After her outstanding performance in The Fighter, I feel like I should have been more prepared for Melissa Leo's excellent guest spot in last week's episode of Louis C.K.'s FX comedy series Louie, and yet, there I was, once again blown away by the actress, particularly in the scene between her character and Louie, which involved her insistence that he reciprocate a certain oral act she'd very recently bestowed upon him. Beyond her ability to recite a series of well written lines with a natural ease was just how well her performance fit into the tone of the show. Some TV guest stars stand out to the point of being distracting, but Leo performed as though she were built right into the show. And she was funny, though I don't know that her sense of humor will come in handy for the role she's in talks to play for Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen.
Antoine Fuqua's White House thriller seems to be neck and neck with Roland Emmerich's similarly set movie White House Down. Both films are set to begin production this summer and both involve attacks on the White House. Just yesterday, we shared the news that James Woods was joining Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx in White House Down. And today comes word from the Hollywood Reporter that Melissa Leo has entered into negotiations to join Fuqua's Olympus has Fallen. Rick Yune has also joined the cast, which already includes Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Cole Hauser and Radha Mitchell.
Yune is set to play "a North Korean posing as a South Korean ministerial aide who is described as a sociopathic monster." Yune is no stranger to villainous roles. Among his feature credits, he played Johnny Tran in The Fast and the Furious and Zao in Die Another Day.
Meanwhile, the role Leo is in talks for sounds like a spoiler. Should her deal go through, she'll play "a tough secretary of Defense who cracks when tortured." Sounds like an interesting role for Leo to tackle. Hopefully the deal goes through, not only because she'll be a great addition to the cast, but also because the film is set to go into production this week.
