty well for me as far as getting all my posts completed the way I wanted to. And so it is that I wrap up this supporting recasting project the way I began it last year, on Memorial Day. It's pure coincidence that in both projects the final selection is for a role that won an Academy Award for its original actor, and in a film that was critically acclaimed and went on to win both Best Picture and Director.  

Everything Everywhere All at Once is difficult to neatly classify as a film. It incorporates elements of sci-fi, comedy, drama, martial arts, absurdism. I have to admit that when it first became available to stream, I I tried watching it and stopped after about forty-five minutes (which I almost NEVER do with movies). I knew little about it at the time, other than a few comments about the cast and that it was getting great reviews. I was just not in the mood to watch something quite as volatile and wild as this movie turned out to be. I ended up revisiting it of course, much due to the fact that it seemed like the role of IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre (expertly portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis) might be an interesting role to imagine Meryl taking on. 

It's very difficult to summarize the plot of this movie if you haven't seen it (or even if you have!). But suffice it to say, as far as the plot goes the film follows a Chinese immigrant family in the United States (Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Kwan as married parents of Stephanie Hsu's character) who are struggling with their marriage and laundromat business, which is being audited by the IRS. Next blurb from Wikipedia: 

At a tense meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's body is taken over by Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the "Alphaverse." Alpha-Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist because every life choice creates a new alternative universe. The Alphaverse, led by the late Alpha-Evelyn, developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely.

So, a bunch of universe jumping takes place and Evelyn (Yeoh) and her family are given a reprieve from the IRS, and Evelyn and her daughter sort of make peace, and we're left with some semblance of understanding that life is not meaningless. I think?

It's a pretty wacky ride, but it's fun that Deirdre is not only a very distinctly written character in her "main" universe, but that she (like the other main characters) gets to portray multiple different people in the various universes through which Evelyn jumps. We learn a little about Deirdre and her likely decision to offer the Wangs a reprieve on their audit.

   

The hot dog fingers are about the limit ha. And I like how in that "hot dog hand" universe, when Deirdre plays the piano with her feet her wrist brace is now on her ankle. 

I suspect this might have been a bit too "out there" of a role for it to have been on Meryl's radar. But it actually does remind me a bit of her turn in 2002's Adaptation where there's a "meta" feature to it, even if that one was on a much more sedated level. But what fun it would've been to see her participate in Everything Everywhere, especially considering its critical and box office success. It's not a film that I'll likely revisit over and over, but I'm pleased that a diverse cast and creative team were so successful with both audiences and critics. 

The movie earned $140 million at the worldwide box office on a shoestring budget of only $14.3 million. It holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 81 score on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim." And whoa did it ever clean up at the Academy Awards this spring. It won seven Oscars out if its ten nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director(s) for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and of course, Best Supporting Actress for Curtis. Curtis also won the SAG award and was nominated by BAFTA and the Globes, among several Critics circles nominations. I think it makes for an excellent final addition to this year-long list of roles. 

As I made a point of doing in my lead recasting project, I'd like to take my hat off to all of the remarkable actors who originated the roles in the below list. Their work is exciting and inspiring to me. And although I'm ending this series for now, I plan to eventually add my selections (for both lead and supporting recasting categories) for future years. Thanks to all those who've read these posts and participated in the dialogue around the roles and projects. You've made it a lot of fun for me!

1976: Marathon Man (Elsa Opel) 

1977: Jesus of Nazareth (Mary the mother of Jesus) 

1978: Coming Home (Vi Munson) 

1979: All that Jazz (Angelique, The Angel of Death) 

1980: Ragtime (Mother) 

1981: On Golden Pond (Chelsea Thayer Wayne) 

1982: Annie (Grace Farrell) 

1983: The Big Chill (Meg Jones) 

1984: Witness (Rachel Lapp)

1985: Clue (Miss Scarlet)

1986: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Iza) 

1987: Empire of the Sun (Mrs. Victor)

1988: Working Girl (Katharine Parker) 

1989: Parenthood (Helen Buckman)

1990: Goodfellas (Karen Hill) 

1991: The Prince of Tides (Lila Wingo Newbury) 

1992: Damage (Ingrid Thompson-Fleming)

1993: In the Name of the Father (Gareth Peirce)

1994: Bullets Over Broadway (Helen Sinclair) 

1995: Rob Roy (Mary MacGregor) 

1996: The Birdcage (Louise Keeley)

1997: The Ice Storm (Janey Carver)

1998: Pleasantville (Betty Parker) 

1999: Tea with Mussolini (Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan)  

2000: Almost Famous (Elaine Miller) 

2001: The Royal Tenenbaums (Etheline Tenenbaum) 

2002: White Oleander (Ingrid Magnussen)

2003: The Station Agent (Olivia Harris)

2004: Sideways (Maya)

2005: Alexander (Queen Olympias)

2006: Children of Men (Miriam)

2007: Hairspray (Velma Von Tussle)

2008: Rachel Getting Married (Abby Buchman)

2009: Animal Kingdom (Janine "Smurf" Cody) 

2010: The Fighter (Alice Ecklund-Ward)

2011: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Harriet Vanger)

2012: Mildred Pierce (Lucy Gessler) 

2013: Top of the Lake (GJ)

2014: Snowpiercer (Minister Mason) 

2015: Trumbo (Hedda Hopper) 

2016: The Wizard of Lies (Ruth Madoff)

2017: I, Tonya (LaVona Golden) 

2018: Sharp Objects (Adora Crellin)

2019: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Marilyn Miglin) 

2020: Succession (Nan Pierce)

2021: Mare of Eastown (Helen Fahey)

2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once (Deirdre Beaubeirdre)

Roles by originating actress:

Michelle Pfeiffer (3) 

Dianne Wiest (3) 

Patricia Clarkson (2) 

Jessica Lange (2) 

Melissa Leo (2) 

Miranda Richardson (2) 

Sigourney Weaver (2) 

Joan Allen (1) 

Lorraine Bracco (1) 

Cher (1) 

Jamie Lee Curtis (1) 

Pam Ferris (1) 

Jane Fonda (1) 

Holly Hunter (1) 

Olivia Hussey (1) 

Anjelica Huston (1) 

Allison Janney (1) 

Angelina Jolie (1) 

Cherry Jones (1) 

Marthe Keller (1) 

Judith Light (1) 

Virginia Madsen (1) 

Frances McDormand (1) 

Kelly McGillis (1) 

Penelope Milford (1) 

Helen Mirren (1) 

Mary Kay Place (1) 

Pamela Reed (1) 

Ann Reinking (1) 

Joely Richardson (1) 

Jean Smart (1) 

Mary Steenburgen (1) 

Tilda Swinton (1) 

Emma Thompson (1) 

Lesley Ann Warren (1) 

Debra Winger (1) 

Jackie Weaver (1)

Recasting 2021 (supporting): "Mare of Easttown"

For the penultimate selection in this series, I thought it appropriate to note that of the last ten selections, seven of them have been from television. Of those, five of the shows originally premiered on HBO. I've touched on this phenomenon several times in the past, but I think the trend is an example of where the good parts are moving (or have moved), not only for women over 50, but for women in general. If it's not about a superhero or is a sequel primarily known for its special effects, it's quite possible the project's greatest audience will be found on the small screen. 

I've also commented on my affinity for limited series. I enjoy that they have a clear arc from start to finish, and yet they're longer than a feature film and so we get to go deeper into the story and, more importantly, into the characters' lives and minds. Mare of Easttown is one such example of why I'm so drawn to and glad for the reemergence of the miniseries/limited series as a venue for the best performers. I watched it when it came two years ago and found it to be one of my all-time favorites. The great Kate Winlset stars as Mare, a detective in a suburb of Philadelphia trying to solve the murder of a teenage girl while navigating the challenges of her own complex and painful personal life. The role I'm recasting is that of Mare's mother, Helen Fahey, originally portrayed by the splendid Jean Smart. 

The very nature of a "supporting" role is that it's not necessarily all about them. The story is all about Mare, and everyone else is an extension of her world. With that in mind, it may seem like Helen's character doesn't have a lot to do, other than to be in the background with a few wisecracks and perturbed looks in response to her daughter's somewhat questionable decisions. After having recently watched the series in full for the second time, I realized I had sort of forgotten that Helen, as a character, has plenty for an actress to showcase. She's a woman who's lost both her husband and adult grandson to suicide, she's moved in with her daughter to help care for her great-grandson (of whom Mare is attempting to maintain custody), and she has to sort of delicately walk the line of trying to fight for keeping the little boy while not alienating his troubled mother so as to lose him forever. In one of the lighter moments of the series, she's outed after a neighbor's funeral as having an affair with the man's husband. 

Above all though, I think the trickiest and most interesting work for the character is summarized in the last episode of the series (the one Smart submitted to the Television Academy and for which she ultimately received an Emmy nomination), where she tearfully reveals to her daughter the struggle she had in managing their mother-daughter relationship in the wake of her own grief. I apologize I was unable to find a suitable clip of the scene. But it's a touching (if a bit comically awkward) scene, and it provides the audience a sense of perhaps some closure for both Mare and Helen. 

Similar to what I mentioned in last week's post with Succession, it would just be a lot of fun to be able to insert Meryl into this world. It's a vivid tapestry of characters in a close-knit clan that is as quick to forgive each other as they are to knock-down drag-out fights. Like one big, dysfunctional family. The region also has a very distinct accent, one which I've read that Kate Winslet insisted on the entire cast nailing for authenticity purposes. I think some of the actors were more successful than others with that. And I think we could've expected Meryl to have enjoyed and excelled at that piece. 

Mare of Easttown was lauded by critics. It holds a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 81 on Metacritic. As mentioned, Smart earned an Emmy nod, while Julianne Nicholson won in her category, as did Evan Peters in supporting and Winslet of course in lead. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Limited series, Directing (Craig Zobel) and Screenplay (Brad Inglesby), losing the first two to my favorite show of that season, The Queen's Gambit. 

Recasting 2020 (supporting): "Succession"

I never thought I'd picture recasting Meryl in a true series. With the trend in the best parts for women shifting to television over the last fifteen years or so, however, my recent selections have been mostly from that medium. I generally find myself getting attached to fewer and fewer non-limited series. My view is that so few of them really stop at the right time, and that they tend to eventually jump the shark or completely cycle through the original cast to the point that it's barely the same show anymore. This is probably more true with network television in the U.S., whereas a good bunch of cable series do a better job of keeping the show's entire arc to a reasonable limit. HBO's Emmy-award winning powerhouse, Succession is one such show. 

There aren't many programs in recent history where I honestly cannot wait to watch the next episode. Game of Thrones comes to mind, The Americans, Schitt's Creek (excluding limited series where I often get to binge them).  Succession is definitely one of those. It will go down for me as one of the best television shows I've ever watched. And it seems to just keep getting better. The current and fourth season will be its last, with the series finale wrapping up on May 28. For those unfamiliar, the often-satirical show follows the Roy family, owners of a media conglomerate loosely based on the Murdoch family, which in real life owns News Corps and the Fox Corporation (under which we get the batshit news channel Fox News). Brian Cox portrays Logan Roy, the patriarch and CEO in the show. He is ostensibly trying to identify which of his four children would be an appropriate successor to the "throne." It's difficult not to draw some parallels to Lion in Winter (one of my favorite movies), with the kids all jockeying for the big job.

I'm recasting Meryl in a role that was (mostly) seen in season 2 (and bumping it a year from when it aired in September 2019 to 2020). Cherry Jones plays Nan Pierce, the head of a rival, left-leaning media company named PGM. Logan wants to acquire it, and by episode five of the season, the Roys meet up with the Pierces at the Pierce family estate, called Tern Haven. This is one of the best and most enjoyable episodes of TV I've ever watched. There's so much intrigue and enticing friction between the two families; the Pierces are depicted as a more landed gentry yet progressive-type of wealthy family, compared to the more nouveau riche Roy clan. The way they talk, the things that interest them, their politics, are for the most part vastly different between the two families. There are great moments of both discomfort and humor. The big scene in the episode is the dinner scene. Much like the one in August: Osage County, it's a long scene with a lot of moving parts. Nan is trying to get a feel for Logan's interests, including whom he plans to name as a new CEO upon his departure. 

In one of the last scenes of the episode, the two titans go head to head to try to finally nail down a deal. 

It would be a lot of fun to see Meryl negotiate that scene. She's got to be tough, but she's also sort of in a corner. Nan shows up in the following episode for a bit as well, where she puts the kibosh on a deal that they ended up actually hammering out at the end of the first episode. It was fun to see her get Logan so riled up. And she does make an appearance for a brief scene in the current season as well (spoiler!). 

Jones won an Emmy for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in Tern Haven. I realize that in the grand scheme of a show with nearly forty episodes, the role of Nan Pierce is pretty small, but when compared to movies, it's quite a bit of screen time. And I just like the idea of putting Meryl into that world, with all the rest of those incredible actors/characters, on a show that I absolutely adore. 

Succession has of course been nominated for and won several top awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for both its second and third seasons. All the main cast members have been nominated for their work, and the writing and directing are regularly recognized as well. I sort of expect that could be something close to an Emmy sweep coming this fall since this is the final season. If so, it would be well-deserved. Sad to see it go!  

Recasting 2019 (supporting): "The Assassination of Gianni Versace"

For anyone reading the title of this week's post and thinking that 1) the year is wrong, and 2) this series was released before last week's choice of Sharp Objects, hold your horses. Yes, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story was indeed released on HBO a few months prior to Sharp Objects. But as I have done with other selections in this and my lead recasting projects, if there are two projects from the same year that I want to choose, I often place first the one that was filmed first. In this case, it was Sharp Objects, hence Versace coming afterward. 

Based on real events, this miniseries follows the life of Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss), who ended a three-month killing spree with the murder of famous Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, his fifth victim. Cunanan's third victim was real estate tycoon, Lee Miglin. Miglin was a closeted gay man who had met the much younger Cunanan, who was an escort at the time, at a party. It is Miglin's wife, Marilyn, whom I have chosen to recast in this production. Brilliantly portrayed by Judith Light, Marilyn, a long-time host on the Home Shopping Network, came back from a business trip to their home in Chicago in 1997 to find her husband murdered. It's the aftermath of this discovery and the sort of mental hoops the character goes through when dealing with police and the press that make for a fascinating opportunity for any actor. 

This would be such a great character to unpack. If you've seen the entire episode (Marilyn basically has one episode of the nine in which she's prominently featured, as well as a small amount at the end), you get a feeling that Marilyn may have suspicions about her husband's sexuality, without it being directly acknowledged. She insists after Lee's death that it be portrayed as a random killing in the press. This likely became next to impossible to maintain the more the country and the world learned about Cunanan and the nature of his crimes. Light does an amazing job in the role. It's one of those tricky scenarios where the actor has to portray someone who's basically pretending within the role as well. Marilyn puts up quite the front on her shopping network, and seems to sort of hide behind the cover of her work, perhaps to not have to deal with the reality of not only her loss, but the fact that she'd been married to someone for over forty years without fully knowing them. Of course there's some creative license in all this, as we don't know for sure what Marilyn knew about her husband. Regardless, it's a tale as old as time, where the seemingly deceived wife (or husband) has to struggle to not beat themselves up for not realizing the truth. It's easy to see how denial is a natural rabbit hole to go down.  

I've watched this series twice, and it still kind of boggles my mind that the first killings took place so close to where I grew up. I have vague memories of the news of Cunanan, but the first four murders were sort of lost in the background (I was 17 at the time) of his extremely high-profile final victim. Watching the backstory of his first two victims, Jeffrey Trail and Davis Madson, it's wild and sad the extent to which gay men had to be fearful of being outed in their lives (understandably, particularly in the military) less than thirty years ago. 

The series was very well-received by critics, currently holding an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74 on Metacritic. Six actors were nominated for Primetime Emmy awards for their performances, including Light (along with Edgar Ramírez as Versace, Penélope Cruz as his sister Donatella, Ricky Martin as Versace's partner Antonio D'Amico, and Finn Wittrock as Trail). Criss deservedly won for his lead performance, while Ryan Murphy (at his best in this series in my opinion) earned a win for directing the show's premiere episode.  

Recasting 2018 (supporting): "Sharp Objects"

Not long after Meryl starred in the second season of Big Little Lies, I came across an interesting article that bemoaned the paucity of good screen acting roles for women of a certain generation. Specifically, the article honed in on the fact that female characters for which much of the television awards recognition came that year (at least in the supporting categories), happened to be of women one might tend to describe as "crazy." There was Meryl's nutty mom trying to commit her daughter-in-law in BLL, Jessica Lange in The Politician (shocking that Lange took a role as a disturbed person eye roll), Patricia Arquette in The Act. This last one showcases a mother with a psychological disorder called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which someone makes someone else, or keeps them, ill for attention. There's good points to consider in the question of why there weren't or aren't better roles than crazy moms for these ladies. It's a debate certainly worth having. That said, I don't think such characters should automatically be removed from the screen. There's definitely some truth and real-life examples that substantiate this sort of depiction, even if in 2019, there happened to be a large number of them all at once, making it seem perhaps a bit like veteran actresses are getting relegated to portraying an archetype of unstable loons. 

In director Jean-Marc Vallée's (season 1 of Big Little Lies, Dallas Buyers Club) HBO limited series, Sharp Objects, we see another one of these characters who demonstrates the same illness as that of Arquette's. Based on Gillian Flynn's novel of the same name, Sharp Objects follows a journalist, Camille (Amy Adams), who returns to her southern hometown and to the peculiar mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson), from whom she is estranged. Camille investigates the death of two teenage girls in her hometown in Missouri, which antagonizes her mother, who's a wealthy owner of a hog factory and is consumed by maintaining appearances of being a refined Southern belle. But as it turns out (spoiler alert), Adora is responsible for the death of Camille's sister years ago and is currently doing the same thing to Camille's younger half-sister, Amma (portrayed by the stellar Eliza Scanlen). Additional spoiler(!): Amma is the killer of the teenage girls in town.

I've seen interviews with Patricia Clarkson where she talked about how she approached her role. I imagine it's not a unique response among actors when she described Adora as someone for whom she had to have understanding, or even love. That may be the key to convincingly and humanely portraying any character. We all believe in what we want and what motivates us, no matter how vile or incomprehensible that may be to anyone else. It's why I think it's OK that we see these types of characters for veteran actors. Not that being mentally ill is the only facet of a character that could possibly make a woman over 50 interesting, but I don't think it's something that needs to be shuttered from depiction. And I think it's done tastefully and with compassion in this series. I also just love the setting. For whatever reason, I've always been drawn the gentility and refinement of certain southern customs (definitely not the slave-owning one), and Sharp Objects has many of those on display, including the gorgeous house Adora lives in and the fact that it's always sunny and hot and yet people don't seem to be sweating that badly. 

The production was a major critical success, currently holding a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 78 score on Metacritic. Along with Emmy and SAG nominations, Clarkson won the Golden Globe for Supporting Actress. I tend to think winning this category at the Globes is a little more impressive, because the nominees are drawn from the categories of series, limited series and television movie. Clarkson definitely deserved the win. Amy Adams made the rounds with noms at all the major awards shows as well, although she didn't manage to win any of them (unless I start counting the Critics' Choice Awards). The show itself also managed a Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Best Limited Series, while Vallée was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for his directing.  

 

Recasting 2017 (supporting): "I, Tonya"

As I hinted at the end of my last post in this series, one of the roles for which I've sort of coveted for Meryl has been Allison Janney's Academy Award-winning performance in I, Tonya. It's well-known that screenwriter Steven Rogers wrote the part for Janney, as the two were longtime friends. It's therefore very unlikely that Meryl would've gotten near this role, even if she had been interested. But that's the fun of this project--getting to imagine that Meryl would've somehow had a connection that would've placed her in the running. 

The role itself is that of LaVona Golden, mother of infamous figure skater Tonya Harding. This is where I'm so drawn to this movie and character. In early 1992, at the age of 12, I watched the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on TV. I don't recall exactly why I was so into it, but I recorded it on our VCR and watched it over and over. I could remember the "Battle of the Carmens" from Calgary in 1988 between German Katarina Witt and American Debi Thomas, both of whom skated their Olympic long programs to the music of George Bizet's opera of the same name. It was an intense competition with a lot of media coverage pitting the two skaters against each other. The results were ultimately disappointing for me, as Thomas had a bad skate and finished with only a bronze. We didn't have a VCR in '88, so the memories of it (which included a very young Ekaterina Gordeeva--a pairs skater with Sergei Grinkov--as the media darling of the games), along with vague memories of Japan's Midori Ito being the first woman to land a triple axel in '89, remained just that, memories. 

I think it was my ability to rewatch the U.S. Championships and soaking in the spectacle of Tonya Harding, who by then had become the first American to land a triple axel (in Minneapolis!) the year prior, that sort of sucked me in to the events leading up to that year's Olympics in Albertville, France. Harding was the reigning U.S. champion, but she had finished second to fellow American Kristi Yamaguchi at the World Championships the year before. Incidentally, Nancy Kerrigan finished third at the worlds in '91, making it a clean sweep for America on the podium. The skating itself was fascinating to me, but the drama of waiting to see who would take home the top prize at the Olympics was probably the most entertaining bit of it all. 

For whatever reason, I was sort of pulling for Tonya in '92. Maybe it was because I liked that she was the best jumper. She also felt more like the small-town rural girl with whom I more closely identified. Not that I didn't love Yamaguchi too, just that there was something about Harding that felt like she needed more rooting for. In the end, Haring had a disappointing Olympics, and ended up returning two years later for the Games in Lillehammer, Norway. 

It's basically Harding's life leading up to these second games and the wild ride afterward that make up the events of this movie. Very few people are unfamiliar with the story of how Harding's dumb husband tried to mastermind clubbing Nancy Kerrigan to try to prevent her competing at the Olympics, which would have paved the way for Harding to more easily take gold. It didn't work the way they wanted, and Tonya was eventually banned for life from competing due to her somewhat oblique involvement in the scheme. Not as many people knew how rough of an upbringing Harding had, which is vividly depicted in the scenes involving her mother. 

It's easy to draw parallels between this character and Violet Weston, Meryl's character in her August: Osage County. They're both rather unfeeling mothers, who, under the guise of giving their daughters a leg up, sacrifice their own upward mobility, only to later resent their children when they don't succeed to the level their mother's expect. It's an age-old example of trying to live vicariously through one's children. There's a hint of love in it I suppose, but ultimately it feels more like a harmful obsession that's based in vanity and jealousy. That said, it's sort of fascinating. And while I'm not a big fan of inserting Meryl into roles that seem too similar to one's she's already done, the fact that this particular role is set in a world that's so embedded in the memories from my childhood, I found it impossible to pass up.  

Allison Janney's performance was one of the most dominant in award season history. She swept the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Academy Award, in addition to multiple critics' groups awards. Margot Robbie earned nominations in Lead Actress in all the major televised ceremonies as well, but lost out to Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri most of the time (as was Meryl for her performance in The Post, incidentally her most recent Academy Award nomination). I, Tonya was generally well-received by critics, holding a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 77 score on Metacritic. With a meager $11 million budget the film ended up being a financial success, earning nearly $54 million worldwide in box office receipts. 

Recasting 2016 (supporting): "The Wizard of Lies"

In the wake of the 2008 recession, financier Bernie Madoff was exposed as the perpetrator of the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died there in 2021. Director Barry Levinson's (Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man) HBO movie, The Wizard of Lies, stars Robert De Niro and depicts Madoff's fall and the toll it took on his victims and family. 

I'm recasting the role of Ruth Madoff, Bernie's wife (originally portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer). First off, this is one of the few scenarios where Meryl is actually more age-appropriate for the role than the original actor was. Most of the movie takes place in late 2008, when Ruth Madoff would've been 67. Wizard of Lies was filmed in the fall of 2015, when Meryl was 66. Pfeiffer at the time was only 57, and looked young for her age. But no biggy. 

Prior to Bernie's arrest, Ruth Madoff seems like kind of a boring person. She'd been the wife of a super wealthy New York stock broker for decades (they were married when Ruth was 18), and from what I understand, she didn't do much other than live an extravagant life. She says herself in the movie that she hasn't ever really done anything on her own, and when faced with the prospect of her husband, who'd been her entire life, being whisked away to prison, I can only imagine how terrifying and discombobulating that would be. Not that I feel particularly sorry for Ruth Madoff, but from a character standpoint, it would've been very interesting to watch Meryl convey that kind of shock of reality that had to have hit her. I believe that for the most part, Madoff was in the dark about her husband's crimes, and the media's portrayal of her, on top of the dizzying scandal, had to have been humiliating. 

I really enjoy Michelle Pfeiffer, but the accent is a bit cartoonish. Other than that, I think she did a superb job in the role. This is the type of timely story and difficult topic to which I feel Meryl would be drawn to. I say "difficult" because it's easy and maybe even natural to want to vilify Ruth Madoff. It's tough to sympathize with the super rich who are responsible for wiping out the life savings of a lot of people (even if Ruth may not have been directly involved). I think it would be a challenging prospect to humanize her, which I feel Meryl would certainly manage to do. 

The Wizard of Lies was fairly well-received by critics. It has a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67 on Metacritic. De Niro and Pfeiffer were both nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes (De Niro also earned a SAG nom), neither coming away with any wins. The movie was actually released in the spring of 2017, but with the film's 2015 filming schedule, it would've been no problem having it ready by fourth quarter 2016, thus my bumping it up a year. My selection next week for 2017 is one of the roles for which I was inspired to undertake this supporting recasting project in the first place. 

Recasting 2015 (supporting): "Trumbo"

Two years before Judy Davis's Emmy-nominated portrayal of Hedda Hopper in the 2017 limited series, Feud, Helen Mirren managed to score a nomination at almost every major precursor before being snubbed at the Oscars for portraying the same character in Jay Roach's film Trumbo. The film is a biopic centered on Dalton Trumbo (played by Bryan Cranston), a Hollywood screenwriter who becomes blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 1950s for being a communist. 

I rewatched the film last week and two things stuck out to me: 1) the fact that for whatever reason watching movies either from or set in the 40s and 50s feels really nostalgic to me (I just enjoy the styling and how everything seems really clean--despite everyone smoking, which I don't mind--and in its place), and 2) I'd forgotten how awful of a person Hedda Hopper probably was in real life. 

Hopper was a gossip columnist who had an astounding number of readers at the height of her popularity in the 1940s. This afforded her some level of power in regard to influencing how folks in the entertainment industry were perceived. I imagine this no doubt affected the behavior of Hollywood stars, even up to the decisions made by studio heads like Louis B. Mayer. 

Those "pissants" are members of the Communist party, who became targets of a witch hunt in the 1950s largely led by senator Joseph McCarthy. Hopper was a huge supporter of the HUAC. It's hard not to see the parallels and similarities to today's political world, where fear-mongering is the name of the game for certain groups, individuals, and even networks. Of course, there's not really much basis in all the effort to excoriate people who are simply demonstrating their constitutional rights of free speech. But there were a LOT of people freaking out in the aftermath of World War II, and anything or anyone in the United States that came close to resembling or sympathizing with the Soviet Union became a huge no-no. It's sort of ironic, considering the attempts to safeguard "American" values by shunning free speech ended up, as far as I can tell, more resembling fascism than patriotism. It was to the point that Trumbo was jailed for close to a year. And after he got out, he had to take lesser work under a pseudonym to make ends meet for him and his family. But the quality of his work continued to make him sought after, in a hush-hush way, by some major stars. 

My understanding is that Hopper had dreams of being a movie star, but as her acting career waned in the 1930s, she turned to writing. This makes me wonder how Meryl might have negotiated this into her character. It's hard not to picture there being some sort of lifelong resentment a person might hold if they were sort of "unwanted" by a group or industry by a certain point, especially when that person ends up acquiring a powerful and poisonous pen. Maybe it'd be part of humanizing Hopper a bit more, in understanding her motivations for her often unsupported and ultimately damaging tactics she implemented in entertaining her readers. That venom and that fear comes from somewhere. 

As referenced above, Mirren landed nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and SAGs (shocking that she missed BAFTA), and then missed out on the Oscar nom. I suspect Rachel McAdams was the last to squeak in there for Spotlight, which, while probably a better film than Trumbo, McAdams's performance was not in my opinion better than Mirren's (and I don't even think Mirren's was all that amazing--the accent...yikes). Cranston was nominated everywhere but won nothing. Trumbo made no money but was generally well-received by critics, with a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. I can see myself returning to it again in the future, as it contains the aforementioned cinematography I enjoy and is about movies!

Recasting 2014 (supporting): "Snowpiercer"

Keeping with my little streak in this project of directors being a big draw, I've chosen Bong Joon-ho's 2013 (bumped to 2014 for my purposes) post-apocalyptic climate film, Snowpiercer. Bong is perhaps better known for his 2019 film, Parasite, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture. Snowpiercer follows the last survivors on Earth after an attempt to halt the effects of global warming with the use of stratospheric aerosols goes disastrously wrong. The survivors are segregated aboard a self-sustaining train called the Snowpiercer, as it traverses the planet that is now basically all covered in ice. 

The character for which I've chosen to recast Meryl is Minister Mason, portrayed by Tilda Swinton. She is sort of the right-hand man of the designer of the train (played by Ed Harris). Mason works to maintain the oppressed "tail end" of the train, keeping them living and working in relative squalor, while folks near the inaccessible "front end" live in the lap of luxury. Chris Evans is the main character Curtis, who leads a revolt against Mason and her guards, when he's advised by a wise elder, Gilliam (John Hurt), that the guards' guns no longer carry ammunition. Putting up such a fight comes at great risk, as anyone who ever dares to step out of line is swiftly and severely punished. 

Swinton has been quoted with some very specific and interesting thoughts on her approach to the look and characterization of Minister Mason:

Mason is a pretty monstrous construct so we felt we were dealing with extremes, but the truth was that we didn't have to go that far. Look at Hitler with his dyed black hair and Gaddafi with handmade medals stuck on his jacket.

 

And according to an article originally from Hitfix, "Swinton prepared for the role by studying clowning politicians throughout history, and Mason is, in Swinton's words, 'a complete smash cut of all the monstrous, maniacal, political clowns.' Swinton added that the character is a mix of Margaret Thatcher, Colonel Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler, and Silvio Berlusconi."

This thinking reminds me so much of how we've heard Meryl talk about how the look of a person or character tells us so much about them, and very quickly. Of course the acting needs to follow, but I think she gets a bit of a bad rap for the "external" aspects of characterization, as if that's the only or largest aspect of her characters. It's not. But it's important, and Meryl recognizes that probably as well as--if not better--than anyone. I'm not sure we would've seen her do the Yorkshire accent like Swinton did, but perhaps her own iteration of what she felt was posh or authoritarian. And I think it's a different enough character than her take on President Orlean in Adam McKay's recent allegorical climate change film, Don't Look Up, to warrant this choice. 

In the above scene, we get a great understanding of what I think is the crux of the struggle in the movie. The oppression of many by the rich and powerful few. That's certainly not a new concept, nor is one of climate change. But putting the two together in a stylized and futuristic setting makes for a very interesting premise for storytelling. I could totally see Meryl being interested in something like this. 

Snowpiercer was a box-office hit and was widely praised by critics, citing its fresh take on a human (near) extinction story and/or action thriller. While it wasn't nominated in any of the major televised award shows, many critics circles singled out the film and its screenplay and directing. Swinton was also often recognized, earning nominations for Supporting Actress from over a dozen of these organizations. 

Recasting 2013 (supporting): "Top of the Lake"

This is the second selection in a row (of three after I post next week's selection) that the main driver in my interest in the project is the director. I realize that I chose Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano for my lead recasting project, but her 2013 limited series, Top of the Lake seems a good fit as well, for a handful of reasons. 

I should note that Campion did not direct every episode of this seven-part series. Garth Davis (Lion, Mary Magdalene) directed an episode on his own, and a few were jointly directed between the two. The first season was a crime drama that takes place in New Zealand (there ended up being a second season that takes place around the same area but with a different cast and different story). Elizabeth Moss stars as Robin Griffin, a detective trying to find a missing and pregnant 12 year-old girl lost in the forest. The person she suspects is the girl's own father, Matt Mitcham (portrayed by Peter Mullan), who we end up learning is actually Robin's father as well, making the young girl, Tui, her half-sister. Drama!

The role I'd recast Meryl in was portrayed by the same person, Holly Hunter, whom I recast in the Piano. In Top of the Lake, Hunter plays a Swiss sort of spiritual guru named GJ, who arrives on Mitcham's land (which pisses him off) with a troupe of troubled women who hope to get a fresh start on their lives. I can't say this for sure, but I feel like one of the first things that drew me to the character of GJ was how much her styling reminded me of Meryl's character in The Giver (same year):

Both are kind of considered wise elders, but Hunter had the more interesting character in a MUCH better production. 

Hunter talks a bit more about the character in a separate clip of this interview. It's interesting how she describes GJ as "an enigma, someone considered a guru who has a following and doesn't want a following." I can totally envision Meryl being attracted to a character like that, having to work out and convey that inner dichotomy or contradiction. I've said it before and I'll say it again that Meryl likes things/concepts that are difficult. This character would certainly have offered that. It's quite natural to assume that she never got anywhere near playing it, considering Hunter and Campion's history with The Piano. But hey, that's why I do imagine her different roles as part of this project! I do wonder why Hunter, playing somebody from Switzerland, mostly sounds like herself. I bet Meryl would've adopted some level of a Swiss-German or Swiss-French accent for the part. 

Top of the Lake was a massive hit with critics, scoring a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 87 on Metacritic. It was nominated for five Emmy Awards: Best Miniseries, Director(s), Screenplay, Lead Actress for Moss, and Supporting Actor for Mullan. All well-deserved.  

Recasting 2012 (supporting): "Mildred Pierce"

I've hoped to see Meryl do a project with Todd Haynes for years. While I suppose it's possible that the opportunity may still come one day, I've looked back on some of Haynes's projects trying to identify one that I think could have realistically included Meryl. Neither of the lead roles in Far from Heaven or Carol would have worked, and as fun as I think it would've been to see her in Cate Blanchett's role in I'm Not There, she simply would've been too old. 

Which brings us to the 2011 HBO limited series, Mildred Pierce (which I'm obviously bumping back a year to 2012). This was sort of around the time that the tide started to really turn in regard to television being more widely accepted as a medium for the biggest screen stars of the day. The scripts were, and often remain, better. Especially for women. Based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, and perhaps more famously known for its film adaptation starring Joan Crawford in 1945, the story follows Mildred (Kate Winslet), a newly single mother during the Depression in California. Haynes's adaptation is apparently more faithful to the original novel (I've never read it). In the '45 film the prominent role of Lucy Gessler is eliminated completely--sort of combined with the role of Ida Corwin, Mildred's boss at the diner (the latter portrayed splendidly by Mare Winningham for this production). The HBO iteration brings Lucy back, and it's this character for which I'm imagining inserting Meryl. 

Portrayed by Melissa Leo (the second role of hers in three years I'm selecting), Lucy is Mildred's street-smart, somewhat wisecracking neighbor, who's got about as much deference for Prohibition as she does for men who leave their wives. She's a bit ahead of her time for a woman in the 1930s, and she offers support and encouragement to Mildred as she attempts to provide for herself and her two girls. I have tried in vain to find an extended clip of Leo's performance anywhere on the web. But I came upon this clip of director Todd Haynes breaking down the first of the five episodes in the limited series. In it, we get a little background on Lucy's role and her relationship to Mildred shortly after Mildred's husband leaves her. We get a few snippets of the character onscreen. Start at 1:55. 

I like the line from Lucy about Mildred's elder daughter, Veda, saying about Mildred taking a waitress job, which she considers frightfully beneath her, "Veda wouldn't do it herself but she's willing to let you do it, AND eat the cake." Lucy has identified what Mildred doesn't want to about her daughter: that she's a manipulative, cruel, and scheming snob. There are few characters in recent memory whom I dislike more than that of Veda Pierce in this HBO production. Portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood and Morgan Turner (young Veda), she is a soulless ingrate who selfishly ends up damaging everyone around her. It's a testament to both Wood and Turner's performances that they drew such a strong reaction. 

Mildred Pierce was well-received by critics, primarily for its acting. While some argued the series was too long or missed the opportunity to fully capture the full severity of the mother-daughter relationship when comparing it to the original film, it managed an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. Overall it earned nine Emmy awards, with a staggering SIX of them in acting, including Leo for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. Leo was joined in her category by Wood and Winningham, while Guy Pearce and Brían F. O'Byrne earned Supporting Actor nods for portraying Mildred's second and first husbands, respectively. 

Mildred Pierce is a fantastic limited series with a character that I think Meryl would've enjoyed. There are plenty of roles smaller than this one that she's done over the years, likely because she believed in the material, the director, or the story's message. While not always critical or commercial successes, such films as Lions for Lambs, Rendition, Dark Matter, Evening, The Giver, and Suffragette come to mind. For the combination of the quality of the script, the director with home she'd get to work, and its exceptional cast, I suspect that there are far worse projects in which Meryl could've seen herself participating.  

Recasting 2011 (supporting): "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

For anyone familiar with this David Fincher film, they're probably wondering "what the hell part would Meryl play?" This is a similar scenario to my 1987 choice for this project, where fans of Empire of the Sun might have scratched their heads before reading the post. Like that one, however, I have my role and I have my reasons. 

First and foremost, I absolutely love the English-language film version of Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I've loved it from the first time I saw it during the same awards season in which Meryl won her third Oscar for The Iron Lady. Rooney Mara was up for the award in the same category. While the film's content is a bit raw and brutal at times, its overall feel and cinematography bring me back to it time and time again, especially during the cold, snowy months Minnesota is known for. 

Set in Stockholm in 2006, the film centers around Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who's tasked by an old rich businessman, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), to solve the murder of his grandniece. It's this part of Harriet Vanger for which I'd recast Meryl. The apparent murder took place forty years prior to the film's contemporary story, and Rooney Mara's character, Lisbeth Salander, serves as the brilliant assistant to Blomkvist, after having compiled the background check on him for Vanger. 

One of the first questions in my mind when deciding whether or not Meryl would be age-appropriate for this role was the actual timing of the story. Considering that that actress who originally played the adult version of Harriet (Jolie Richardson) is sixteen years younger than Meryl, it might seem strange and inaccurate to cast someone that much older. But I'd argue that Richardson's casting is far more peculiar when one understands the timeline of the story. Harriet is meant to have disappeared in 1966 at the age of 16, which would mean she was born around 1950. The movie takes place in 2006, which would put Harriet at 56 years of age. Richardson would've been 45 at the time of filming. Meryl, 61. Meryl would've had zero problem convincingly portraying someone five years younger, so it actually would've been more authentic to have someone closer to her age. 

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this project, a handful of roles I selected might be considered glorified cameos. This is one of those instances. But the role is a more interesting one than most might consider. And had Meryl actually done Panic Room with David Fincher as I had proposed for my lead recasting project, it wouldn't have been too strange to picture her being tapped for a small role in a future film of his. 

The role of Harriet actually starts out as supposedly a different character, namely Harriet's cousin, Anita. But (spoiler), it ends up turning out that Harriet has been posing as Anita for many years to protect her own identity, after escaping the abuse of both her father and her brother. There could have been some fun challenges with this. Not only is there a role for the actor to play, but to some extent the character is having to act within the story herself. 

I have to add that the actor they cast to portray 16 year-old Harriet looks a fair bit more like Meryl than like Richardson:

I read an article a while back where David Fincher explained his deliberate intention of having his cast use European accents. It might seem a little weird when it's a hodgepodge of voices from different areas, but the overall effect of it simply feeling "European" was likely achieved. That said, I totally expect that Meryl would've chosen to do some variation of a Swedish accent, as did Mara and Plummer. Craig and Richardson just sounded English, which is fine. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was well-received by critics, with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 71 on Metacritic. The film's violence and overt scenes of sex and sexual trauma probably turned off a handful of both critics and audience members, but in general the movie was praised. In addition to Mara's nomination for Actress in a Leading Role, the film garnered Academy Award nominations in four other tech categories, winning for Best Film Editing. I think the movie holds up well to this day, as mentioned above I've returned to it on a regular basis, and I expect to continue to do so. 

Recasting 2010 (supporting): "The Fighter"

As I ended my last post in this project with a reference to director David O. Russell, we continue with a film he directed that ended up being the first in a series of three over a four year period that totally killed it with Oscar voters, particularly those in the acting branch. The Fighter (2010) earned three acting nods, Silver Linings Playbook four, and American Hustle four. That's a pretty incredible stat. Melissa Leo's fantastic performance in The Fighter was one of three of the above mentioned nominations that ended up taking home the gold (Christian Bale in the same movie in supporting, and Jennifer Lawrence in Lead for Silver Linings were the other). It's Leo's role for which I've chosen to imagine recasting Meryl. And even though this is another role originally portrayed by an actor over ten years younger than Meryl, it's actually more of a stretch for Leo than it would've been for Meryl. Leo is only eleven and fourteen years older than the two actors who play her sons (Mark Wahlberg and Bale, respectively). 

The film takes place near Boston, in Lowell, Massachusetts, and is a biopic of former boxers Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his half-brother Dicky (Bale). Dicky struggles with crack addiction and is supposed to be helping Micky train. Their mother, Alice (Leo) serves as Micky's manager, who's been struggling as of late to win fights. When Micky has a shot at a title fight, Dicky sort of goes AWOL and Micky drops him, much to Alice's disapproval, who has Dicky on a pedestal. All the while this is going on, HBO is filming a documentary of Dicky, which he thinks is about his boxing career, when in reality, it's about crack abuse.

Much of the meaty material in this movie is basically the family fighting with each other. It's the kind of scenario where all they really have is each other, and even if one or all of them are a total and complete mess, there's a sort of co-dependence that ends up getting people hurt. 

It would've been fun to hear Meryl do the accent. I had hoped that we'd get to hear her do a Boston-ish accent in The Good House, but sadly that never panned out. The role of Alice feels like a mixture of Lee from Marvin's Room, Sister Aloysius from Doubt and Violet from August: Osage County. She's got street smarts and she's brassy and pushy without being a total nightmare.  

Amy Adams does a great job in this movie as well, playing against type as Micky's girlfriend. One of my all-time favorite movie line deliveries comes after Adams's character, Charlene, gets into a fight with Micky's sister(s). Toward the end of the scene, you can hear one of the sisters yell "Fuck you, Chaw-lene." I don't know what it is about it but it just cracks me up big time. It's a great scene for Alice as well so I'll share (the line is at 1:24). 

Still laugh-out-loud funny to me. 

In addition to its acting accolades, The Fighter scored seven total Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film was a box office hit as well, earning a worldwide total of $129 million against a $24 million budget. It was a great few years for Russell, and I wouldn't have minded seeing Meryl in on the action, especially since the aforementioned trio of films are so "people" based in their stories. It wouldn't surprise me, however, that if Meryl had had a chance to participate in some way, she would've stayed clear based on Russel's reputation for being combative or even abusive to his actors and crew. Who knows, maybe Meryl could've been the one to finally set him straight. 

Recasting 2009 (supporting): "Animal Kingdom"

First off, this movie was first released in early 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival, not in 2009. But since I wanted two movies from 2010, and Animal Kingdom was filmed in early 2009, it seemed the more natural choice to bump up a year. Had they wanted, this film could've easily been completed and given a wide release in late 2009. 

I've been interested for some time what it would be like to see Meryl in a role where she was the head of a crime family. I figured it would or could have been the kind of movie we'd see Meryl finally team up with Martin Scorsese. The matriarch of some wing of the Italian mafia, for example. As it turns out, Australian director David Michôd decided to write a screenplay loosely based on a real-life Melbourne crime family, and ended making one whopper of a great film.

The story follows the Cody family in Melbourne. Teenage Josh "J" Cody's mother has just died from an overdose, so he calls his grandma, Janine (Jacki Weaver) who invites him to move in. Janine's three sons and their close family friend run illegal jobs related to drugs and armed robbery. Cops are constantly watching the family and almost inevitably, J pulled into the shenanigans by his uncles. One detective (portrayed by Guy Pearce) tries to get to J before he sort of "turns" to the dark side. Knowing that J has talked to the police, Janine essentially communicates to the family lawyer that J needs to be wiped out. But J outsmarts his psychopath uncle "Pope" and ends up shooting him in the head before he can harm J. 

Organized crime families freak me out. Certainly the only experience I have with them is from what I've seen on TV or the movies. I think it's the fact that you can never quite tell where you stand with anyone. There's almost no sure thing in regard to trust, and you never know when someone's out to get you. Sometimes you might have to act in order to not be acted upon. And violently. There's definitely a lot of this in this movie, particularly with Janine. Quick side note: Janine's character's nickname is "Smurf," which is funny for an actor as short as Jacki Weaver, who's 4'11". I can't imagine Meryl, standing at 5'6" would be believable as someone who was nicknamed after a tiny creature, unless they got actors who were way taller than her to provide the contrast (which I'd prefer not to imagine since I like this cast so much). Unless they had her barefoot and everyone else wore lifts. Or maybe she'd just be someone who always like to wear blue all the time and it'd be more about the color versus the height. ANYWAY, I love how Janine has to sort of be calculating or vaguely pretending as a character a lot of the time on screen. She's outwardly very loving and affectionate (including creepy extended kisses on the mouth with her adult sons). But when it comes to business, she's ruthless. All with a smile on her face. 

Love that scene. Animal Kingdom received overwhelming rave reviews from critics. It's got a whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and holds a score of 83 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim." It basically swept the Australian Film Institute Awards, while Weaver managed to break through with numerous North American critics groups and awards bodies. She won L.A. and the National Board of Review awards for Best Supporting Actress, and scored her first Oscar nomination that year. As an Australian indie film, not surprisingly it wasn't seen much outside of Australia. I guarantee it would've been had Meryl been in the role. But Weaver's brilliant portrayal broke her into Hollywood, and she earned a second Oscar nomination over two years later, for David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. 

Recasting 2008 (supporting): "Rachel Getting Married"

Similar to my last selection, I had not seen this week's pick prior to deciding to do a supporting recasting project. I watched a ton of movies during the first year of the pandemic, and I was happy to identify a role in Jonathan Demme's 2008 film, Rachel Getting Married, that would suit Meryl. Debra Winger hadn't really done a lot of movies in the decade or so before this film was released. While not a huge role, her performance as Abby Buchman would've been an interesting one to see Meryl negotiate, in an excellent film to boot. 

The film follows Kym Buchman (Anne Hathway), who's released from a drug rehab center for a few days to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. It doesn't take long for tensions to flare, as there are a slew of family resentments and grievances ready to be aired. Notably, Kym, while high on drugs years prior, drove into a lake with her little brother in the car with her, killing him. It's hard to imagine any amount of apologizing or request for forgiveness would make someone feel unburdened of that history. As welcoming as Rachel and their father (Bill Irwin) may be, it's obvious that Kym's presence in one way or another is both painful and exhausting. Kym of course feels this too, and can't help but attempt to paint herself as the victim of unrealistic expectations. This all makes for some of the most effectively awkward moments that I can recall seeing onscreen. 

At one point, Kym seeks refuge from her mother, now seemingly somewhat estranged from her daughters, and it doesn't exactly go well. 

Right when you think Kym is a selfish asshole, and that next to the victim himself, Abby is probably the person who's had to bear the worst of his loss, our minds get flipped a little bit. Kym demands to know why her mother chose to leave her in charge of her little brother. She makes a good point. Most of us probably put ourselves in the situation of imagining what we'd do if one of our children was known to be a drug addict, and whether or not we would be OK with placing another of our child in their care. Yikes. It's probably easy to say "no" right away. But do we really know? Like Abby says here, "You were good with him. You were the best you were with him." And, "I didn't expect you to kill him!" It's such a powerful and painful scene. Kym's sort of at a crossroads, and Abby has probably grappled with the question that only Kym will bring up. They both feel responsible, and Abby ends up whacking her daughter across the face in one of the most realistic on-screen slaps I've ever seen. 

As I mentioned, it's not a huge role, but that scene alone could make for a great part. And Winger is exceptional here. The back and forth in this scene reminds me of Meryl being quoted (which I'm sure I've mentioned at some or many other times on this blog) as saying that she likes things that are "difficult." Not necessarily technically challenging things as an actor, but difficult moral or personal dilemmas in stories. They make us think and think differently. I like that, too, and it's one of the reasons I enjoy watching Meryl work so much. It's also why I could totally have seen her saying yes to a role like this one, perhaps if Jonathan Demme (who directed her four years prior in The Manchurian Candidate) would have approached her for it. 

Rachel Getting Married was Demme's best-reviewed film since 1991's The Silence of the Lambs. Its almost documentary-like feel was lauded by critics and made several top ten lists for 2008. Being more of an indie film, not a ton of people saw it when it was released, resulting in very modest box office returns. Winger did manage a Supporting Actress nom from the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as one from the Independent Spirit Awards. Hathaway, in likely the best performance of her career, won recognition from several critics' circles, as well as Lead Actress nominations at the SAGs, Golden Globes and Academy Awards.  

Recasting 2007 (supporting): "Hairspray"

I had a different movie in mind for 2007 for over a year. The closer I got to having to write about it, the less convinced I was about it being appropriate for the spirit of what I've tried to do for this project (for anyone curious, it was Tilda Swinton's role in Michael Clayton). I decided to take a look back at movies that were released in 2007, and realized that I had NEVER seen Hairspray. What's weird is that I'd been rather familiar with several songs from the soundtrack, but had never taken the time to sit down and watch the whole movie. A few weeks ago, I finally did. 

I was relieved pretty quickly that I'd found a much more natural fit for a film choice for 2007. One of the things I like is that it's nice departure from so much of the heavier stuff I'd chosen the past several weeks. I realize that The Station Agent and Sideways have comedic elements, but Hairspray is full-on musical, in addition to it being a comedy. Michelle Pfeiffer's role of Velma Von Tussle, the racist villainess TV manager, seemed a fun turn to imagine Meryl tackling. 

Directed by notable choreographer, Adam Shankman, the film was a screen adaptation of the 2002 Broadway show, which in turn was an adaptation of John Waters's 1988 film. It takes place in the 60s in Baltimore, where young Tracy Turnblad's (portrayed by newcomer Nikki Blonsky) biggest dream is to be one of the dancers on the Corny Collins Show. Tracy meets resistance from Velma, who not only wants to protect her own daughter's prime spot on the show, but is also pushing hard against the rising tide of ending the segregation of the show's black and white dancers. 

It's a true villain role, one of which would be very few in Meryl's canon. We've seen aspects of a character like this in her work. The Manchurian Candidate, The Devil Wears Prada, Rendition, Big Little Lies. But this character has that extra layer of being racist and sizist, and so overtly, that there's not really much redeemable about her. I think the value in the characterization is how much the actor can make us dislike her. This draws a stronger emotional reaction for the protagonist(s), which ultimately makes for a more deeply felt experience when watching the movie. Plus, Meryl would get to sing a bit (which up to that point in her career she hadn't really done a lot of). God bless Michelle Pfeiffer and I love her, but Meryl has a much stronger singing voice and would've done Velma's solo greater justice. 

There are some similar threads in character to that of Meryl's performance as Dee Dee Allen in 2020's The Prom, but with a much more provocative and sinister nature. Meryl doesn't tend toward films that include a major component of sex appeal or a sort of femme fatale, so this would actually be a bit of a stretch for her. But I enjoy that. And I can picture Meryl being interested in participating in a story that tackles the prejudices that culminated in the Civil Rights Movement. Especially one that looks like it was a ton of fun to make. 

I was a bit surprised by how many big stars were actually in this movie. John Travolta of course was lauded for his cross-dressing turn as Tracy's mother, Edna. But there were a lot of cameos (notably John Waters and Ricki Lake) and smaller roles from the likes of Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Jerry Stiller, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, and Brittany Snow. Travolta was also praised for his Baltimore accent, something I can't imagine Meryl wouldn't have included at least a hint of in her character, assuming she played her as someone who'd lived in the area for a long time. 

Hairspray went on to earn big bucks at the box office, tallying $203 million on a $75 budget. At the time, it set a record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway musical. This record was broken only a year later by a little movie called Mamma Mia! The film did remarkably well with critics as well, with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 81 on Metacritic. While it didn't garner too many high-profile acting nominations (Blonksy and Travolta earned noms at the Golden Globes for Actress and Supporting Actor in a Musical or Comedy, respectively), the cast managed a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble.