3 in a Row: The Rise To Fame of Geena Davis

Geena Davis is a stalwart of the industry, a presence so ubiquitous in movies and television of the past thirty some years, it seems like she’s always been there. And she didn’t sneak her way in, making a grand entrance in her film debut playing a supporting role in the critically-acclaimed Dustin Hoffman comedy Tootsie. Nice way to get started. That was 1982 and since then, she’s trail-blazed her way through the medium with a seemingly non-stop run of praise-worthy performances, even in movies that didn’t resonates so well with audiences.

Naturally, most know her from the 1991 Ridley Scott-directed thriller Thelma & Louise (above), starring opposite Susan Sarandon, the movie a powerful feminist treatise that shocked most on release, remaining a highly-influential work that also jump-started a young Brad Pitt‘s career. Davis was actually already a major star at the time, smack in the middle of another successful run of films that would continue to propel her into the mainstream. However, let’s turn back the clock a bit further and take a look at 3 in a Row for Geena Davis that truly put her on the proverbial map, beginning with a trip to the other side …

Beetlejuice

By 1988, Tim Burton was on the very cusp of worldwide fame, still a year from Batman but already turning heads with his innovative approach. He’d helmed the cult favorite Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and earned heaps of hoorah for his his style and storytelling creativity. He was only just getting started. When Beetlejuice hit screens, he basically flipped expectations about how visual and special effects can be done, introducing many to his unique imagination. The film centers around a young couple played by Alec Baldwin and Davis, who meet an untimely death and return to their new home as ghosts, finding it already taken over by a new family, including a daughter (Winona Ryder), who is able to see them. They call upon the fabled ‘Beetlejuice’ (Michael Keaton), to try and scare the family away, but well, things don’t go as planned.

It’s easy to think that most would get lost in the incredible production and stylistic flares of Burton’s execution, but everyone holds their own in this delightfully funny and decidedly offbeat comedy. Davis and Baldwin play it straight and make it work, strangers in a land of the weird, she especially good at trying to cross the chasm in understanding what is happening. In other words, she’s great fun to watch, her uniquely in-your-face kind of style making her a comedic gold mine.

The Accidental Tourist

Not long after the success of Beetlejuice, Davis was back on the big screen in a film adaptation of the Anne Tyler novel The Accidental Tourist. It’s directed by legendary filmmaker and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, and became one of the most talked about movies of the time. Davis plays Muriel, an eccentric-type dog trainer, who finds herself attracted to the handsome Macon (William Hurt), a man whose marriage to Sarah (Kathleen Turner) is falling apart after a tragedy in their family. When the couple split, Muriel and Macon are soon wound up in a relationship, yet, it’s tested when Sarah wants to begin again.

Davis earned an Academy Award for her supporting role, easily the very heart of the film, which never contrives the seemingly obvious tentpoles in place. She’s opposite of Sarah in every way, but Davis never lets that define her, making her an sort of ingenue but more so, a kind of priceless treasure for reasons well beyond the immediate, revealing an intelligence and understanding that make it clear why Macon could ultimately fall at her feet. She’s really great.

Earth Girls Are Easy

Filmed prior to The Accidental Tourist but released just after, Earth Girls Are Easy is, as it sounds, an absurd comedy, reuniting Davis with her co-star from the 1986 horror film The Fly, Jeff Goldblum. Often overlooked or even dismissed, this satire is a truly one-of-a-kind experience with a cast that includes Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey. The three men are aliens from outer space, furry, brightly-colored creatures that are well, not to be insensitive, horny. Catching a broadcast from a planet called Earth, which features curvy young women, they head there straight away in hopes of exploring these smooth-skinned, buxom delights. Crash landing in Southern Californian Valerie Gail’s (Davis) pool, they are in for a lot more than what they expect.

So yeah, this is silly but in the best possible way. It’s not at all exploitative, as it might seem suggested by the title, instead infectiously raucous in a fun sort of PG-rated campy sex comedy way. While Goldblum is his Goldblum-y self and Carrey spins it as only Carrey can, it is of course Davis who wins the day, she the pillar of sanity in all of it, keeping this grounded and ultimately the most fun. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this not worth a look. It’s very funny and mostly a perfect little time capsule for the era.

The Aftermath

Not long after this, Davis would rise to even greater fame, with the aforementioned Thelma & Louise, but also earn high marks for her endearing role at the heart of the baseball bio film A League Of Their Own, which is a film fan favorite for a whole ton of reasons. By the mid-90s, she was at the top of the heap, jumping all over the genre bandwagon, from quirky Quick Change, an under-appreciated comedy with Bill Murray that deserves way more eyes on it to the action thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight with Samuel L. Jackson. Then there was Cutthroat Island (above), the landmark cinematic disaster that nearly ended her career (and mostly did for co-star Matthew Modine), which seemed to be a pin in her balloon, though she held on with roles in the Stuart Little films and then a long string of success on television, where she won an Golden Globe for her work on Commander in Chief. Geena Davis. A Hollywood legend.