Theresa Russell

[MrMidwest]

Sometimes I doubt that she's all that talented, but there's something compelling and human about her acting, nonetheless.

Her performance in Nic Roeg's Bad Timing is raw and immediate. Whore, Impulse, Insignificance, and Track 29 are worth checking out as well. Also, she's pretty hilarious in Wild Things.

Theresa as Marilyn in Insignificance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS0n_fr1Fyo
I'm pretty sure this was on purpose

[CarlosAlberto]

I had a crush on this woman back in the day.

[Playbilly]

She started as a Kathleen Turner substitute of sorts, but she's always been better than that

[MrMidwest]

Criterion interview:
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1898-a-conversation-with-theresa-russell

"She is stunningly beautiful, with that wicked light in her eye that dares men to try their best, and warns them they will fail. She may have come out of the Valley, she may have come from food stamps and poverty, but she was obviously a trophy, and it is a strange thing about men: If they feel strongly enough about a beautiful woman they will want to help her, even to their own disadvantage. If Theresa Russell wanted, let's say, to be a movie actress, then Sam Spiegel was a good man for her to know. We are not talking here about anything but the Hollywood facts of life."
Ebert interviews Theresa

[Jon]

She's an awful actress. She speaks dialogue as if English were not her first language.

[MrMidwest]

She's polarizing, much like Jennifer Jason Leigh.

[Jordan Catalano]

Whore.

[MrMidwest]

If you can't say it, just see it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I think she's mostly bad in everything she's been in. She always sounds so flat and dead. And I think of that Whore movie where she'd turn to the camera and talk all flat and dead to it, too.

I did love "Black Widow" and watched it all the time on Showtime when I was a kid.

[Borstalboy]

Not a brilliant actress and sometimes not even a good actress. But in BAD TIMING what she lacks in talent, she makes up for with sheer brio. It's a great movie and she's sort of wonderful in it, flat delivery and all.

[Jordan Catalano]

The only explanation for her being in any film is that she gives one hell of a casting couch performance.

[Jon]

Actually, her casting in Wild Things as the mother of Denise Richards, another awful "actress", was right on.

[MrMidwest]

Theresa on The Last Tycoon

[MrMidwest]

Theresa talks Bad Timing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0XYTnvRsMU
Insignificance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzVFKGodMGkq
Singing 'Taking a Chance on Love":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1TmOqCagUw

[henrikegerman]

Playbilly, Russell's movie career predates Turner's, not the other way around.

[CarlosAlberto]

Wow I didn't so many on here were so anti-Theresa Russell.

[MrMidwest]

I think she can be great when she's well cast. In Bad Timing, she's electric. Insignificance is an intriguing performance; a blend of charicature with real vulnerable humanity.

She's aging incredibly well. She's still a head turner.

[MrMidwest]

Some interesting takes on Insignificance:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/insignificance/2030

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1890-insignificance-stargazing

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=27503

[best12bars]

She mates, and she kills.

[MrMidwest]

This means war