Is Theresa Russell a good actress?

Was she untrained?

In this classic, absolutely.

R2 "Whore" is great, but again, I find her very uneven throughout it. The material itself could be part of it, but she's fantastic at some points, and laughable at others. Still a great movie—I am a fan too. Did you get the Blu-ray that came out a couple of months ago? It's great, and there is a new interview on there with her. She looks fantastic, and is still as much of a no-nonsense broad as ever. She always seemed radically unpretentious—an anti-movie star, really. I appreciated that about her.

How was she in Liz 'n' Dick?

OP: No.

Roger Ebert was, strangely, a big fan of hers. I don't think he ever wrote a bad thing about her. He was always impressed be her it seemed, no matter what the material.

She's like Roseanne Barr. A non-actress who could sometimes be an amazing actress.

Whore Blu-ray? Im there.

R8 here you go (it's region unlocked, too)

Link the whore Blu-ray. There isn't a us one.

If you really want to see what kind of actress she is, you should really check out Nicolas Roeg's Eureka. She stars along with Gene Hackman, Rutger Hauer, with Mickey Rourke and Joe Pesci in smaller roles.

She is SO horrible. Especially compared to Hackman and the actress who plays Hackman's wife, Jane Lapotaire.

Rutger Hauer doesn't fare well either. And for the life of me I can't even remember Rourke and Pesci in the movie.

But aside from Hackman, a lot of the movie rests on Russell's shoulders and Russell was simply coasting on pretty.

Why didn't Hackman have her fired?

No, she's one of the worst actresses to ever appear in major films.

R11 I've seen Eureka but it's been a long time and I don't remember much about her performance in it. I'll have to give it a revisit. I remember it being a very strange movie.

"Why didn't Hackman have her fired?

—L. Eichhorn"

Because she was married to the director I'm guessing.

She’s a terrible actress with great taste or a great manager.

Horrible actress. She was screwing somebody to get roles.

She has very expressive eyes, and her nonverbal acting (body language, facial expressions) was always very convincing to me—it was her line deliveries that could make or break her (often the latter).

Kathleen Turner > Theresa Russell > Joanna Pacula

Wooden

She was good in Kazan's The Last Tycoon, Rafelson's Black Widow and in Straight Time directed by Ulu Grosbard

I liked her in Bad Timing but, after seeing all the other collaborations with Nicolas Roeg and hating them, I probably wouldn't want to revisit it. She was one of the few good things about the remake of The Razor's Edge but only had a small part. And effective in Black Widow opposite Debra Winger.

R22 she was excellent in Straight Time—an understated but solid performance. Possibly some of her best acting IMO

Also, Paramount pervert Sam Spiegel wanted to make her his own personal fuck toy when he got her cast in Kazan’s The Last Tycoon, but Theresa wasn’t having any of it. He tried to get her to sign a decade-long contract with him. As young and inexperienced as she was, she was pretty world weary and street-smart enough to shirk his advances. She has said that because of this, he had her part minimized and she wasn’t featured in promotional materials for the movie:

“I was not a bimbo. I called a lawyer. Sam was furious. He said he would see to it that I got no billing in the movie. And to this day, if you ever see any advertising for The Last Tycoon, my name is in teensy-weensy type. I was completely left out of the publicity for the movie. He was unrelenting. I asked him, 'If I sign your contract, what if I want to do some role in some other picture?' He said, 'You'll have to come to my boat in the South of France.' Yeah, and what happens then?“

haha she's right as her name is not on the poster.