Miranda Richardson is especially good at women determined to have their way, finding comedy or menace in their certainty. We admire her precise changes of voice and manner; the films do not always give her enough room.
Fi1m perspective
In The Crying Game (1992), Miranda Richardson’s Jude has a hard edge beside Stephen Rea’s vulnerable central performance. We found the film tender and unsettling, with Rea giving it a vulnerable centre. Neil Jordan’s thriller gives that contrast room without sacrificing its tenderness, and it is a strong place to start with Richardson. We have reservations about plotting that sometimes takes attention away from the people. Richardson supplies a reason to keep paying attention to them, even when the story grows awkward.
Her film debut was as Ruth Ellis in Dance with a Stranger (1985), followed by the comic authority of Queenie in Blackadder II (1986). The comic timing is as important to our view of her as the intensity of the dramatic work. The early 1990s brought leading and supporting roles in Damage (1992), Enchanted April (1992), The Crying Game and Tom & Viv (1994). We would look to that group of films before treating the later supporting appearances as the whole story.
She is especially useful in parts that need to register quickly. The changes of voice and physical manner distinguish Jude from the scheming journalist Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005); Richardson finds a different manner for each. We admire the care taken over that distinction. A character made recognisable by a voice or a posture can still be thinly written; we want the film to give her something to do with that precision.
Sleepy Hollow (1999) shows the other difficulty: effects and genre business can crowd out the performances. We would not choose it simply to see her at work. Her later career includes voice work in Chicken Run (2000) and its 2023 follow-up, alongside television appearances in Good Omens (2019 and 2023). Start with The Crying Game, but leave room for the comedy of Blackadder II.
Biography
Miranda Richardson is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and began her career in repertory theatre before making her West End debut in 1981.
She made her film debut as Ruth Ellis in Dance with a Stranger (1985). Her other film roles include Jude in The Crying Game (1992), for which she received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Mrs Victor in Empire of the Sun (1987), Lady Mary Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow (1999), Vanessa Bell in The Hours (2002) and Rita Skeeter in the Harry Potter films. She was nominated for Academy Awards for Damage (1992) and Tom & Viv (1994), and won Golden Globes for Enchanted April (1992) and the television film Fatherland (1994).
Richardson has also worked extensively in television, including as Queenie in Blackadder, and on stage, receiving an Olivier Award nomination for A Lie of the Mind (1987). She provided the voice of Mrs Tweedy in Chicken Run (2000).
