At The Movies
Lin Shaye: A beautiful
woman often hidden under
the most unflattering makeup
imaginable, Shaye shines
while making audiences
shudder. ""So far there's been
nothing that I've been asked
to do, nothing that's come
out of my own imagination,
that seemed too far. ...
Whether it be nudity or
language, if it's part of what's
going on, Bn all there for it.
I'll go for it because Bn one
of the factors that, hopefully,
will make it all work."
In her latest role, Detroit native Lin Shaye plays a chain-smoking,
God-fearing, KISS-hating mother who takes extreme measures to
prevent her son from seeing a 1978 KISS concert at Cobo Hall.
SERENA DONADONI
Special to the Jewish News
L
in Shaye is a beautiful
woman. Bright, witty, viva-
cious, she smiles easily and
laughs frequently. This won't
come as a surprise to friends of the
Detroit-born actress, but it's something
that needs to be explained to those
who know her only as the onscreen
muse to cinema's reigning gross-out
kings, Peter and Bobby Farrelly.
Shaye began her collaboration with
the Farrelly brothers as the dog owner
with a poodle hairdo in their 1994
debut, Dumb and Dumber. Then she
was the gross-out linchpin of Kingpin
(1996) as Woody Harrelson's lecher-
ous landlady. Hidden under the most
unflattering makeup imaginable,
Shaye shined while making audiences
shudder in revulsion.
But her most unforgettable Farrelly
role is Magda, the canine kissing,
grotesquely tanned Miami neighbor of
Cameron Diaz in There's Something
About Mary (1998). Shaye, 55, doesn't
hesitate to remind interviewers that her
character's infamous withered breasts
were a rubber prosthetic, thank God.
With Magda, she embodied the
Farrellys' envelope-pushing comedy
aesthetic, which begs the question:
What's Lin Shaye's limit for onscreen
humiliation?
"I don't know yet," she says, unleash-
ing her hearty laugh. "So far there's
been nothing that I've been asked to do,
nothing that's come out of my own
imagination, that seemed too far. There
were actually parts of Mary that [the
Farrellys] left out because, believe it or
not, they thought were too much.
"In terms of me personally," she
continues, "if it was something that
was not supported by the script at all,
that, to me, would be gratuitous.
Then I would take exception, even if
it weren't way over the top. Whether it
be nudity or language, if it's part of
what's going on, I'm all there for it. I'll
go for it because I'm one of the factors
that, hopefully, will make it all work."
Shaye reunites with the Farrellys in
their forthcoming Me, Myself and
Irene, playing the Cigarette Lady. All
she'll say is that her small role lives up
(or down) to her previous Farrelly out-
ings, and it somehow involves teeth.
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Detroit Jewish News
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