Edie McClurg makes a school secretary's chatter worth listening to. We value her comic timing and closely observed speech, though casting her as another cheery mother or neighbour has too often become the easy option.
Fi1m perspective
In Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Grace, the school secretary, has plenty to say about how much everyone loves Ferris. Edie McClurg fills her speech with the little sounds of someone enjoying a conversation rather than simply delivering information. For her audition, she drew those sounds from women she had observed in Kansas City and added her own approving description of Ferris. We laughed at Grace's account of Ferris's popularity, because McClurg makes the secretary sound delighted to be passing it on. John Hughes's comedy is funny and generous, even when its hero is hard to take, and she belongs to its generous side.
Her first film was Carrie (1976), but the 1980s comedies established the familiar casting: secretaries, mothers, neighbours and people paid to be helpful. She made four films with Hughes, a useful association for an actor whose improvisation could make a small part worth remembering. Her work with the Groundlings helps explain the readiness to make those little additions, which make Grace sound as though she has not rehearsed a word.
That usefulness also made her easy to pigeonhole, with the comic housewife or neighbour becoming a repeated assignment. We would have liked more parts that did not ask her to arrive cheerful. Her appearance as Mallory's mum in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994) takes her into a harsher kind of film. We found it worth seeing for its restless editing and committed performances, but its repetitive media satire makes it a qualified recommendation.
Voice work became a substantial part of her career from the 1980s onwards, with roles including Carlotta in The Little Mermaid (1989), Dr Flora in A Bug's Life (1998) and Minny in Cars (2006). The warm, maternal or eccentric characters suit an actor who can establish a person through speech alone. The voice is recognisable, which need not be a failing when a supporting character has little time to establish herself. Start with Grace, and listen to what McClurg puts between the words.
Biography
Edie McClurg is an American actress. Her screen debut was as Helen Shyres in the 1976 film Carrie. She played Mallory's mother in Natural Born Killers (1994).
McClurg studied at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and earned a master's degree from Syracuse University. She performed with the Groundlings improv troupe in Los Angeles. Among her best-known roles are Grace, the school secretary, in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and voice performances including Gerda in Frozen (2013), Minny in Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011), Mary in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Dr Flora in A Bug's Life (1998), and Carlotta in The Little Mermaid (1989).
