A chat w/Melissa Leo...

Melissa Leo is one of those hard-working actresses who has been respected for decades but is only now getting the kind of widespread recognition she has long deserved.

Leo has delivered deeply moving performances in films ("21 Grams") and on television ("Homicide: Life on the Streets") and last Thursday was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in the acclaimed independent film "Frozen River."
Since she was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "River" and would seem to have a good chance at an Oscar nod, I wondered how this hard-working actress was handling all the newfound attention.

"I've really been blessed with continuing to work this entire year and several fabulous roles in beautiful projects as this builds and flows," she said. "(Working) is how I know how to walk and feel most comfortable. (For awards ceremonies) I will don my movie star dress and get help with my hair but not change my internal reality."

In "River," Leo plays a single mother faced with desperate financial circumstances who in the effort to earn fast money, is drawn into border smuggling across the frozen water of the St. Lawrence River located on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec.

While the recognition is nice, Leo said she already has such great memories of making the film with writer-director Courtney Hunt
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"It was just a magical, amazing thing," she said. "Every night we'd get back to our little hotel and Courtney would say, 'We got it!' The hardest thing was the last day of shooting because we weren't going to do that the next day."