Dec 26, 2019
Damian and Anne are back to whet your post-holiday appetites with an end of year extravaganza. As 2019 comes to an end, we take it upon ourselves to list our top 20 (ok, 22ish) performances by an actress of the decade! We wax poetic about everything from Keke Palmer in Grease Live! to Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback. Tune in and play along for this, the very last episode of You Might Know Her From of 2019!
Anne’s top performances by women 2010-2019
Patti LuPone as a ghost on YouTube in Union Square (2011) (trailer)
Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback Season 2 (2014) Valerie in a trunk
Mary Kay Place in Diane (2018)
Sandra Oh + Jodie Comer in Killing Eve (tweet about Comer’s girlfriend) *
Lorraine Toussaint as Vee in Orange is the New Black (2015)
Megan Hilty in Noises Off (2016)
Ann Harada in Smash (2011)
Sidney Lucas in Fun Home (“Ring of Keys” at the 2015 Tonys)
Justina Machado in One Day at a Time (2017)
Keke Palmer in Grease Live (2016) ***
Nina Arianda in Venus in Fur (2011)
Glenn Close in The Wife (2018)
Olivia Colman in The Favourite (2018)
Nathasha Rothwell in Insecure (2018)
Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018) & Spy (2015)
Laurie Metcalf in A Doll’s House, Part 2 (2017) ; Three Tall Women (2018) *****
Betty Gilpin in GLOW (2017)
Saycon Sengbloh in In the Blood (2017) and Eclipsed (2016) (first black Elphaba)
Indya Moore in Pose (2018)
Catherine O’Hara in Schitt’s Creek (2015) (Moira’s winery commercial)
Damian’s top performances by women
2010-2019
Daphne Rubin-Vega in Jack Goes Boating (2010) {DRV playing a lesbian in In the Heights}
Mary Kay Place in Diane (2018)
Megan Hilty in Noises Off (2016) revival and Smash (2011)
Gabrielle Union in Being Mary Jane (2013) **
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Bette Midler in Hello Dolly (2017)
Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon (2019) ****
Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple
Glenn Close in The Wife (2018)
Nathasha Rothwell in Insecure (2018)
Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018); Spy (2015); Bridesmaids (2011)
Rose Byrne in Spy (2015)
Laurie Metcalf in A Doll’s House, Part 2 (2017)& Ladybird ******
Viola Davis in Fences (2016)
Andrea Martin in Pippin (2013)
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade (2018) *******
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) & Ingrid Goes West (2017)
*Anne’s fave headline of the decade: Cara deLevingne and Ashley Benson buy a sex bench
** Gabrielle Union & Dwayne Wade are good parents. + GU walks off America’s Got Talent
*** Sorry to this man - Keke Palmer
**** Michelle Williams wipes a tear
***** “On a meta level, Misery is about Willis playing film star Willis being terrorized by Metcalf’s superior acting talent.” (David Cote on Laurie Metcalf & Bruce Willis in Misery on Broadway in 2015)
****** Jackie high in a tub on Roseanne
******* Cynthia Nixon does embarrassed better than anyone (phonecall to Steve ; braces)
Honorable mentions: Molly Shannon in Other People; Nicole Scherzinger in The Masked Singer; Tyne Daly in Master Class