Rene Russo‘s big break in “Major League” came with a minor problem.
The “Major League” writer/director David S. Ward recalled during the “Hollywood Gold” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that Russo was “so nervous” both in the audition and on set that she kept using her hands too much in scenes. As a result, Ward opted to “tie down” her hands so Russo could temper her gestures. “Major League” marked Russo’s first role.
“The only problem we had with her was she’s Italian, and when she gets going there’s a lot of the hands, a lot of the talking with the hands, you know?” Ward said. “And they would be flying across her face.”
While filming the 1989 baseball comedy that co-starred Charlie Sheen, Ward told Russo to keep her hands out of her own face.
“I said, ‘Rene, you’ve got to keep the hands down,’” Ward said. “And finally what I did is, I tied them down. I tied them down for the first take and she said, ‘OK, I think I got it.’ And then I untied them and she was fine. Every once in a while I’d have to remind her again: ‘Hands in the frame, across your face, doing wipes across your face.’”
Russo was cast in “Major League” after she auditioned for Ward’s directorial debut “Cannery Row.”
“She was very raw at the time [of ‘Cannery Row’], but she had this quality that you just liked her, you just wanted to watch her, you wanted to root for her, you just felt like this is a really genuinely sweet and lovely person who can also be funny,” Ward said.
By the time Ward was casting for “Major League,” Russo’s nerves still had not quelled.
“When she came in for her interview for ‘Major League,’ she was so nervous that she basically stood in a corner,” Ward said. “Most people when they read, they stand up, they walk around — she stood in a corner. It was not in the top 10, but her quality in terms of just when she read the lines [was like] — I just love her.”
Most recently, Russo’s career has turned to indie films post-’90s blockbusters like “Lethal Weapon.” Russo co-starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in “Nightcrawler” and 2019’s “Velvet Buzzsaw,” both helmed by Dan Gilroy. Her most recent film was also released in 2019, with Russo reprising her “Thor” role of Frigga for “Avengers: Endgame.”
