Annette Bening Joins the next "American Crime Story"
Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 8:00AM Chris here. Like many of you, I'm still bemoaning Annette Bening's 20th Century Women Oscar miss - but her next role might lighten the sting depending on where your television alliances lie. The actress is the first cast member to join Ryan Murphy's Katrina: American Crime Story as Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco. With Feud just a few weeks away, Ryan Murphy is giving us all actresses all the time, even on projects yet to film.
If this seems something of a surprising casting coup for Murphy, you have probably forgotten that they had already worked together on Murphy's Running With Scissors adaptation. Funny how loyal his actors are even on his outright misfires. Murphy promises that other recognized figures like Blanco will factor into his Katrina narrative, so start speculating (or shuddering) away at who he could get to play the likes of Sean Penn and George W. Bush.
And let's not be too quick to lament that yet another one of our greats is heading to the small screen. If Ryan Murphy can give Bening as much to work with as he did for Sarah Paulson in The People vs. OJ Simpson, perhaps she'll have an equally unstoppable awards path. Even if Oscar remains elusive, Emmy could be the first step to EGOT.
Reader Comments (17)
Any Bening casting news is good news!
This is such a great news for La Benin after her horrid Oscar snub. Thoug I am SHOOK to know that she hasn't won any one of the EGOT.
If Ryan Murphy plans to tell this story right, then he needs to convince Kanye West to fill the role of Kanye West. Then, just to mess with us, he should hire someone else to portray Mike Myers.
Katrina? I thought they were covering the Lewinsky scandal.
Bening has ano movie out rite? Film Stars Dun Die in Liverpool. She's playing Gloria Graham. If she recv raves, Her oscar chances will b v high as Oscar luv biopic!!! Esp celebrities!! Lol
She should surely snatch an Emmy for her work here. As long as her potential competition doesn't include Hilary Swank, she should be fine.
Idk as long as she didn't steal a plum part away from Paulson.
In truth, Murphy is very hit or miss. Let's hope this is a good one!
I thought the reason that OJ was so consistently strong was that Murphy didn't write it - am I making this up?
Yeah, the EGOT talk is verrrrrrry premature considering she doesn't have a single one of those awards yet.
I'm cautiously excited about this. I still haven't seen Murphy's OJ series but I plan on watching Duel. I'm still crossing my fingers for her Oscar in the next few years. She's getting close to that "career win" momentum.
One of my favorite TV shows. Hope she has a juicy role!
Stop talking awards already. The ink is not even dry on the contract.
In other actress talk, the Pfeifvival has another reason to Michellabrate as Aronofsky's "Mother" was just scheduled for October 13th this fall by Paramount.
Idk -- if you look at picture of the person she's playing she's a pretty great choice for the role. a bit younger and far more beautiful but looks much more like her than Paulson would.
Bening as "Gov. Crybaby"? Intriguing.
Murphy is under the impression race is the component which made the first season so successful. Katrina can be dramatized but not necessarily in a way to earn populist attention.
Bening deserves so much better than the treatment from awards bodies who either want her to wait or act so unimpressed when she's nominated.
We'll always have Spike Lee's masterful 2006 doc When The Levees Broke as pretty much the final say on the topic but it'll definitely be interesting to see what they do with the material 10+ years after the fact. People vs. O.J. was a compelling and, often times, shattering viewing (despite its sidesteps) and I know it's not the same crew that are writing/directing both but they *are* taking their sweet time with it so maybe that'll yield some care and we won't get the expected histrionics we all dread from the idea of Ryan Murphy tackling something so... raw.
Good for Bening tho. That's a pretty meaty role. Presumably, they'll cast for regular characters on the ground going through the events? I'm more curious about those parts. Hopefully they can nab Sterling K. Brown again, despite from his current series. CBV too, he was great.
I really dislike Ryan Murphy's direction and I've watched enough of his work at this point to have a good opinion. He's just too on the nose. I always appreciate the sentiment and I think he can push his actors to great performances but the style is off for me and I can never truly get immersed.
Annette!
I'm keeping my expectations low on this (i'm thinking potential sophomore slump). But, I hope this leads to further collaborations between Ryan Murphy and sweet Bening. She needs to win something!