Home Regulars Features Star Bios Chat Archive

Features

Interviews


J-Pegged
Danny DeVito

The Green Room
Catherine Keener

The Mr. Showbiz Interview
Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Well-Known Writers


Unedited
Tony Hendra
Joe Queenan

Fiction
Serb Heat

Terminal Chic
Shorts Story

Games of Skill


Pick 'Em
Crossword
Plastic Surgery lab

Plus!


Haiku
Their Stories
Because I Said So
Tabloid Headlines

Search Mr. Showbiz




Thursday, August 1, 1996
The Green Room
Catherine Keener

By Scott Roesch

ATHERINE KEENER doesn't work all that often, but when she does, she makes quite an impression. She first turned heads in 1992 with what one reviewer called a "touchingly comic" performance as Brad Pitt's girlfriend in Johnny Suede. She impressed critics again as the put-upon leading lady in last year's Living in Oblivion , another film from director Tom DiCillo. And she's currently making waves in Walking and Talking . The fact that Keener's résumé is short and doesn't boast any seven-figure movie deals doesn't bother her too much: stardom has never been her goal. "I went through long periods of not working," admits the actress. "What was happening was that I wasn't getting the jobs I wanted and I wasn't wanting the jobs I could get."

Walking and Talking was a job she wanted and got. The charming film from first-time writer-director Nicole Holofcener is about a single woman named Amelia (Keener) whose world falls apart when her lifelong friend Laura (Anne Heche) gets engaged. "This movie took five years to get made," says Keener. "It didn't have a hook, people didn't know what it was about. They'd say, 'It's just a women's movie?'" Maybe so, but on the strength of two honest, on-the-money performances from Keener and Heche, this women's movie became a hit at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Green Room Archive Index


Send your comments to Mr. Showbiz

Copyright 1996 Starwave 
Corporation. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.