Imelda Staunton: why does she get so much more love in the UK than in the US?

Umbridge

The only role I consciously connect with her is this very, very nasty lady in Harry Potter. Yes, R1.

She's amazing, both in Gypsy and in Follies.

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She was fantastic in “Vera Drake”.

[quote]Imelda Staunton: why does she get so much more love in the UK than in the US?

Her mouth is a little prissy.

We like lush, full lips in America.

She should try fillers.

why, she's the Glenn Close of England!

Britain’s grandest Grande Dames, like Dame Maggie of blessed memory, and Dame Judi, tend to get most acclaim as they reach old age, possibly because they are happy to play old, unlike American actresses who are more likely to paralyse their facial muscles in an attempt to be eternally twentysomething.

There is plenty of time for Dame Imelda to reach greater heights, as she is a comparative child who is not even 70 years old yet.

I think she didn’t get an Emmy for The Crown because those seasons were dominated by Charles and Diana and to a lesser extent Thatcher. And both Elizabeth Debicki and Gillian Anderson won Emmys.

[quote] I think she didn’t get an Emmy for The Crown because those seasons were dominated by Charles and Diana and to a lesser extent Thatcher.

Imelda Staunton and Gillian Anderson never appeared in the same season.

Anderson appeared as Thatcher only in Season 4; Staunton appeared as Elizabeth only in seasons 5 & 6.

She deserved an Oscar for The Order of the Phoenix. Of course they would never give an acting Oscar for a Harry Potter movie. But she was incredible in that role.

She's a very good actress but she doesn't have the physical qualities Americans look for in their stars. In England many modestly attractive actors like her become leading performers. In America she would be relegated to supporting character roles because, as one casting director I know once said, "she's not the stuff of fantasies".

[quote] as one casting director I know once said, "she's not the stuff of fantasies".

Yes, America does expect more of its acting talent

Not enough people saw Taking Woodstock. Brilliant performance.

[quote] In America she would be relegated to supporting character roles because, as one casting director I know once said, "she's not the stuff of fantasies".

As opposed to Glenn Close and Frances McDormand??

She’s not that interesting.

To me, she has a very punchable face.

She can be very shouty. Her Mamma Rose was played to the rafters.

She looks like the help. Seriously. You couldn’t get a less royal person to play the Queen (who didn’t look very royal herself, but that is another story).

And thank goodness for that, r18!

[quote] In America she would be relegated to supporting character roles because, as one casting director I know once said, "she's not the stuff of fantasies".

How does that explain the success of someone like Kathy Bates?

Imelda lacks range while pretending to it. I don't know why she gets so much work. She's irritating and predictable.

Because she sucks.. like Che Diaz sucks.

R15 Glenn got Fatal Attraction which put her over and Frances is married to a huge director. Neither is 4'8".

[quote] also did not seem to like her Olivier-nominated performances in classic American musicals like "Gypsy" and "Follies"--though she did get praise here as well as in the UK for "Hello, Dolly!"

What Americans saw her in these things? Did she perform them in the US?

Why doesn't she get the kind of love in the US Maggie Smith and Judi Dench used to get, since she is very much their inheritor?

She's nowhere near as well known in the US as Maggie Smith was. Maggie Smith was a movie star, she won an Oscar. I saw her in movies when I was a kid. Judi Dench had important roles in Hollywood movies, and also a lot of Americans originally saw her in that TV series she did in England that played on PBS for years.

I confess I had never seen Imelda Staunton until a month ago when I saw her in the movie, Pride (2014). I'd heard of her. Never saw Harry Potter or Downton Abbey.

*As Time Goes By (1992-2005)

“ She's nowhere near as well known in the US as Maggie Smith was. Maggie Smith was a movie star, she won an Oscar.”

And then another Oscar

It's not too late for her to try the sex symbol route, to appeal to American audiances.

Maybe a remake of Connie Stevens' SCORCHY (1976)

[ITALIC]A female undercover narc is out to bust a drug smuggling ring commanded by a hunky stud.

She could also headline the coming remake of BARBARELLA.

She’s a good actress but rather overrated in the UK, I think.

Also, she is VERY short and looks like a common frump. Was never attractive, feminine, glamorous.

Neither was Joan Plowright and Americans have never forgiven her for supplanting Vivien Leigh, one of the great beauties of the 20th Century, indelible as Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois.

I love her in certain roles (hem, hem), but she has neither the subtlety nor the range of Smith and Dench. She sometimes also has luvvie moments like her friend Emma Thompson, which have the effect of making her look too eager. I hope she gives less of a shit as she gets older.

She was terrific in Gypsy, and very good in Hello Dolly. And I thought quite good in the remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, in a part originally played by Patricia Routledge, no less. I have tickets to see her in Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Looking forward to it.

Somewhere, isn’t there a clip of her singing “A Little Priest”? She’s great.

R33, Is this it?

[quote]r9 She could also headline the coming remake of BARBARELLA.

This is EXACTLY the sort of stuff her agent should be pitching her for if she wants to be a real, international star. Forget about all that boring "prestige" crap!

She was fantastic in “Vera Drake”.

Yes R5. Also had a small role in another Mike Leigh film Another Year as a depressed housewife.

In Hello, Dolly.

I loved her in that very early Midsomer Murders episode as an evangelical missionary with a fondness for playing Hide the Sausage in the great outdoors. She made a very believable wife to Duncan Preston.

She's no Gale Storm.

She reminds me of a community theatre type of actor. A decent one, but lacks that "it/ wow" factor.

When it comes to respected actors I dislike, I think she tops the list. I didn’t even think she was particularly good in Vera Drake—one-note chirpy for the first half of the movie, then repeatedly bursting into tears for the second half. Even though Brenda Blethyn kept crying throughout another Mike Leigh movie, Secrets and Lies, there was variety to it and it always seemed fresh. Staunton just seemed self-pitying until it worked against the movie. I just wanted to say to Vera, For God’s sakes, you seem to have been performing illegal abortions (however unfair the law) multiple times a week for years—did it never occur to you that being caught was a real possibility and how you might respond, beyond crying. To me, it was a rare fail in a major Mike Leigh role, which are normally unusually complex, from High Hopes through Hard Truths.

As for her Gypsy, at least the filmed version (which I know there is much debate about), all I could think was poor Rosalind Russell. For sixty years I’ve read people complain about her overplaying the part—and then this gets praised??!!

Never heard of her.

I've never liked her. That prissy face and scar of a mouth coupled a style of acting that spans from chirpy to flinty/scoldy.

Vera Drake got loads of attention for the subject matter, less for Staunton's performance than for her "brave performance." She was in a series of films all at once, at least to my experience and overexposed and under versatile everywhere m

There's a ridiculous rom-com called Crush from 2002 that may be the first time I took attention. Not for the right reasons.

And I thought quite good in the remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, in a part originally played by Patricia Routledge, no less R32

I agree with you on this. She and Kristin Scott Thomas and Lesley Manville. The others were no match.

[quote]r40 She reminds me of a community theatre type of actor. A decent one, but lacks that "it/ wow" factor.

I agree. Maybe we should do a GoFundMe for her. She’s flailing.

I wonder if it has anything to do with her being British?

Fun fact: She's married to Jim Carter who played Mr. Carson on DOWNTON ABBEY.

Such an angry little woman - it informs all of her performances.

The first few comments got it right. Most Americans know her primarily as Dolores Umbridge, and she did too good a job as one of the most contemptible characters in the Harry Potter films. That has colored our perception of her, irrational as it is.

I always preferred Alison Steadman, especially after seeing 'Abigail's Party'

Some Brit actors are more or less equally revered on both sides of the Atlantic, others are definitely not. Michael Crawford, Michael Ball, and Elaine Paige are three other examples I can think of who are far more loved over there than here.

Also, R47, their daughter is a Featherington in Bridgerton. They seem to be very inclined to the Upstairs Downstairs genre as a family.

She doesn't own her space as Smith, Redgrave and Dench do. Her innate frumpiness and washerwoman looks work against her no matter how good an actor she is. She lacks the factor that makes her a gripping performer. A friend saw her Rose in London and was besotted. Said she was fabulous. It certainly did not come across like that on TV.

Why did Jerry Lewis get more love in France than in the US?

I’m telling you, doubters need to see Taking Woodstock. You won’t believe it’s the same woman.

Example 2:30 into this clip.

Because she's a big star in the UK and we only know her here from an old children's movie series.

I don’t like her.

She's the weakest Queen Liz in "The Crown". She's best as the kind of put-upon housefrau she's often played.

We don’t know her.

At least outside of HP and the last Queen. And her Queen did not hold up to Mirren’s Queen.

I do know her daughter Bessie Carter is in Bridgerton, but only because I have a digital subscription to Tatler.

But I really don’t know them.

R55, I found Staunton's performance in TAKING WOODSTOCK almost unbearable in that it was so painfully overacted.

I watched part of Imelda Staunton's "Gypsy" online and found her hammy and overwrought.

She's too short

In that "Everything's Coming Up Roses" the staging is ridiculously heavy-handed. They might as well have her attach strings to Louise and stand above her to manipulate her with a control bar like a marionette.

Sense and Sensibility where she plays the wife of Hugh Laurie; Peter's Friends where she plays the wife of Hugh Laurie; that miniseries (the confession) where her daughter's a dead whore; midsomer murders! I think she's also in Downton Abbey - the list goes on. I think she's terrific, I don't remember her in Harry Potter

Maggie Smith???? Nothing that Staunton -- quite effective in the right part and when under directorial control -- has ever done comes close to what Dame Maggie did in, say, THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE or LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING, and it's impossible to imagine her in many Smith roles like Arkadina, Cleopatra, Desdemona, Hedda, etc., etc.

[quote] I don't remember her in Harry Potter

I find that rather remarkable.

Her popping eyes and clacking dentures and Patty Duke stretched out hands make me have to look away.

After watching GYPSY I could only think the reason Herbie stuck around is because he was in love with Tulsa.

R66, so glad you mentioned THE LONELY PASSION…

It felt to me like such an underappreciated film. And I watched it prepared for disappointment, having adored the book. But I loved the movie and her in it.

Loved the novel too, R69. The Irish American would-be suitor in the boarding house and Judith each thinking that the other had some money while both being virtually penniless (and Judith being an inveterate snob on top of that) was tragically hilarious.

I also love the many examples of Irish-English understatement/euphemisms in the book. "I think she has a drop taken" is such a polite way to say "she is falling-down drunk."

Olivia Colman is the fairly obvious successor to Judi Dench - like Dench she has a face that emotions roll across like weather and a twinkly mischievous quality in comedy parts, and I’d rate her above Dench when it comes to playing comic monsters - I remember thinking that Dench was completely out to sea as Lady Bracknell and Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Like everyone else, I liked her much better than Staunton in the Crown, but I would rate Foy as the best queen by a mile.

I can’t think of a successor to Maggie Smith. Smith was a true leading lady who could play very high comedy and tragedy equally well. She was one of those performers who somehow managed to marry huge range with a very distinctive style, though it could perhaps feel a bit “here comes Maggie Smith and her bag of tricks” in weaker outings. She might not have been quite Dench’s equal at Shakespeare, but I think she might have been the more unique talent. I don’t think they’ll be another like her.

[quote]r60 I do know her daughter Bessie Carter is in Bridgerton, but only because I have a digital subscription to Tatler.

Jesus CHRIST - she’s spawned a goddamn NEPO BABY ? ?

I withdraw my support for her playing Barbarella.

[quote]She's too short

That's a big part of it.

[quote]Of the three actresses to play Elizabeth II in "The Crown," she was the only one not to win an Emmy

Sometimes the awards get it right. As in this case. She was terrible in the role - a mashup of hair and makeup, nervous tics, and mannerisms and patterns of speech and accent, none of which fit her.

Well, I for one think she should be taken out back and horsewhipped.

Who's with me?

[quote]Also, she is VERY short and looks like a common frump.

R30 = Addison DeWitt.

She had the misfortune to star in the two worst seasons of The Crown. The writing was pretty bad compared to what had come before, and The Queen herself was consigned to the background as the focus moved to Charles, Diana and Camilla, and William and Kate and the series suffered as a consequence.

Fair observations, R77, but even gotten up as the queen, she looks forever like one of the tea trolley ladies at a not very smart workplace. An auto manufactory, say.

She's too short

Lots of beloved actresses have been short. Bette, Barbara, Elizabeth, Judy.

Her tiny size (5'0") was absolutely disastrous for her Sally in "Follies." Who ever heard of a diminutive former showgirl? All the other actresses in the company were of at least normal size, and so she looked like a midget who had wandered in from a sideshow.

Because her hoards of cheap pairs of women’s shoes looked very English.

I'm with you R75.

She was no madeleine Kahn

only one nomination

R32 here. I agree with what so many have said here about Dames Dench and Smith being head and shoulders above Dame Staunton (literally). But I sand by my assessment of Staunton in Gypsy. On stage, in a big house, she did not come across as hammy or overwrought. It’s the same with Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was good, but he wasn’t no Bach nor Mozart.

Isn't Judi Dench short too?

Judi Dench never tried to play Sally Durant on stage.

[quote]Not enough people saw Taking Woodstock. Brilliant performance

I saw it, opening day and I thought she stuck out like a sore thumb...look at me acting!

[quote]r86 Isn't Judi Dench short, too?

Yes. Like a goblin. Or a garden gnome.

I just watched Maggie Smith in Travels With My Aunt on TCM.

Imelda may as well just stay home play solitaire.

Why comnpare Maggie Smith and Imelda Staunton? It's like comparing . It's like comparing Susan Hayward to Thelma Ritter. I mean, totally different types.

Sorry^ I forgot my meds.

Can I have 'em then?

Dame Maggie is sadly no longer taking on leading roles.

I saw Staunton as General Cartwright when the National Theatre did GUYS AND DOLLS. She also understudied Julia McKenzie as Adelaide. I saw McKenzie do it (Bob Hoskins was her Nathan, and the lovely Ian Charleson as Sky), but had a friend who saw it later in the run when either Julia had left, or it transferred to the West End, and Staunton had taken over the role.. When I asked how it was, he said it was painful watching her "hurl her voice at the notes."

Also, Smith and Dench had done a lot of stage work in the smaller rep theatres (I think I saw Dench at the Oxford Playhouse in some obscure Molnar..(THE SWAN, ...THE GUARDSMAN..?) and saw Smith and her then husband, dishy Robert Stephens, do PRIVATE LIVES in the West End. And of course, both then went on the work at both the RSC and the National. Great training. Where as Staunton seems to have made her mark, (or attempted to, anyway) in small indie films.

TEA WITH THE DAMES is a terrific movie. Watching it, you can see that Dench and Smith both had the "it factor" where as Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright, while both wonderful actors, didn't have the presence of the other two enjoyed.

I think people were a bit tired of the Royal Family by the time she appeared on The Crown in 2022.

Yes Kristin Scott Thomas does the same Alan Bennett monologue in the newer talking heads and she is much more charismatic than Atkins.

I saw Maggie Smith do Private Live in the US. With John Standing. She was a real ham, but funny. Still wondering what she has to do with Imelda Staunton, though.

Maybe it’s because she has been an English stage actor for decades. (Duh)

R79 But she's too fat also, which makes her look like a zit.

Atkins is brilliant in her TALKING HEADS monologue, and she seems more like the character than Kristin Scott Thomas (good though the latter also is).

[quote]I saw Maggie Smith do Private Live in the US. With John Standing. She was a real ham, but funny.

The first show I saw on Broadway, She really was hammy, but she made it work. I recall that in some of her line readings, she seemed to be channeling Paul Lynde.

Midgets are always angry r80.

Staunton is essentially a character actress, but she's part of a generation that doesn't seem to have a Dench, a Maggie Smith or a Vanessa Redgrave. She probably should be having a career more like Eileen Atkins has had.

[quote]The only role I consciously connect with her is this very, very nasty lady in Harry Potter. Yes, [R1].

She was also the nasty teacher in FREEDOM WRITERS, which many of us grew up watching in the late 2000s/2010s.