Virginia Madsen in "Candyman" (1992)

The director apparently used hypnosis on Madsen when shooting a lot of those close-ups

Rewatched it recently and it really holds up. She’s wonderful in it. I thought she was gorgeous in that Prairie Home Companion movie, too. But my fave of hers is the goofy Modern Girls.

I saw her Frasier episode not long ago, where she invited Frasier to her hotel room and he couldn’t figure out if they were going to have sex so he kept dressing and undressing.

Great actors have expressive eyes. Unfortunately I don't.

Incredible scene

I thought she was terrible in Candyman. It was difficult to muster any sympathy for her character because she's such a cold presence.

R6 I think some of the steeliness in the character comes from the fact that she's an ambitious graduate student who is competing with her established professor husband (who is ultimately revealed to be a philandering prick) and his colleagues. I think she deliberately played Helen that way. In the end, her research drags her down a rabbit hole that both costs her her life, and also canonizes her as a saint of sorts among the Cabrini-Green community.

I’d really like to see this movie.

Incandescent is the perfect word. I don't think of her as one of our great beauties, but she takes my breath away in that film, and it's always a surprise.

I think she's gorgeous. She would have been perfect in old Hollywood. Kevin Aucoin should have done a photo shoot with her for Faces.

Why did her career go down the shitter?

R11 she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for "Sideways" in 2004, so her career was doing pretty well at that time I'd say. She's worked pretty consistently since—not in major prestige projects necessarily, but still some stuff that's been notable.

Agreed R10. I think she has always been stunning. She stole the show in "The Hot Spot" with Don Johnson and Jennifer Connelly. There is something about her features that read as very "old Hollywood", but I'm not quite sure what it is.

I think it's the large eyes and the shape of her lips. Put her in a bias cut satin gown, 30s hair and makeup and she'd be a retro silver screen goddess.

Candyman is unwatchable. Madsen has improved her acting skills from the days of being a blonde hottie.

Agree it’s on if the greatest horror movies ever

She had a child with right wing loon Antonio Sabato Jr.

I thought Tony Todd was wonderful in Candyman. Virginia, too.

Candyman?!? Fuck you OP. Have a jerk off over Virginia or whatever.

Madsen in Electric Dreams. (1984.)

You're welcome.

I love Virginia Madsen. "The Haunting In Connecticut" didn't have the best script or supporting actors. But she was great in it and pretty much carried the entire movie herself.

I really like her, too

R 21 R22 no you don’t. No one does

She played Marion Davies in a tv movie about Davies' affair with William Randolph Hearst

Shut up, r23

If you had HBO in the late 80's they played Fire with Fire and Long Gone on a loop. She was great in both

R2 I watched A Prairie Home Companion recently and googled to see who that beautiful actress was. I was stunned when I realized that I didn’t recognize Virginia Madsen. She was incandescent in that one, too. Otherworldly, which I guess was the whole point of that character. .

The Incandescent Troll is so tedious.

She creates these absurd threads on whatever topic just so she can stick the word in it like her little passive-aggressive nasty.

Awww I love you too R23. You were great in "Flowers in The Attic".

R26 no.

There’s a small black and white movie called 1985 thats shes in - she and Michael Chicklis play the parents of a guy w AIDS. It’s terribly moving and she’s excellent in it.

She's luminous in 'Gotham' (and nude in a refrigerator in one scene, which I (unfortunately) can't locate on Youtube.

She played Cybill Shepherd’s niece in a few episodes of late season Moonlighting.

WHET her brother Michael?

R31 thanks for the recommendation—this came out in 2018 and I'd never even heard of it. It's an indie movie but it looks like it was well-received. It is available on Tubi and a few other streaming platforms, though it looks a bit too depressing for me to watch right now frankly.

R17 weirdly their son is not remotely as attractive as either of his parents. Virginia is beautiful, and Antonio Sabato Jr., as whacko as he is, was smoking fucking hot in his prime.

agree R2, Modern Girls is a fantastic, quirky '80s time capsule and just plain fun. I love that movie. Plus, Madsen co-stars with DL fave La Zuniga!

Wasn't she promoted as the new Sharon Stone for a period?

She looks a lot like Gillian Anderson in that movie.

She could have been made-up and styled to look like a young Lucille Fay LeSueur around the time she was in Candyman. Both were gorgeous in their prime and have similar features.

I like the film but find it disappointing once the monster makes his literal appearance. The stuff before that is more mysterious.

On the making of featurette she talks about the experience of working with bees.

I thought Chris Nash in Modern Girls was extremely sexy, but his career didn't seem to go anywhere.

She was quite the vixen in "Slamdance" (1987)

I may be making this up but I remember a story about her that she had a baby with Antonio Sabada because she felt that the baby would be very attractive. But she wasn’t in a relationship with Antonio. The baby didn’t grow up as handsome as one might have thought. Failed experiment?

R45 Joe Mangianello and Sofia Vergera should have done that.

Candyman used to scare the crap out of me. I met Tony and Virginia at a con and they’re both lovely people. I also met her brother Michael at a con and couldn’t stop looking at his impressive bulge.

Her brother was a bad guy.

She brought out the best of white sin. Brilliant performance.

Reap what you sow.

Her brother was my first white daddy fantasy. I’m a sick fuck. And I still would swallow every last drop.

Isn't Clive Barker gay?

Becareful. If you say "Candyman" 3 times Gerg will appear with plate of dried out chicken parts.

oh yes.

came to identify himself as homosexual by 18 or 19. His relationship with John Gregson lasted from 1975 until 1986.

He later spent 13 years with photographer David Armstrong, described as his husband in the introduction to Coldheart Canyon; they separated in 2009.

Playing Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci

R52 Why disrespect Greg to uplift yourself? Do you believe in karma?

R55 what does karma have to do with you creating authenticated sock puppets every fucking week which eventually get redlined? You aren't fooling anyone.

R14, I agree that those big eyes are a major part of her Old Hollywood look. Madsen also has a generally softer, more feminine face than the granite-jawed look that’s popular today.

In Candyman specifically, Madsen’s short, tousled ‘50s-style haircut helps the look as well.

R56 Victim 1.

Sandra Bullock and Heather Langenkamp were both considered for the part of Helen before they decided on Virginia.

Who is Langenkamp?

^Sacrilege! She’s mostly known as Nancy from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

Tony Todd is hot asf in this roll. I’d let him disembowel me if I could get some of the candyman coco first.

Isn't it a little early in the morning to be threatening people on here R58? Care to explain what you mean by "victim 1" for the rest of the class to see?

R36 I think her son is quite handsome, but he looks older than 29. Also Antonio was 22 while Virginia was 33 when he was born.