Having largely played the sturdy support system and best friend to Kate Winslet’s Mare, the character portrayed by Julianne Nicholson faced two unbearable revelations in the series finale: Not only had her husband, John shot Erin in an attempt to intimidate her.
But this isn’t exactly her arrival in Hollywood; between lead roles in indie films and crime dramas and holding her own opposite Meryl Streep, the 49-year-old actor has been doing great, underrated work onscreen for decades.
When I read the scripts, I thought they were great, and they drew me in immediately, and I have always been a fan of Kate’s, so I thought that combination was a good one.
Overall, too, who would have thought that a character-driven mystery set in Delco, which really evolves in this rich exploration of mothers and sons, would become such a phenomenon.
I had someone just text me yesterday and be like, how wonderful to have an exploration of middle age and all the inherent dramas and grief that go along with that, and just living your life.
So that’s been more often my experience of feeling like no one got to see this thing that we worked really hard on and had a lot of hope around.
I get lots of texts and emails and phone calls from people I haven’t heard from in a long time just being lovely….
Her total devotion to the story that she’s telling is remarkable, and her attention to detail was really an education— with the Meryl Streep; her off-camera work was just like her on-camera, giving 150% because she wants the other person to be as good as they can be.
But it’s so interesting and illuminating to talk to other people about your career, because it’s hard to see it from the inside sometimes.
When I was in high school, I watched all her movies and had a little cassette, The Best of Marilyn, that I memorized, and had posters all over my room.
It has long been a truth in Hollywood that women get to a certain age and the good roles start going away.
But I feel like the roles that I’ve been able to do, the people that I’ve been able to work with, and the stories that I’ve been able to tell just get more and more exciting, and I get to go to deeper and deeper places.
Actually, I was thinking about this the other day because I’m working with Tracy Letts right now, and right before I went to do and I did a Sam Shepard play, I must’ve been, I don’t know, 42 or something.
You want to do good work, and like I said, I’ve had many wonderful opportunities, but I’ve also missed out on lots of things because I wasn’t a name or because people just didn’t think I could do it, and so to have a minute where I’m in something that people are actually watching, and that people recognize as truth, just feels really good.
And I feel like my opportunities are getting better and better, all these years later and at this time in my life.
And here we are, with people talking about Kate Winslet and Jean Smart and Julianne Nicholson on a show that’s so popular.
Portraits: Gillian Anderson, Hugh Grant, Jurnee Smollett, and More— Are the Daytime Emmy Nominations Even Weirder Than Usual?— Kate Winslet Has Now Entered the Most Thrilling Actress Race at the Emmys— From the Archive: Who Stole the 2000 Oscar Statuettes?— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of Awards Insider.
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