I Know This Much is True
I Know This Much is True
… that Rosie O’Donnell is a star …
A look at the recent dramatic performance by Rosie O’Donnell and her comedic roots.
I Know This Much is True’s lead actors, Mark Ruffalo and Mark Ruffalo, deserve every award in Hollywood. It only took me ten minutes into the pilot to completely forget that he was playing both Birdsey brothers in this devastatingly human, heart-wrenching limited series. We follow Dominick (Ruffalo) as he tries to care for his schizophrenic brother Thomas (also Ruffalo), deal with toxic relationships, and grapple with current and generational traumas now boiling to the surface. Ruffalo’s portrayal of both twins, so realistically conveying their similarities as brothers and their differences as individuals, leaves me speechless at the end of every episode.
His performance is only further bolstered by the incredible female ensemble that surrounds his scenes, played by the likes of; Melissa Leo, Rosie O’Donnell, Archie Panjabi, Imogen Poots, Juliette Lewis, and Kathryn Hahn. Each brought something incredibly unique and powerful to the portrayal of their characters, and I could sing many articles more in their praise. But there is one in particular, that knocks it the furthest out of the park. Though it’s now been several weeks since the season wrapped, I have not been able to shake the outstanding acting that came from none other than Rosie O’Donnell.
The comedian extraordinaire takes a sharp pivot away from Betty Rubble of yabba-dabba-doo Flintstones to play the no-nonsense, seen-some-shit social worker Lisa Scheffer. Before I Know This Much is True, I hadn’t seen her in a role so far removed from the standard comedy. She gave incredible performances in feel-good movies of the pre-Y2K like Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then, and A League of Their Own. She is now the one establishing the league of her own. A league of extraordinary performances.
This isn’t an original notion on my part. Though it took quite a while to notice her for the role, once they did, they couldn’t let her go.
In behind-the-scenes commentary director, Derek Cianfrance says about O’Donnell;
“It took 6 full months of casting to find Sheffer. She had to be… empathetic but not a pushover. She had to have a punk rock quality to her. Sure she was employed by the system, but she did it to represent the people and speak her mind. She had to have a real heart and understand the nature of advocacy to her core- because you can’t act that stuff. She had to have a sense of humor about her and be sharp as a tack, because her scenes were all written as a chess game. She also had to be a great actor. Rosie O’Donnell ticked ALL of those boxes. And then some.”
Would you just listen to how infatuated Cianfrance is with O’Donnell! Just another in a long line of admirers. Even from a young age, Rosie’s peers in high school took notice, going so far as to vote her homecoming queen, prom queen, class president, AND class clown. She’s only further embodied these traits, over the years proving herself to be an outstanding advocate for LGBTQ rights, a guiding voice in both charitable services and politics, as well as a top-notch entrepreneur in the business of comedy.
It's all those traits and components of her own spirt that are poured into one of the most dynamic showcases of talent this year. I’ll try not to give anything away here, but spoiler alert, there are some incredibly emotionally charged scenes throughout this show. For the most part, every one of Rosie’s scenes deals with issues of incarceration, mental illness, and the failures in government acknowledgment of individual suffering. All the while, as Cianfrance stated, her conversations are a constant verbal chess match. It’s a challenge that few could rise to with such complexity and understanding. But there she is in the thick of it- delivering the resilient and steadfast performance of someone who is as stoic as they are deeply empathetic.
There are many moments in the show that could have moved me to tears. And, because I’m not made of tin, I came close several times. But it’s toward the very end of the season, when the moment of tension reaches it’s height and is just beginning to plateau, that Rosie comes into frame and everything that her face and composure have to say- the compassion written on every inch of her being… that is what got me. Just her expression. Before she even uttered a word. Let me tell you, I was a human snot box.
It’s so hard to say more without giving away any of the numerous wack-a-mole plot points of this relentless sucker punch drama. But check back with me later after you’ve watched it so that we can make a fan club for the wonder woman that is Rosie O’Donnell.
Bonus Rosie points if you go back and watch her interviews on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She interviews everyone from Julie Andrews and Bea Arthur to Chris Rock and David Bowie with Iman.
Sources:
“I Know This Much Is True - Lisa Sheffer.” HBO, 21 May 2020, www.hbo.com/i-know-this-much-is-true/cast-and-crew/lisa-sheffer.
Wang, Julia. “Rosie O'Donnell.” PEOPLE.com, 2013, web.archive.org/web/20131213203747/www.people.com/people/rosie_odonnell/0,,,00.html.
