How Mira Sorvino was almost talked out of playing her “most beloved” role
It’s fair to say that life on this pale blue dot seems a bit screwed at the moment, thanks to various pandemics, insane tech bosses, psychotic man-baby presidents, £8 pints, arrested Royals and cars that drive themselves, so it’s probably not all that surprising that a lot of us are pining for simpler times gone by, times like the 1990s, for instance, when Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino made a cult comedy classic.
While Kudrow was at that point one of the six most in-demand actors on the planet thanks to the frankly insane popularity of Friends, Sorvino had risen to prominence through a succession of fine performances in movies in the early 1990s, notably the Robert Redford-directed drama Quiz Show in 1994 and then winning an Oscar and Golden Globe for her work playing a prostitute in Woody Allen’s 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite.
Allen’s film told the story of a man who discovers his child is a genius, leading him to track down his estranged mother, who turns out to be not just a working girl but a porn star too. Sorvino was pitch-perfect as New Yorker Linda Ash in the story inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, and while not a huge global hit, it did make money, and hopes were high that Sorvino would go on to be one of the best actors of the decade.
Then, two years later, came Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, a zeitgeist-capturing comedy starring Kudrow and Sorvino about two women determined to impress their former high school classmates by pretending they’ve been incredibly successful in the ten years since they graduated. Co-starring Scottish actor Alan Cumming, the film did reasonably well on release, making a small profit and picking up some good reviews.
But it was in the years that followed that it began to be known as a proper cult hit, with people dressing up like the titular characters for fancy dress and quoting any number of lines from the film, including “Would you look at me? I am so not cut out for the business world,” which could apply to most of us, let’s be honest.
But Sorvino almost didn’t make the film at all, with those around her advising that a screwball comedy could derail her career, as she told The Guardian, “They were just, ‘an Oscar-winner cannot do that movie’. It was a little lowbrow…but that has turned out to be my most beloved role”.
Sorvino has previously spoken about how she feels her career was adversely affected after rebuffing disgraced movie executive and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, with leading roles proving almost impossible to come by despite her Oscar win and history of making successful films. Regardless of acting consistently for the next three decades, she hasn’t had a mainstream movie akin to her ‘90s peak, and Romy and Michele remains her highest-grossing film.
At the time of speaking to The Guardian, she believed that the prospect of a sequel was unlikely, saying she would be open to it but that it wasn’t up to her.
Now, though, almost 30 years later, a second movie is indeed on the way, with filming due to start this summer, and Kudrow has described the script for the sequel as “really good”, which will have both main actors executive producing as well.
