TMS Muse of the Week: Theresa Russell
(Palace Pictures / Criterion Collection)
Following Monica Vitti, Nancy Allen and Sondra Locke, Theresa Russell is my latest muse of the week to never fully escape her ex-lover’s legacy. The interesting thing about Theresa is how she was not only a big inspiration for filmmaker Nicolas Roeg, but also classic rock musician Pete Townshend of the Who. Very rarely do we hear about someone influencing two creative mediums at the same time, yet Theresa did just that in 1979/80. Like the previous three ladies, you might be thinking, “Who?” Born and raised in LA County in the late 1950s to early 1970s, Theresa had a pretty rough upbringing and had to model as a teen before she serendipitously met Peter Douglas [one of Kirk’s sons] at a photoshoot. Peter introduced her to film producer Sam Spiegel, who got Theresa cast in her first movie, Elia Kazan’s biopic The Last Tycoon (1976). Despite an all-star cast and good reception for Theresa’s debut performance, the film was DOA; and the model took a year off from showbusiness after turning down a contract with Spiegel because she was suspicious his intentions were dubious. It wouldn’t be until she was the female lead in Ulu Grosbard’s crime drama Straight Time (1978) opposite Dustin Hoffman when her acting career officially took off.
A role in another star-studded production—this time in George Schaefer’s 4-part docudrama mini-series “Blind Ambition” (1979)—occurred before she met both Nic and Pete around the same time. During filming of the psychological thriller Bad Timing (1980), the director and actress began dating even though the former was almost 30 years older than the latter. Less than a year later, Pete sought out Nic to possibly adapt his ill-conceived concept album ‘Lifehouse’ as a film after his song ‘Who are You’ was featured in Bad Timing. Pete probably wasn’t expecting to instantly fall for Nic’s girlfriend the second they met too. The problem was that after going out a few times, Theresa informed Pete she was starting to get serious with Nic. Then the filmmaker suddenly lost interest in working on ‘Lifehouse’ when he found out the singer-songwriter was attempting to woo his future wife. Though a short-lived union, Theresa still wound up as the basis of the opening track ‘Athena’ [originally titled ‘Theresa’] off the 1982 Who LP ‘It’s Hard.’
(Rank Org / Criterion Collection)
Although not as acclaimed as Antonioni/Vitti or as popular as De Palma/Allen, Nic and Theresa did have their own niche, cult following for a while in the 1980s and 1990s. Bad Timing was polarizing with critics at the time of release, but Theresa’s acting was usually noted as a highlight, and over the years the movie has gone through a reappraisal as a harsh metaphor for misogyny. The pair followed up with the period drama Eureka (1983) co-starring Gene Hackman, along with the less commercial Insignificance (1985), Track 29 (1988), Cold Heaven (1991) and Hotel Paradise (1995). Away from Nic, Theresa also had roles in mid-budget studio flicks like Bob Rafelson’s Black Widow (1987), Ken Russell’s Whore (1991), Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991), John McNaughton’s Wild Things (1998) and even Sam Raimi’s Spider-man 3 (2007). Off set, Nic and Theresa married in 1986 and had two sons together, Statten [b. 1983] and Max [b. 1985]. Since they were never really a high-profile couple, we actually have no idea when or why the two separated, except that it must have been in the late 1990s before Nic met his widow.
Though her husband wasn’t a household name either, Nic has always had the advantage of directing three classic films to keep his career relevant—Walkabout (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973) and The Witches (1990)—while Theresa was never so lucky with her own movies. Her spot in film history is firmly placed next to her former husband. It’s a little fitting she was the star of Sondra Locke’s second film as a director, the crime drama Impulse (1990), since both ladies struggled with similar disadvantages. While Sondra was sabotaged by her past boyfriend, Theresa believes dodging the casting couch cost her a chance at stardom. Others feel the lack of universal appeal of Nic’s movies affected her fame while some just think she got unlucky with multiple flops on her resume. Still, like a lot of the women I cover on this blog, it’s probably better to be an ‘almost’ than a ‘never was.’ Watching her on film, we see how much natural versatility she had, whether as characters sophisticated, dangerous, unstable or naïve. Those who seek out neo-noir and avant-garde pictures will know who Theresa is, and rightfully so.