Vera Farmiga: Why Didn't It Ever Really Happen For Her?

I remember being simply gobsmacked in the theater when it's revealed that her character in UP IN THE AIR is married. Shocked.

It's that her name sounds so off-putting. I can't decide whether it reminds me more of a disgusting sex act or the infection one receives from performing it.

Did someone order Veal Parmigiana?

Honestly- She's too good an actress when the material is very good, and she's terrible when the material isn't. She's such an honest actress that she has no idea how to play garbage.

I saw her in the indie "Down to the Bone": she was so good, I thought for a while it was a documentary.

She's old, and she looks older than she is.

I thought that she was lovely and really incredible in "Up...", but haven't actually watched her in anything since. The haircut wasn't working for her at all though.

Vera looks good in period dress. She has a raw-boned Liv Ullmann quality about her.

Sh was too old when she started. Taissa is more successful because of the showbiz double standard: Hollywood prefers "barely legal."

One well-received supporting turn in a Woody Allen film could change everything for her.

It takes a certain type of personality to become a star, and it's more and more difficult for actresses to make it big these day. Blanchett and Swinton have a certain unique quality of their own and, frankly, most of Swinton's roles are in indie and European films. I don't know that your average filmgoer would know Swinton from Farmiga.

Farmiga is a wonderful actress and hopefully will continue to find good roles in TV/Cable where actresses like her are more likely to flourish. BTW, her much younger sister Tassia is good too, though a bit too similar to Vera.

An excellent film actress who has never received enough material worthy of her. The Ida Lupino of the 21st century.

Fuck off, OP.

Vera Farmiga HAS made it and 99 percent of actors in the world will never come close to the fame and success she has achieved.

She's officially beloved by horror fans now and directed a fine movie about questioning religion herself.

I want to know what else you expected her to attain. An Oscar is a kiss of death and many Oscar-winning actresses would trade it gladly for a steady TV series and popular franchise in theaters.

"An Oscar is a kiss of death and many Oscar-winning actresses would trade it gladly for a steady TV series and popular franchise in theaters. "

OH, my sides!!!

Because of posters like r6. She is lovely and a good actres also refined and intelligent looking. She has been around for like 2 decades now. Hopefully she will continue to work and have a career like Patricia Clarkson.

I think r6 nailed it. She looks older than her age (by about 10 years). There aren't enough meaty roles for women in their early forties (Vera is only 43), much less for women who look like they're in their early fifties.

[quote]Patricia Clarkson

Also someone who looked 50 when she was 30.

Vera and Taissa are 21 years apart, so many assume they're mother and daughter, not siblings.

Patricia Clarkson? I hope I look that good when I'm in my mid-50s.

The "Conjuring" movies are terrible and all their linked-in movies like "Annabel" - trash movies.

Her career is over. She's now going to join Shannyn Sossoman in obscurity with her "thriller" roles on TV and cheap movies.

It's the lack of material. Hollywood is inundated with comic books and cartoons. She has to compete with the "it" women Sandra bullock, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathoway for the adult female roles in dramas.

R2 you might be associating Vera with fibromyalgia.

Yes, I always thought Verafarmiga was something bad that happened to animals in a barn.

Is she difficult? Not she just name, but her reputation?

She got a nice enough nose job, but she always sounds like she can't breathe out of it.

She was absolutely brilliant in Source Code. Her role was so limited but she added so much depth to the character using her eyes and a few economic gestures.

"I'm the face of Mesofarmigaola."

Her sister, Taissa, is awful. She's not 'more successful' or 'also good'.

Shes mature looking but not old looking. She looks like a grown woman. Jennifer Lopez is older and really tries to look 28. So the percetion is she is old. If she was European she would have more work.

She has weird hair.

Its the same reason why there hasn't been a minority of color or other female star since the new Millenium, who wasn't already popular in the 90s. The "movie star" is basically over so hollywood has decided to double down on what they already know. What I'm saying is not gospel for you literal cunts but who will cite 1 or 2 exceptions. I can't wait until a powerful latino, black, or woman to comes in and really shake things up.

She's awesome in Modern Family!

Polycythemia Vera

The real reason it "didn't happen" for her, OP, is simple: she wanted both a more conventional life and to be an actress --and sometimes these things are diametrically opposed. She does not play the H'wood game all that well, simply because she does not know how not to be honest (as another poster pointed out). I've known her a long time, and I'm surprised sometimes that she has gone as far as she has because she just isn't very...Hollywood. I will say that I don't think she "didn't happen", but rather that she could have had more had she been willing to compromise herself more (and she won't).

r34- why doesn't she do more theatre- I remember her vividly in a failed Ed Harris play in 1996, Taking Sides, when she understudied. When was I was Up in the Air, I checked on line & saw that was her- She really 'pops' on stage.

I agree, R35--can't take her eyes off her on stage, but she's more interested in being able to maintain a schedule, and if something fails on B'way or skyrockets, that's harder to schedule long-term. She's very hands-on with her children and they are both still relatively young. I suspect she will go back to it when they're older.

Vera Farmiga and Patricia Clarkson do not look 10 years older than they are - they look their respective ages. It's frightening and bizarre that for some of you it's so hard to recognise a woman who looks her age.

She's terrific. I adore her.

Loved her in Orphan. And also was very surprised she was married in "up in the air"

I always get her confused with Carla Gugino.

No way she's 42. Maybe 48

[quote]was compared to a young Meryl Streep

aren't they all?

R2 and R6 nailed it. Talent aside, she has an odd name and looks older than her actual age.

She's fine but nothing special and has zero charisma.

This thread is really odd. Considering the current film and television landscape, I'd say she's in a unique sweet spot: she has both a successful tv show on cable (Bates Motel), a legit blockbuster franchise that isn't comic book-based (The Conjuring series) and has starred in some compelling adult dramas (Up in the Air, Higher Ground) and smart genre films (Source Code, The Departed) at a time when both are a rarity. She also reads as a completely real human being in an industry full of assholes. Basically, what I'm saying is: she is the real deal. And those with discerning taste can see that.

She is incredible on Bates Motel, taking a challenging role and not afraid of exploring the darker themes. I think she is a fascinating actress

Meh. You have to have a certain spark to make it, and it helps if directors and audiences take to you and want to see you in things. Vera has a kind of plain Jane quality like Jane Alexander.

R47 can shove his "meh."

Comments like his are made by guys who don't know what they're talking about. Farmiga is superb in BATES and deserves an Emmy. She has a spark, and then some.

She always seems like a very likeable goofball in interviews, rather than someone who takes themselves so serious.

I've loved her since the first time I saw her in Roar with Heath Ledger.

r47 is very very old if they still remember Jane Alexander and her old dirty sweat shirts (and her molester son)

She reminds me of Fiona Apple. Maybe she needs to do a film where Fiona Apple and her are sisters, and it's a period piece. Maybe play the Bronte sisters in a time-travelling horror film crossover TV series.

Where do I cash in my cheque for the idea?

Vera Farmiga is one of my favorite cheeses

I love Vera Farmiga -- I think she's genuinely talented. But I will agree that she often appears older than her actual age. In "Up In the Air" Clooney and Farmiga seemed to be an age appropriate match, but I was surprised to learn that in real life, Farmiga is 12 years younger than Clooney.

Kids will age you. If she has two young ones, yes, that would contribute to her looking older.

I thought she was fine in The Departed, but not exceptional. And you need to be exceptional in a film by a major American filmmaker, because those opportunities do not come often.

She was amazingly sensual in Never Forever, with a pre-fame Ha Jung-woo who's now a big Korean A-lister.

[quote] Aren't they all?

Not the pretty ones, dear.

There is nothing wrong about being like Jane Alexander. She is/was wonderful. A truly honest actress.

Yes, it's her name. It's fa-fa-fa-fa sound conjures up images of a dry felching session.

She would be great as the mother of the Olsen twins

I disagree, r44.

She has plenty of charisma. I find her engaging.

Is she the female Aaron Eckhart?

Farmiga has been successful. Not everyone will become Julia Roberts or even wants to be. I disagree about her looking older. American audiences have become acclimated to actors and actresses with unusually youthful , almost adolescent- like faces but that isn't the norm. I don't see Europeans harbor the same idea that people should have the features of 15 year olds well into adulthood,it's a strange American obssession.

She was fixing fucking bad-ass in Running Scared (2006)

A twisted movie that I love. Also starring the late Paul Walker.

I saw an interview she did (one of those Hollywood Reporter round table things)

Claire Danes was saying how heartbreaking it was that after she won the Emmy for Temple Grandin she didn't work for 2 years. Farmiga said the same thing happened to her after her Oscar nomination for Up in the Air.

Sarah Paulson was on the panel and Farmiga said she was up for her role in 12 Years a Slave.

She gives me a bad feeling. I can't watch anything she is in. Must remind me of somebody.

Aloe Vera!

She was absolutely wonderful in Bates Motel. And I was jealous of her because she got to make out with Nestor Carbonell.

It's her name. Vera is such a common name. Waitresses are named Vera. Plus that last name? It's awkward and nobody knows how to pronounce it.

Taissa is one of the worst actresses I've ever seen. Like human Ambient.

Anyway, Vera should be a fucking ICON for starring in the camptastic ORPHAN!!

She seems to be doing quite well with consistently excellent work. She just never had a Sophie’s Choice type role to push her into the major leagues and that’s ok.

She doesn’t look 10 years older than she is. People are so used to young actresses cast as much older women (think Jennifer Lawrence in many of her roles) that they think a woman in her 40s should look like a woman in her late 20s. You would think DLers would be hipper to that than the average yokel but apparently not.

I was never in the waitress pool.

Love her in Bates Motel.

Higher Ground was great and good that she didn't pronounce judgement on a woman of faith.

Loved her in Bates Motel. She's Ukrainian. Her name is pronounced pretty much the way it's spelled. If she had changed her name to Taylor Kennedy, people would say she's putting on airs and why didn't she keep her real name. Geez.

Depends how you define “it,” OP.

She was the best thing about Bates Motel.

She got Modern Family & a bunch of ‘chezzey’ commercials. That’s enough?

Coincidently, I just watched Source Code last night ( smart non=gory thriller/drama) She was good but Gyllenhaal was amazing. It's funny, IRL he doesn't seem very intelligent or complex but he's an amazing actor. Very few actors can conjure up tears on command and he is one of them. This film caught me off guard emotionally.

Bounce TV is showing a Law & Order episode (Expert) in which she's the expert right now. She has such a distinctive face that I recognized her even though she's young and is wearing bangs. Usually I need to look up the episode on IMDb to figure out "who is that?" when I watch L&O.

Name is too much like a cheese.

I confuse her with Natascha McElhone; who also seems to have taken an odd career path.

I’m not entirely ignorant of pop culture but she is one of those actresses I’ve somehow missed. I always sort of confused her with Sofía Vergara (another one I’ve never really watched). Lots of vowels. I’m learning about Vera in this thread, and will now maybe check out one of her movies.

I think she's talented. She has a slight resemblance to a young Jane Fonda.

She is going to play Livia Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark, and I think she will be awesome-

Fun fact: She is Oksana Baiul's cousin!