Ms. Weist's character Peg Boggs in Edward Schissorhands proves we have an unforgettable actor thanks to the efforts of Woody Allen.
“My first meeting with Woody Allen lasted thirty seconds.” Says Weist. “He looked at me, said ‘hello,’ asked someone to take a Polaroid, thanked me very much and I was shown the door. When I came out, the woman due after me was still doing the same thing as when I walked in. She was shocked – “What happened?’ But that’s how it is. My agent had warned me. Not hers. She was stunned.”
Under Allen’s direction, Dianne Weist went on to earn two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award, Best Supporting Actress in, Bullets Over Broadway (1994); two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and for the same category in Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Her performance as Emma, a 1930’s prostitute; in Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) brought her into the mainstream of A list actors.
DIRECTOR WOODY ALLEN IMPRESSED
So impressed with her acting ability Allen has directed her in six films. Born in Kansas City Missouri, she aspired to ballet in high school, but studied theater at the University of Maryland, instead. She ditched in her third term there to join a Shakespeare troupe. In early 1980, she played Desdemona opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer on Broadway. After spending a decade-plus in theater, Weist was cast in Gail, It's My Turn (also known as A Perfect Circle), Columbia, in 1980. By 1983, she was cast in a movie made for television, Face of Rage, with Danny Glover and John Goodman. Weist also went on to do a considerable amount of television in the early ‘80’s, along with smaller motion picture roles.
Her most appealing role, thus far is that of Peg Boggs, the sympathtic Avon Lady who attempts to rescue the title character in Tim Burton’s Edward Schissorhands (1990). In spite of Depp’s performance and the many distractions Burton tends to fill his stories with, Weist almost steals the show. Her characters are portrayed with a consistent sense of vulnerability and accessibility.
On being typecast as “fragile” or “neurotic” as is her character Holly, a neurotic, aspiring actress in Hannah and Her Sisters. (1986): “I’d like to play a real cold, mean mass murderer. Some cruel, hard-bitten woman, like the roles Glenn Close gets, just to show that I am capable of not being vulnerable and not being fragile on screen.”
In 2002, Weist sort of got a crack at that playing District Attorney Nora Lewin on Law and Order. She left the show in 2004 and was replaced by Senator Fred Thompson. Thus far, Weist will have completed five films this year.
