Toronto 2005: Runaway's Robin Tunney

ROBIN TUNNEY

When I saw the Toronto festival film Runaway, I was reasonably impressed by Tim McCann’s work behind the camera and Aaron “Tadpole” Stanford’s turn as the lead actor. Both were very indie, but worth a look.

But when Robin Tunney hit the screen, it was a minor revelation. It wasn’t so much this role or the work she does here, which is not her most challenging, but the simple truth of her on-screen appearance, even in a small, quickly shot film. She still has the screen-holding power of a movie star.

After making a strong commercial and aesthetic statement in The Craft, which followed the little scene, but star-loaded Empire Records, she has had one of those painful-to-consider Hollywood careers. She got a lot of indie cred and awards chatter for Niagara, Niagara, and it was almost as though the stakes on her place in the industry were raised, but were then followed by films like End of Days, Supernova, Vertical Limit, The In-Laws and Paparazzi. Sure, there were still the quality efforts in Cherish and The Secret Lives of Dentists and other small films like Runaway. But there was barely a career left standing by any of those five studio films. (Thank goodness that Albert Brooks has a new, personal film coming next spring.)

But in the 13 years since she broke out in Encino Man, Robin Tunney seems to have matured to the point where she is ready to handle the rollercoaster of Hollywood more effectively as a person... and it seems to me that the big difference between her as a below the title name and an above the title name is just a role or two.

I spoke to Ms. Tunney on Thursday morning, as she operated on no sleep over the previous 24 hours, an even more pleasant surprise than rediscovering her in Runaway. She’s doing a TV series, shot in her hometown Chicago, and she got up here in the middle of the night following an early call time on Wednesday morning and she’s barely eaten, having lost her appetite to a moment of empathy in an airport restaurant. So the curry chicken it is. And a great deal of candor that somehow, with her, seems so natural to her that it is almost not candor at all.

It doesn’t get much to get her to cop to being one of the worst job interviewees in the history of Hollywood acting, either too cool for the room or too excited by being in the room with the most talented directors who she so admired. More than one story includes someone calling her “that girl from The Craft.” She is not shy about offering her insights or scandalous stories or disgust at some of those who have crossed her path.

But she still has the sparkle in the eye and the freshness of someone ready to go.

Is she ready to take on the third of Van Trier’s trilogy... or to rev up a solid supporting role in a big studio movie as something other than a tough-talking sexpot... an ensemble comedy... a fighting Bond girl or the Karen Allen of the new Indiana Jones movie?

I’d say so.

A lot of young actresses get lost in the 25-35 age... no longer girls, not yet quite women. But Tunney is a unique personality. She was never real precocious. She was hard talk and soft femininity... very seductive to powerful men. But for that kind of arousal to turn to success, the wall has to crumble. And that just doesn’t seem to be Robin Tunney... give her soul for a friend... sell her soul to no one.

18 movies – half of them for studios – in 13 years does not make for a “whatever happened to.” But in this quick forgetting game of the film business, Robin Tunney fell a bit off the big success wagon. And this is the moment to remember just how compelling we all remember she can be on screen...and for someone to take advantage of that power. It’s win-win.

by David Poland