The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Rachel Weisz

I last featured Rachel Weisz on this blog in November 2014, and she's continued to play edgy roles in the movies since then.

Her roles in the past four years and change include Alice Manning, a woman who changes identities and professions when it suits her, in the 2016 thriller movie Complete Unknown, and the eponymous title role in 2017's My Cousin Rachel, about a woman whose late husband's cousin suspects her of murdering her husband.

In 2018, she starred in The Favourite, playing Sarah Churchill, the confidante of Queen Anne of England and the real power behind the throne.  The movie is a comedy-drama about those who challenge Sarah for the queen's affection and approval.  Anne was the first monarch of the modern United Kingdom under the Act of Union passed by the English Parliament in 1707.   

Rachel Weisz turned 49 earlier this month (March 2019), and I am certain her greatest roles are yet to come.

That's it for my month-long look back at actresses I've previously featured before.  Coming in April - an all-new series devoted to beautiful women in music! :-)  

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Susan Sarandon

I haven't featured Susan Sarandon on this blog since October 2011, so that means I haven't paid attention to her for a long, long time.

As she turned 65 the same month I last featured her (which was also the first time ever that she appeared on this blog), you would expect her work as an actress to have slacked off a bit, ageism and sexism being what they are in Hollywood.  Au contraire!  She's made more movies in the past seven years and change than I can count!

So I'll focus on two of her more distinguished movies to save time and bandwidth.  She appeared in The Company You Keep, a 2012 political thriller in which she and Robert Redford (who also directed) starred as veterans of the Weather Underground terrorist group.  She was also in the 2013 ensemble comedy The Big Wedding, as well as in the 2014 Canadian murder mystery The Calling, playing an inspector in a small town in Ontario trying to solve a grisly killing.

Most people who have seen Susan Sarandon act of late have more likely seen her on the small screen than the big one, though.  She guest-starred in the crime television series "Ray Donovan" for seven episodes in 2017. 

She hasn't lost her yen for political activism, though. She steadfastly supported Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, and when he didn't get it, she supported Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein tat November, angry then and later at the Democrats' presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, for being a defense hawk and a pro-fossil-fuel candidate.

I can relate.  I too voted for Dr. Stein out of disgust with Hillary Clinton after seeing how the nomination process was rigged against my Democratic presidential candidate, Martin O'Malley - who, like Susan Sarandon, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington (she, 1968; he, 1985).    

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Tracee Ellis Ross

When I last featured Tracee Ellis Ross, the daughter of singer Diana Ross (an earlier honoree on the is blog, who turned 75 yesterday) and soul-music manager Robert Silberstein (not an earlier honoree on this blog! :-D), in November 2014, she was starring as Rainbow Johnson in the ABC-TV series "black-ish."  I'm happy to report that the series is still on the air and that Mademoiselle Ross is still in it.

Also, a new spinoff of "black-ish," "grown-ish", is now on ABC's sister cable channel Freeform.  The spinoff stars Yara Shahidi, who played Rainbow's daughter Zoey on "black-ish," in the same role, only she's off at college.  Tracee Ellis Ross makes occasional appearances on the spinoff.

It's hard to imagine a woman who's Diana Ross's daughter playing - nay, being - a woman old enough to have a child in college.  I feel so old . . ..  

You've probably also seen Miss Ross in commercials for United Airlines' United Explorer credit card.  That's what's in her wallet.  Watch out, Jennifer Garner! :-D

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Rosamund Pike

I first featured Rosamund Pike in August 2015, and the British actress has done a lot of movies since then.

One of her roles in the past three-and-half-years was as a suicidal widow who joins an Indian-fighting group after Comanches murder her family in the 2017 Western Hostiles.

Two of her more recent pats, however, have been in politically charged movies about the Middle East.  In 2018's Beirut, she played a CIA agent trying to ensure the success of a former diplomat's mission to save a former colleague, opposite Jon Hamm as the ex-diplomat with the mission.  And in 2018's A Private War, she plays the late journalist Marie Colvin, who was killed in 2012 in Syria while covering that country's civil war (still in progress).

Rosamund Pike, who turned forty in January 2019, has no intention of slowing down.  Later in 2019, she stars as Marie Curie in the biographical film Radioactive. :-) 

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Jennifer Lopez

I first featured Jennifer Lopez in June 2012, and she's been rather selective in choosing movie roles since then.  She has become one of those actresses who can pick roles perfectly - because she's that much of an icon.

One of her most interesting roles was a teacher who has a one-night stand with a younger man while separated form her husband in the 2015 thriller movie The Boy Next Door; the young man then develops a fatal attraction to her.  As of this writing, her most recent movie is a comedy: Second Act, about a middle-aged woman (played by our heroine) who starts a new career as a corporate consultant based on a fake résumé.

 

In addition, Jennifer Lopez is a producer.  She was the executive producer of "The Fosters," a TV series about an interracial lesbian couple and their foster children, which starred Teri Polo, my favorite actress of my own generation and an earlier honoree on this blog.  The series wrapped up in 2018 after five successful seasons; it was Teri Polo's first bona fide hit show.   Because she saved Teri Polo's career, Jennifer Lopez is a woman I tolerate no criticism of.

Jennifer Lopez turns fifty in July 2019, but obviously you'd never know it. :-)

And if I had to pick a favorite Jennifer Lopez record - she's put out eight albums - it would have to be "Waiting For Tonight," if only because the idea of a woman like J-Lo waiting for the night when I'd be there in her arms is too tempting for any man to want to pass up! :-D  

Next up for Ms. Lopez: playing Rosie Alvarez in a live television production of Bye Bye Birdie. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Felicity Jones

So what has British actress Felicity Jones been doing since I first featured her in March 2014?

A lot, really. She had a leading role in the Star Wars movie Rogue One, which documented what happened between Revenge of the Sith and the original 1977 Star Wars movie.She played Jyn Erso, a young renegade woman who is imprisoned by the Galactic Empire for crimes against the state until the Rebel Alliance frees her.

More recently, she played another renegade - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in the biographical movie  On the Basis of Sex. 

It's telling that a foreign actress from a country that's already had two female prime ministers should play a justice in a country that took a giant leap backward from gender equality with the ascension of Brett Kavanaugh to the highest court in the land.      

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Jameela Jamil

I originally featured British actress Jameela Jamil in October 2016, shortly after the premiere of the NBC series The Good Place," in which Ms. Jamil stars with Kristen Bell and Ted Danson.

Ms. Jamil is still on "The Good Place," having done little else since.  My main reason for featuring her again is not to offer an update on her career but on her sitcom.  I mentioned in earlier posts that "That Good Place" is about ethically compromised people who try to stay in what they think is the Good Place and avoid the Bad Place. At the close of the first season in 2017, however, Ted Danson's Michael is forced to admit that the four people in his charge have been in The Bad Place all along, meant to torture each other emotionally and psychologically forever.

Why didn't I say this earlier?  Er, well, I don't actually watch this show . . .

Anyway, the next two seasons are about Michael's efforts to ensure that the four people in his control keep torturing each other while they resist him.  "The Good Place" is popular enough to ensure that Jameela Jamil, as Tahani, will remain a presence on American television for some time to come.

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Jennifer Garner

Okay, I've waited far too long to feature Jennifer Garner again - I haven't done that since December 2007! :-O

If all you saw of Jennifer Garner recently were her appearances on television, you'd think that all she ever does any more are commercials for credit card companies and beauty creams.  Au contraire - she's worked steadily in the movies in all the time since I last featured her.  Among her many roles since 2007 are as a doctor in 2013's Dallas Buyers Club, a drama about the underground AIDS-treatment-drug market in the 1980s, and the 2016 ensemble comedy Mother's Day, director Garry Marshall's final film.  (His sister Penny died two years after.)  Ms. Garner also played the mom in 2014's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (the box office receipts were anything but terrible, horrible, no good and very bad!) and as a vigilante seeking revenge against the murderers of her husband and daughter in 2018's Peppermint.

A month away from her 47th birthday as of this writing, Jennifer Garner is in that select group of women - Janet Evans, a frequent honoree on this blog, is in it too - who look adorably cute well into middle age. :-)

Sadly, her personal life as not been as good as her public life; she and Ben Affleck divorced in October 2018.

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Vera Farmiga

I last featured Vera Farmiga in April 2009.  Where does the time go? 

Ms. Farmiga has been in several movie over the past ten years, but two movies in particular leap out, mainly because Jason Reitman directed both of them.

In late 2009, she starred in Reitman's movie Up in the Air, a comedy/drama about a termination specialist who works with laid-of workers, played by George Clooney.  Ms. Farmiga played a businesswoman who accompanies him on his travels.  More recently, though, in 2018, she played Oletha "Lee" Hart, the wife of disgraced former U.S. Senator Gary Hart, in Reitman's The Front Runner, about Hart's ultimately doomed 1988 presidential campaign.

Unfortunately, The Front Runner was also doomed to failure.  Apparently people are more interested in movies about U.S. Presidents and First Ladies than in movies about would-be U.S. Presidents.  

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Betsy Chang

I've been able to find more information on actress and dancer Betsy Chang, whom I first featured here in March 2014.  And just as importantly, I've found an even better picture of her.

In addition to her Broadway and Hollywood credits from the eighties and nineties, which I highlighted in my previous post, Ms. Chang has also worked behind the scenes as a choreographer, having arranged the dancing in two productions from East West Players company in Los Angeles, Pacific Overtures in 1998 and Little Shop of Horrors in 2003.  East West Players is a leading Asian-American company on the West Coast.

Here's something else I was able to find out: She was also in the first national-tour production of Drood!, the musical based an unfinished Charles Dickens novel.

Alas, I can't find any more recent information about this lovely woman.  If you know Betsy Chang - or if you are Betsy Chang - please feel free to tell me what she's (you've?) been doing since 2003 by leaving a comment on this post. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt is another actress I have failed to keep up with for far too long.  I last featured her here in February 2010.

A few months after I first featured her, she married John Krasinski, one of those TV sitcom actors no one takes seriously when they try to cross over into film. (Krasinski starred in the U.S. version of "The Office.")  In fact, as a British film actress marrying an American sitcom star, Ms, Blunt was seen as having married down.  Well, they both had the last laugh.  They starred in 2018's A Quiet Place, which Krasinski wrote and directed, which is a post-apocalyptic horror movie about unknown creatures who have wiped out a good chunk of the human race and are attracted to sound. The whole movie provided high-ratcheted tension from the Abbotts, played by Krasinski and Ms. Blunt, and their children trying to keep quiet and avoid being eaten by the creatures, communicating with sign language and gestures.  It was one of the most acclaimed films of 2018.

Ms. Blunt ended 2018 with the Disney sequel movie Mary Poppins Returns, playing the the title role opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda as the apprentice of Dick Van Dyke's Bert from the original 1964 film.

Though her Britishness made her an obvious choice to play Mary Poppins, Emily Blunt is now an American citizen. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, March Actress Edition: Amy Adams

Here I go with a month-long look back at actresses I have previously featured on this blog.  And my first subject this month is someone I haven't featured here in a decade.

I last featured Amy Adams in January 2009, and of course she's played a lot of movie roles in the years since.  She's also been active on television.

Her most prominent roles in the past ten years have included a woman joining with her baseball-scout father on his business trip in 2012's Trouble with the Curve and as the object of the affection of someone who is simultaneously obsessed with a female-voiced computerized operating system in 2013's Her. Ms. Adams' most recent role as of this writing is former Second Lady Lynne Cheney in Vice, the biodrama about former Vice President Dick Cheney.  She also has starred in the TV series "Sharp Objects," as an emotionally troubled reporter who goes back to her hometown to cover a double murder involving two young girls.

I hope to feature Amy Adams here again, preferably sooner than another decade. :-)