Jessica Lange’s Career Could Be Winding Down
Jessica Lange has essentially told a major outlet that her acting days could be numbered, which comes as a surprise for fans of the Oscar-winning actress.
Jessica Lange is a two-time Academy Award winning actress, and in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, she suggested that her career as a performer could be “coming to an end.” The “American Horror Story” veteran has recently appeared in an acclaimed dual role on “American Horror Story 13.” She has also completed a role in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which finished production back in 2022, but was just recently released this year. At this point in time, she seems like a potential dark horse candidate for an Academy Award nod for that fairly recent release.
Lange got her biggest career boost about 50 years ago in the successful remake of King Kong, where she played with the great Jeff Bridges. Lange won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in 1982’s hysterical Tootsie in which she played the love interest for Dustin Hoffman’s actor character. In 1994’s Blue Sky, Lange won the Best Actress Academy Award, and since then, she’s appeared in a few solid roles, but found her most fruitful successes in roles for television.
In 1997’s fine A Thousand Acres and 1998’s mediocre Hush, the box-office results weren’t as strong as they could have been for films starring a powerhouse actress like Lange. Both films were prestige projects with the latter featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and the former showcasing Michelle Pfeiffer.
In the recent interview with Lange, the actress stated that it’s difficult to get some projects she’s interested in “off the ground,” which feels a bit discouraging for her. She fought a lot of battles over the years against formidable odds to get some projects made during the duration of her career.
Lange portrayed Joan Crawford opposite Susan Sarandon, who played Bette Davis, in a series called “Feud: Bette and Joan.” Her next project of interest is a similarly themed Marlene Dietrich biographical movie. The themes of the plight of aging actresses in Hollywood seems to interest Lange immensely.
It seems Lange thinks good female-driven films (for theaters or for streaming) are hard to get made these days, which is a reality that sadly exists due to the difficulties in getting studios to green-light original films. It’s certainly easier to see sequels and remakes get made than unique projects, even with a star attached of Lange’s caliber.
Lange did win a Tony for playing in A Long Day’s Journey Into Night on stage and could follow-up that win with an Oscar nomination for the film version, should she make the cut in this year’s very competitive Best Actress category. One hopes she doesn’t retire from acting as she’s been a constant staple of greatness on the big screen, the small screen and the stage as well.
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