Swoosie Kurtz makes eccentric people worth listening to, using the way they speak and move to suggest more than their oddness. We rate her precision, and her willingness to let an ensemble do its work.
Fi1m perspective
Swoosie Kurtz makes an eccentric character’s way of speaking or moving worth paying attention to. We rate her for making such people funny without treating them as disposable jokes. Her comic timing gives difficult family members their bite, while the vulnerability keeps the oddness from becoming the whole performance. She is useful in an ensemble because she can make a supporting part count without asking the film to stop for her.
Her move from theatre into sustained screen work in the 1980s put that precision to different uses. Stephen Frears’s Dangerous Liaisons (1988) casts her as Madame de Volanges alongside Glenn Close and John Malkovich. The film’s calculated seductions give its cast plenty to work with, and we warmly recommend it, particularly for Close’s mercilessness and Michelle Pfeiffer’s deeply affecting performance. Kurtz’s contribution sits within that strong ensemble; we would not pretend she is its principal attraction. A few exchanges sound over-rehearsed, and an accomplished cast cannot quite disguise the stiffness.
Television gave her more sustained ensemble work, from Sisters (1991–96), with Sela Ward, to Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies (2007–09). Her Lily Charles belongs to the latter’s eccentric supporting cast, whose seriousness about the silliness helps the impossible romance matter. We were moved by that romance because the performers treat its feelings as real, however fanciful the premise. Lee Pace and Anna Friel give the romance its appeal, in a programme that depends on its supporting performers taking the same care. The sweetness can become exhausting, which is a fault the actors cannot be expected to cure.
The suggestion that she ought to have become a bigger film star misses what is rewarding about the work. We do not need every capable supporting actor promoted out of the job they do well. Kurtz’s preference for ensemble work makes sense when the company is this good. Begin with Pushing Daisies, and allow for the possibility that its sweetness will require a break between episodes.
Biography
Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress born on 6 September 1944 in Omaha, Nebraska. She trained at the University of Southern California and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She began her career in theatre and made her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of Ah, Wilderness!.
Kurtz has received two Tony Awards, for Fifth of July (1981) and The House of Blue Leaves (1986), from five nominations. Her television work includes the series Sisters (1991–96) and Mike & Molly (2010–16), and she played Lily Charles in Pushing Daisies (2007–09). She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Carol & Company (1990). Her film credits include Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Liar Liar (1997) and Overboard (2018).
