Vera Farmiga: Playing dress-up
Vera Farmiga may not be a familiar face to filmgoers -- yet. But she’s already making fashion waves as the award season gets underway.
The theatrically trained actress had TV roles in the early ‘90s but her big screen debut was in “Return to Paradise” in 1998. She went on play daughters of both Christopher Walken (“The Opportunists”) and Richard Gere (“Autumn in New York)” in 2000.
Her career breakthrough was the 2004 award-winning role as a working-class mother struggling to keep her marriage together while hiding a secret drug addiction in “Down to the Bone.” She’s quick to acknowledge that most of the roles she’s gotten since (“Breaking and Entering,” “The Departed”) have been because of that one riveting performance.
But come January, with the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards, she’s likely to add more award recognition to her credits, maybe even at the Academy Awards down the road, for her role as the strong-minded, lusty businesswoman who has an affair with George Clooney’s traveling hired gun in Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” which opened Friday.
Farmiga freely admits that she’s kind of looking forward to awards season. Unlike so many actresses, she absolutely loves the idea of dressing up.
“It’s exciting and fun,” she said at the Beverly Hilton, during a recent “Air” press junket. “I love dresses. I love dressing up and half my life is wearing steel toe construction boots in upstate New York and the other half is being able to. . . .”
We get the idea: walk the red carpets.
Farmiga recently wore a stunning white silk one-shoulder Versace gown to the premiere of her film “Orphan.” And she wore a bright red lady-like Prada dress to a book party in L.A.
Does she have any designers she might like to wear to, say, the Golden Globes or the Oscars?
Hedging her reply with an “If I’m invited,” she puts Dolce & Gabanna high on the list. “Dolce & Gabanna is just cutting for women so well. The last several years, I feel so comfortable and effortless in it and they know how to tailor womanly curves.”
No big surprise then that she wore an angelic white chiffon Dolce & Gabanna gown to last week’s “Up in the Air” premiere in Westwood.
Expect to see more.
