Ellen Greene can turn breathy, lispy speech from a comic manner into something that hurts. We value the feeling beneath her eccentricity, though that distinctive delivery needs a film or programme willing to make room for it.
Fi1m perspective
Greene's breathy, lispy speech can be funny before the words themselves have done much. She can then let hurt into the same delivery without making the change feel like an announcement. Nightclub singing and stage work came before her film debut in Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976). The defining part followed: Audrey, whom she originated Off-Broadway in 1982 and played in Frank Oz's Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Supporting film and television roles would occupy much of her later screen career, without replacing Audrey as her most recognised part.
We were moved by Audrey because Greene lets the hurt emerge without abandoning the comic voice. Her close-up work keeps a character developed on stage emotionally credible on film. The delivery is conspicuous, and it will not suit every viewer, but the vulnerability gives us something to care about beyond the mannerisms.
Léon: The Professional (1994) places her in a supporting role as Mathilda's mother, in a crime thriller directed by Luc Besson. We recommend it for the tenderness Jean Reno and Natalie Portman bring to the central bond, with a firm caveat about its treatment of a child amid the violence. It is not the place to begin with Greene. For all the film's grip, a small role in somebody else's story tells us less about her appeal than a character she has had room to develop.
Pushing Daisies (2007) gives her more room as Vivian Charles, one of the agoraphobic Charles sisters, alongside Swoosie Kurtz. Here the cast's willingness to take the silliness seriously is essential, and Greene's familiar mixture of fragility and eccentricity fits the programme. Lee Pace and Anna Friel make the impossible romance matter, with the supporting cast helping it hold. The sweetness can become exhausting, however, and the cast's commitment cannot remove that problem. For a first encounter with Greene, though, we would still choose Little Shop of Horrors.
Biography
Ellen Greene (born 22 February 1951) is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she performed in musical theatre productions as a teenager and worked as a nightclub singer in New York City before her Broadway debut in 1973.
She originated the role of Audrey in the 1982 off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors and reprised it in the 1986 film. Greene has appeared in films including Léon: The Professional (1994) as Mathilda's mother and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), and in television series such as Pushing Daisies (2007) as Vivian Charles.
