Melissa Leo: A Lion Among Actors
By IFQ Critic Todd Konrad
IFQ recently spoke with respected actress Melissa Leo, on the heels of her critically acclaimed performance in Sundance award-winner Frozen River, about her role in the independent feature Racing Daylight (featuring herself, David Strathairn, and Giancarlo Esposito among others, directed by Nicole Quinn). What follows is a brief taste of that discussion, a glimpse into an always engaging artist who continues to strive forward in her work with integrity as well as increased critical and popular exposure.
IFQ: To start things off, could you briefly discuss your role in the independent feature Racing Daylight, given the film’s intricate plot and multiple characters many actors play in it. In addition, what are your thoughts on how the film turned out in general when you finally saw it completed?
Melissa Leo: Well that’s a lot of questions in one, and it’s lovely to talk about Racing Daylight. It’s a piece that was in my life for several years. David Strathairn and I read the script to try and drum up some money for it. Two and a half to three years of several different readings that we did with several other different cast members and so on, and the role is actually two roles. One is Anna Stokes, who’s from another point in time and Sadie, who is in a present-day situation watching her grandmother through her final days on this earth. I first saw it on Nicole’s farm, where we shot quite a bit of it, sitting next to Nicole and it was astonishing to see this thing realized. And there was a kismet in the art design, location finding, casting, etc. with this incredibly beautiful story, really strange and intricate yet simple tale about a possible way of seeing what happens in the afterlife we wonder about from time to time as human beings. [Laughs.]
IFQ: Among the talented cast that you work with in this film are David Strathairn and Giancarlo Esposito, both actors with considerable skill and always engaging to watch. How was your experience working with them on screen?
ML: Well, Giancarlo and I were around and about at the same time working, and I didn’t really work with him although he was present in some of the scenes we shot. [Laughs.] He loved that silent role, I remember him talking about that. And David is a delight. I’ve known him as a New York actor around the sidewalks of the city for more than 25 years and to get to know these roles together over time and play out these scenes that we had only sat next to each other reading but by doing so had done a certain kind of rehearsing that film rarely gets. We just fell into it. He’s a delightful actor to work with, a real joy. He’s just the kind of actor for independent film, he really is. He’s making better coin than that right now and I’m very pleased for that for him.
IFQ: You’ve been working steadily for the past 25 years now yet starting with Homicide: Life on the Street to projects like 21 Grams, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and Frozen River among others, where you’ve consistently done great work but are now seemingly receiving a heightened degree of notice than ever before. I was curious as to what that elevation in attention has been like for you and has it affected you either positively or negatively at all?
ML: Yes, it affects me; yes, Frozen River is a modern-day miracle. I think it is safe to say that it has changed my life—the making of it, the releasing of it. Sony Pictures Classics is the perfect company to purchase this film; it was wisely sold by the filmmaker. They have done a slow roll-out so it can be found by people as it should be. It has generated a kind of “Oh, Melissa Leo?” that never existed before. It’s been longer than ten years that I’ve gotten that kind of critical acclaim for the work I’ve done. There is something about a preparedness in myself, and a time put in, and this modern-day miracle of this kind of work that I’ve been doing for years and years and this woman who invested everything she had in me performing this character that she had written. And here it is, I could not be happier. In fact, I’ve never been happier. I don’t imagine it will last and last and last, but I am enjoying this moment for sure.
*Photo Courtesy of Jamie Midgley