Did that Marilyn Monroe Lifetime movie kill her career? She hasn't done much since then. I thought she showed a lot of promise—she gave a weirdly poignant performance in "Bully", and was also very good in "Thumbsucker" and "Lars and the Real Girl."

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 22

August 30, 2019 6:45 PM

She never spoke out about Harvey from my recollection. She was in several Weinstein films though--I believe The Aviator was a Miramax movie. She is a solid actress; her performance in Bully was understated and extremely believable.

by Anonymous

reply 2

August 30, 2019 1:26 AM

She was a low key it girl in mopey indies. She wasn't quite the manic pixie dream girl in Thumbsucker or Lars and the Real Girl... she was some other thing.

by Anonymous

reply 3

August 30, 2019 1:29 AM

Can an actress be so pretty they aren't believable in most roles?

by Anonymous

reply 4

August 30, 2019 1:54 AM

R4 Yes, but it is a struggle one must live with and try their best to endure.

by Anonymous

reply 5

August 30, 2019 2:02 AM

I remember people losing their shit when she was cast in that Marilyn Monroe movie. I never saw it, but I did think she looked a hell of a lot more like Marilyn than fucking Michelle Williams.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 6

August 30, 2019 2:06 AM

Loved her in pan am and then those fuckers cancelled that show. It was hokey but I loved it.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 7

August 30, 2019 2:10 AM

In 2019, she was a regular on a network show (The Enemy Within) and had a supporting role in the Godzilla movie. For a most actors in the business, that would be considered a very successful year, especially since she hadn’t really done anything since 2015.

I think the real question is what happened to her from 2015-2018?. Did she just take a break?

by Anonymous

reply 8

August 30, 2019 2:14 AM

She was very good in her small role as Faith Domergue in The Aviator. They did a good job making her look like her too.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 9

August 30, 2019 2:25 AM

She's average looking but was made up to look exactly like mm, the resemblance is there in the film. I will watch anything she is in, she's excellent in 'lars'.

by Anonymous

reply 10

August 30, 2019 2:26 AM

She had a guest role on Looking, didn't she?

by Anonymous

reply 11

August 30, 2019 2:32 AM

r6 It was terrible, awful. especially Sarandon as Marilyn's mother.

by Anonymous

reply 12

August 30, 2019 2:35 AM

R11 Yeah, she played Patrick's bitchy sister for an episode. She was a real fucking cunt... so I guess she did a great job. But it was literally just bitch energy.

by Anonymous

reply 13

August 30, 2019 2:38 AM

See for yourself: Kelli IS Marilyn.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 14

August 30, 2019 2:50 AM

She did an off-Broadway production of The Seagull with Alan Cumming and Dianne Wiest some years back. I don't know if it was received well, but The New York Times at least noted that she was better than all her other younger counterparts in it.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 15

August 30, 2019 2:52 AM

Anyone who takes on playing someone like Marilyn is ballsy—that's a risky move. She seems to have struck it pretty nicely, at least the public Marilyn as we know her. It's hard telling what she was actually like behind closed doors.

by Anonymous

reply 16

August 30, 2019 2:57 AM

I am not enough of a Marilyn Monroe expert to deduce by that clip whether or not she hit it perfectly or not, but I can say that she at least very much looks like her in the role—in some shots it is uncanny. MM experts—was the movie (or her performance) bad enough to kill her career?

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 17

August 30, 2019 3:00 AM

r17 The problem with the movie wasn't Kelli, it was the movie itself that was the problem. Marilyn wasn't that close to her institutionalized mother as the movie portrayed. She was actually afraid of her mother and very distressed by infrequent visits. The finale of the movie shows spirit Marilyn in heaven laying with her mother on the beach making plans for the future; Marilyn's mother outlived her by 22 years.

by Anonymous

reply 18

August 30, 2019 3:14 AM

I think she's a really talented actress (and was actually quite haunting in 'Bully'). But she never really found her 'niche' or a role that could break her out properly. I don't know if it's bad agents or PR or whatever but for all the great performances in indie films and her traditional good looks, she has never made a splash in the public eye. In the Marilyn thing people just saw her as Marilyn, she was great but it doesn't exactly showcase her as some new versatile starlet. Wasn't enough of a 'launch'.

Also the problem is now there are a whole generation (or two) of pretty young things who have come through since her, and HAVE gotten that recognition. So she's kind of been left behind in that regard.

Probably needs a strong TV role in a prestige show to really make the next step.

by Anonymous

reply 19

August 30, 2019 8:55 AM

I think R19's assessment is spot-on, and agree that a good television gig on something high-caliber (like "Fargo," for example) would be good for her. I also agree about her performance in "Bully." She has a smaller role than many of the other actors, but she out-acts most of them considerably. She has that monologue where she's very casually talking about how her grandmother was murdered by grandfather, and her delivery of it is chilling--she hit that character's emotional disconnect brilliantly. I remember when I first saw it and couldn't believe it was her first movie.

by Anonymous

reply 20

August 30, 2019 10:41 AM

R19 Well, she can't just jump from a 2015 Lifetime movie about Marilyn to starring in a prestige show in 2019. She's 35, so she pretty much has to cash in now and make bank before she hits 40. She can't wait around for a breakout role because her earning potential is declining each year.

That's why she took a supporting role in a shitty blockbuster (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) and a regular role on a shitty (and now canceled) network tv show. Probably a smart move at this point.

What she really needs is a niche on tv. "Hot cop" is one a lot of lesser known actresses target (and has recently worked for Lauren German, Katrina Law, Missy Peregrym and Jaina Lee Ortiz), but I'm not sure Kelli has that in her.

by Anonymous

reply 21

August 30, 2019 3:26 PM

R21 that's what is weird about the hiatus to me; she's in her mid-30s, so it seems strange she took almost 4 years between projects. Most actresses in her shoes would be working a lot steadier--she's got acting chops so it's odd that she didn't work for such a long period at this point in her career.

by Anonymous

reply 22

August 30, 2019 6:45 PM