Rene Russo

It’s interesting to consider how people feel when someone they teased in childhood turns out to be wildly successful in part for the very attribute at which they were teased. Teenage Rene Russo had scoliosis and was in a back brace, but the teasing seems to have been more about her height. Apparently classmates called her “The Jolly Green Giant.” (She was 5’8”, which isn’t even all that tall; it’s barely taller than I am, and if my scoliosis had been fixed I’d be even taller.) However, it’s an established fact that models are expected to have a little extra height, and that’s part of how she developed her first career, as one of the most successful models of the ‘70s.

And then, of course, she hit her thirties and the offers weren’t as frequent, and of course the style of models was changing anyway, and what are you going to do? What Russo did was turn to acting. She started on the stage, in small theatres. She took acting classes from Allan Rich. And then, in 1987, she got what must have seemed like her big break—second-billed on a TV show from ABC. An action-adventure show called Sable about a guy who was a children’s book author by day and a vigilante by night. Then it ran seven episodes and sank without a trace.

Her real break came with 1989’s Major League. I am an unabashed fan of the movie, which is mostly a sausage fest—well, it’s about a major league baseball team after all—with some really unpleasant sexual politics regarding the female team owner. But Russo as Lynn Wells is utterly charming. She’s a former athlete. She’s unashamed of her intelligence, and it’s clearly one of the things her ex-boyfriend loves her for. And, incidentally, she’s sexy as hell. In a cast full of standouts, she almost glows.

Did she have the best career following that? Eh. She was in Outbreak (a movie discussed at length over on our YouTube channel). She was in the unfortunate The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, though she apparently worked with June Foray to get her Natasha voice just right. She met her husband on the set of Freejack, so that’s nice at least. She took a break after Yours, Mine & Ours only to come back as Frigga in the MCU; she’s also phenomenal in Nightcrawler. With the right role, she’s still got Oscar potential.

She is also now openly bipolar. Meaning I have even more of an affinity for her than I did before. She was apparently diagnosed quite late, though it’s caused her problems since childhood. I admire anyone who’s managed to have a long, successful life despite bipolar disorder—so much more given she was a model in the ‘70s and managed to live through that time without all the opportunities to overdose while self-medicating. She’s still alive. She’s still going. And she’s still beautiful. It’s enough to give you hope.