Oscar winner Dianne Wiest will open in Off Broadway’s "Rasheeda Speaking" soon, but that theater work isn’t helping the
actress pay her rent, she told The New York Times recently.
Wiest told the newspaper that she’s having trouble finding roles. "I have to move out of my apartment soon," she said.
Wiest, 66, whose early work with Woody Allen earned her Oscars for "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Bullets Over Broadway," said she has been slotted as "a nice mom and that’s it."
"That’s all that ever came, except in theater," Wiest told The Times.
Wiest was interviewed by the newspaper along with her African-American co-star, Tonya Pinkins, about their work together on "Rasheeda Speaking," described as a "dark comedy about racism."
Pinkins said she also struggled in her career to get roles, but primarily because it was a challenge to be taken seriously. She told The Times she is proactive about finding roles, working with writers to develop characters she can play.
Wiest said she was more passive. "I think that if it’s meant to happen, it will happen," she said. "Which is I guess a real sign of stupidity."
Online readers weren’t kind, in general, about Wiest’s admission that her finances are in shambles.
"Booo Hooo . . . Poor actress wasted her money. Cry me a river,"
one person commented on a Daily Mail article.
Others, though, were more sympathetic.
"Dianne Wiest is one of my favorite actresses. She's often underused and wasted by Hollywood directors and producers. Unfortunately, theater doesn't pay actors very well," another Mail reader wrote. "It would be great if she was offered a strong lead role in a new television series. Money in television is decent plus it might open doors for her in films again. I love her in 'The Lost Boys' and 'Parenthood.'"
The Mail reported that Wiest’s two-bedroom apartment has a monthly rent of $5,300.
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