Melissa Leo Talks About Her Role on WELCOME TO THE RILEYS
Actress Melissa Leo is a busy woman these days with four films heading for theaters in 2010, but it is her role in “Welcome to the Rileys” that is drawing the most attention to the actress recently. “Welcome to the Rileys” premiered on Friday at the LA Film Festival.
Jake Scott, the director of “Welcome,” offered Leo the leading female role in the film without an audition. Leo plays an agoraphobic woman named Lois Riley who refused to leave her Indiana home for eight years after the death of her daughter. Her husband in the film is played by James Gandolfini. The husband and wife duo see their relationship strained after their daughter’s death, and Lois is forced to leave her home and go to New Orleans to bring her husband home. The pair reconnects in New Orleans and realize how important they are to each other, with a little help from a stripper, played by Kristen Stewart.
Leo is well known for feature films such as “Frozen River” which garnered an Oscar nomination for the actress. She has also spent a good deal of her career on the small screen, most notably on the HBO series’ “Treme” and “Mildred Pierce.”
For more details, go check out the article on Reuters.
