Illeana Douglas - Episode 346

Steve Cooper talks with actor Illeana Douglas. Illeana was one of the more versatile performers to emerge on film in the early 1990s. After small contributions to a few of director Martin Scorsese's films, including GoodFellas (1990), the actress grabbed the attention of audiences with her gutsy performance opposite Robert De Niro in Cape Fear (1991). She followed with a plethora of supporting roles, among them turns in the survival tale Alive (1993) and Gus Van Sant's dark satire To Die For (1995). As a lead, she was impressive and impassioned in the music industry-set Grace of My Heart (1996), and later flexed her comedic muscles as the classic "hooker with a heart of gold" in the woefully underappreciated comedy series Action (Fox, 1999). Occasionally, she ventured behind the camera for such efforts as Stories of Lost Souls (2005), for which she directed the segment entitled Supermarket. As an actress, she continually sought off-kilter indie films like the horror-comedy Otis (2008) and collaborated on personal projects such as the web series Easy to Assemble (2008- ), a fictionalized comedic version of her life, which she wrote, directed and starred in. Equally adept at eliciting either tears or laughter, at ease in a supporting role and more than capable of carrying the lead, time and again she proved herself a welcome addition to any production.