Rene Russo can make a cast of swaggering men funnier simply by staying sensible. We like her steadiness and comic judgement; the limitation comes when a film mistakes a capable woman for a fully written part.
Fi1m perspective
In Get Shorty (1995), Rene Russo's Karen Flores stays calm while the men around her try to seem important. Gene Hackman's Harry Zimm labours at it; Danny DeVito's Martin Weir expects the conversation to concern him. Russo gives these competing egos someone sensible to play against, without making Karen seem merely there to keep order. We rate her highly when a film makes room for that intelligence, and less highly when being capable is all it asks of her.
Her breakthrough came as Lorna Cole opposite Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992). Through the 1990s she was repeatedly cast as a woman who could hold her own against a powerful male lead. That was useful casting, but it became a restriction: confidence can be a thin part when the writing stops there. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), with Russo as Catherine Banning, made further use of her intelligence in a romantic heist film.
Barry Sonnenfeld gets more from her in Get Shorty because he lets the actors be funny in different ways. Karen is an actress looking for better opportunities, and Russo's composure belongs to someone with ambitions of her own. We laughed at the men's self-importance, and her steady presence made their exertions funnier. She does not need a matching display of eccentricity to justify her place among them. The Hollywood jokes can be easy and the suspense slight, but neither is a reason to miss this ensemble.
After a five-year break following Yours, Mine & Ours (2005), she returned as Frigga in Thor (2011). The later part that matters more to our view is Nina Romina, the ruthless news director in Nightcrawler (2014). Here professional confidence has an unpleasant use: being good at the job gives us no reason to like the person doing it. It is a welcome complication of the capable women she had so often been asked to play.
We would like more parts that allow that complication, rather than treating her steadiness as sufficient characterisation. She can support louder performers without disappearing, as Sonnenfeld understands. Start with Get Shorty for the pleasure of watching actors who have not all been given the same instructions.
Biography
Rene Russo is an American actress and former model. Born Rene Marie Russo on 17 February 1954 in Burbank, California, she began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers including Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
She made her film debut in Major League (1989). Russo rose to prominence in the 1990s with roles in thrillers and action films such as Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Get Shorty (1995), Outbreak (1995), Ransom (1996) and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). After a break from acting, she returned as Frigga in Thor (2011), reprising the role in Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). In Nightcrawler (2014) she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She has also appeared in The Intern (2015) and Velvet Buzzsaw (2019).
Russo has been married to screenwriter Dan Gilroy since 1992.
