One of the best actors ever!
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j-sampiro — 16 years ago(January 20, 2010 02:41 PM)
I completely agree. She is one of the most versatile actresses in the business, one of the few who can go from playing "trailer trash" to "rich bitch"*, pathetic to infuriating, and moron to genius all with complete believability. She made me 'bust a gut' in SORDID LIVES and in MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE with characters so diverse and perfectly formed I didn't even realize it was the same actress until much later. Hardly surprising that she's also a great dramatic actress.**
As a fellow Alabamian I'm a bit prejudiced I'll admit because when she plays southern roles she becomes every southern lady I knew from my childhood- from my good Missionary Baptist meemaw with the closet snuff habit to my 'society circle' country club relatives to my lobotomized exhibitionist great aunt to my Ph.D. holding bag lady grandmother to my sweet but senile babysitter who used to let me ride on the hood of her car when taking me to funerals to my aunt who made Nativity sets out of her dead cats, I see them all in Ms. Grant's performances, which makes me think "she knew the same people I did!" (or at least the same types) and it's almost- hard to describe- like seeing them alive again. Ms. Grant is a world class biographer with every performance.
She also has the ability to imbue all of her characters with a certain grace, inner logic, and strength that is wonderful; none of them are cartoons. One of my other favorite actresses is Octavia Spencer (also Alabamian) who, though she is younger and black and a different body type than Beth Grant is her daughter in terms of talent, and I understand they've actually worked together; that I would LOVE to see.
Enough gushing, I'll go quietly now.
*Please know that neither term is meant in disrespect as, like Twain said of Heaven and Hell, I've too many friends in both camps to pass judgment.
**Though I think that's like saying somebody who excels at weightlifting is a good armwrestler- if you're great at comedy then drama is usually easy.