Whatever happened to...Bridget Fonda?
I just caught the tail end of Lake Placid on TV, and something hit me smack in the face. That gorgeous beaming smile, the biting lip, the soft hair across her face, none other than Bridget Fonda, and it occurred to me, where has she gone from our cinema screens?
I first really remember her from Singles, but looking back there's a few films I remember her from such as Shag, The Godfather: Part III, Drop Dead Fred - oh that was bizarrely funny at the time - and the ripped off for Cars film, Doc Hollywood. Not forgetting the superb Single White Female which really did affect a generation of flat sharing ladies!
Yet what's happened since then? There's so much more in her career...
I hardly remember her in Army of Darkness, and I know of her in The Road to Wellville. In between those she hit the superb US remake of Nikita with The Assassin (Point of No Return) which I really do remember her for, she was really strong in that film, despite the remake stamp.
I caught her in an excellent performance in City Hall alongside Al Pacino and John Cusack, and enjoyed her bikini wearing and tongue sticking out poster for Jackie Brown (was that nine years ago?!). Then let's not forget the superb Sam Raimi directed A Simple Plan before Lake Placid and a few lesser movies leading into 2001 where her career just ends.
So what's happened to her since? Does anyone know? It seems she made a few TV appearances in 2001 (did you know she was in 21 Jump Street?) and that's it. What do you remember from her performances, and which stand out in your mind? Are you a big fan of any in particular?
I'm going to say Singles, The Assassin, A Simple Plan and City Hall. I loved Singles for being so quirky, and she was just so cute in that film. Her naive looking for love, and that "bless you" in the elevator...oh. Yet her acting was really shown in the other three, and seeing her play off the big names in those films, particularly with her performance alongside Gabriel Byrne, brilliant chemistry, moving from hatred and aggression to acceptance and then to a strange needing.
There's not only Fonda either, there are other actors and actresses who have just up and disappeared from the movie industry, but can you think of any? I don't mean that are only sporadically working, I mean that have totally left and people have forgotten about them? I think you'd be hard pressed to find another gem such as Fonda.
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