Lion Heart

Melissa Leo plays den mother in I’m Dying Up Here

- Brantley Bardin

AFTER YEARS OF STEADY BUT UNHERALDED WORK, NEW YORK CIT Y-BORN Melissa Leo hijacked the market on tough-as-nails broads with a trifecta of roles: Detective Kay Howard in Homicide: Life on the Street, her Oscar nominated performance as Ray Eddy in 2008’s Frozen River, and her Oscar winning performance as monster mom Alice Eklund-Ward in 2010’s The Fighter.

Now, as Goldie Herschlag, the indomitable owner of an early 1970s L.A. comedy club in Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here—executive produced by Jim Carrey and based on the nonfiction book of the same name—Leo lets it rip again with a fierce, sexy, and vulnerable turn that should add new statues to her collection. Asked about playing the drama series’ coke-snorting, hard-drinking, king-making mother figure, Leo says, “It’s one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.” Damned right. Watch now.