It’s her birthday today.
The first time I noticed Catherine O’Hara was in her one big scene in Heartburn. It takes place in a grocery store, and she – a put-together gossipy Washington D.C. wife – runs into Meryl Streep’s character – who is all a MESS – and O’Hara practically steals the scene from right out underneath Streep’s feet, and … that’s not an easy feat, particularly considering what Meryl is doing. It’s a scene between equals, clear as day. Meryl would wipe the floor with anyone not up to her level. I had no idea who she was, had probably seen her in things, but didn’t put it all together.
I think she’s one of the best most eerily talented actresses working today. Madeline Kahn left a huge hole when she died. But O’Hara is in that realm, and it’s NOT a crowded realm. In fact, it is sparsely populated. Very few people can transform like O’Hara can, and not just with wigs or accents, but … swap out your soul and your cellular structure and your DNA for that of another character. Her talent is EERIE.
I’ve always felt that actors who “come up” in comedy have more versatility, depth, width, capacity – than “straight” actors. People always express surprise when, say, Adam Sandler is “good” in movies like Punch Drunk Love or Uncut Gems. There should be no surprise. Actors with comedy backgrounds, particularly improv or sketch comedy backgrounds, can fit themselves in anywhere. They work DEEP and they work FAST.
It’s a subject that obsesses me, maybe because I’m not sure why this is and it’s fun to think about, so I wrote about it for my column at Film Comment. (Oh and member I said here that I quoted Window Boy in one of my Film Comment columns? Hmmm. I do keep his name off the pieces I wrote about him – because … well, it’s just my way. besides “Window-Boy” caught on and kind of stuck. But you’ll see how much it fits in the piece and why I couldn’t resist. It was one of the most illuminating things he said to me about his particular field/passion.) In the column, I focused on women who “came up” in comedy, and their chops at dramatic acting. Catherine O’Hara comes up. Of course. Because she is funny but she is also tragic. She can be both at the same time. Like Madeline Kahn could do.
O’Hara’s talent is DAZZLING.
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Having discovered O’Hara via SCTV, and enjoyed her work ever since, I was so happy when she found her role in Schitt’s Creek. The number of women who get to keep doing interesting work into their sixties is vanishingly small, so it was a kind of relief when she broke into that group. The scene in For Your Consideration when the camera crew interviews her on the mroning when she is *not* nominated for an Oscar is one of the truly painful moments I’ve watched in movies.
Her scene in the Chinese restaurant in Waiting for Guffman is the best drunk acting I’ve ever seen.
oh my God yes