The TVLine Performers of the Week: Julianna Margulies and Reese Witherspoon
THE PERFORMER | Julianna Margulies and Reese Witherspoon
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THE PERFORMANCE | What’s harder than getting UBA president Cory Ellison to stop yammering for a minute? Trying to figure out who turned in the more gutting performance in that huge Bradley/Laura fight that took place in this week’s installment. So… we’re just not going to choose! Because Witherspoon and Margulies both deserve all the accolades for killing us with the everyday quarrel that turned into a relationship-ending battle for the UBA anchors.
One of the roughest parts of the flashback episode was watching Bradley reel from the death of her mother, a quick descent into grief that Witherspoon made grippingly real. So real, in fact, that we could see the blowup between Bradley and Laura coming in hot the moment Bradley started griping about dinner: Hurt people hurt people, and Witherspoon had her character primed to inflict damage.
We were unprepared, however, for the vehemence with which Laura would fight back — and the delicious vitriol that Margulies would infuse into her character’s responses. Once it was clear that Laura had abandoned any attempt to soften her approach, and that Bradley was spoiling for an interaction that would leave her girlfriend as miserable as she was, IT WAS ON. Witherspoon rolled her eyes in mockery and defiance when Laura suggested therapy. She moved to her feet, all insolence and ire, to accuse Laura of some incredibly hurtful actions. Meanwhile, Margulies’ body language conveyed that Laura was rapidly losing her ability to give her girlfriend a pass: We’ve rarely seen someone’s eyebrows knit together in such “WTF?” incredulity.
So by the time Bradley — Witherspoon on the edge of angry tears — asserted that Laura was reveling in her mother’s death, both actresses played the rest of the brawl as though there was no coming back. (Honestly? There might not be.) Witherspoon’s declaration that Laura actually hated, not loved Bradley, was painful in its brokenness. Margulies’ raised voice and indignant scowl as she countered that it was actually Bradley who loathed her mom made it clear that Laura was done being a punching bag. We’re still smarting from the A-listers’ work in the brutally good scene.
Scroll down to see who scored Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
HONORABLE MENTION: Diana Lee Inosanto
Just look at that face, in the Ahsoka finale scene above. Up until this moment, Diana Lee Inosanto‘s Morgan Elsbeth had been having the best day ever, rewarded for her service to Thrawn — she’d heard the whispers and tracked him down in another galaxy, after all! — with the Gift of Shadows. The Great Mothers bestowed upon her the Blade of Talzin, to boot! Inosanto in those scenes looked downright resplendent in her well-earned Nightsisterhood. But then… with Ahsoka & Co. fast approaching, Thrawn said their mission “required a little more time.” Meaning, it was up to Morgan to stay behind and fend off the threat — possibly to the death. The way Inosanto dipped her head just so communicated understandable “But I just got all the nice things!!” resignation tempered by a call to duty. And in the swashbuckling scenes that followed, she (as in The Mandalorian) exhibited a physicality that was thrilling.
HONORABLE MENTION: Marina Mazepa and Mark Musashi
It takes a lot to be a memorable denizen of the John Wick world, and coming out out of The Continental‘s finale we’re most thinking about Hansel and Gretel, the twin assassins played by career stunt man Mark Musashi and dancer/contortionist Marina Mazepa. Eerily silent throughout all three “nights” of the Peacock miniseries, Musashi and Mazepa conveyed an unsettling, inscrutable level of menace. And once the action-packed, 97-minute finale got underway, the duo showed off their entire, respective bags of tricks. Musashi was lightning-fast with his close-quarters combat, as stone-faced Hansel took on Miles and then also Lou. Mazepa meanwhile revealed herself to impossibly bendy in Gretel’s rooftop clash with Yen — punctuating her kinesiology-testing movements with intense, almost-alien glares and robotic cocks of her head. Yep, Musashi and Mazepa delivered quite the 1-2 punch. And kick. And…..
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
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