Carrie Coon
Since her triumph in the 2010 Steppenwolf remounting of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” Wisconsin repertory-theater-scene-bred, Chicago-embraced actress Carrie Coon can’t stop arriving. (The Broadway transfer netted her a 2013 Tony nomination.) Profilers are gonna profile: Chicago magazine’s fire-hot red-to-orange October cover celebrates “The Rise of Carrie Coon: Meet the Greatest Chicago Actress of her Generation.” A profile by The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman is more discreetly headlined: “Carrie Coon’s Existential Journey to TV Stardom.” “My family was always wondering why I ended up playing people who were mentally ill, insane, downtrodden and a little crazy,” she told the New Yorker. “I think what they don’t understand is that most female parts are written basically as hysterical women. Drama comes from crazy if women are involved. And that’s only now starting to shift. We haven’t evolved a hero story that’s female. We’re always trying to fit women’s stories into this male structure, which is this rising action, this powerful conflict, and this falling action. And I think a female hero story is not that. It’s something else. Women are trying to recover their voices, which is a much quieter, deeply existential, and frustrating journey.” (Ray Pride)
Best of Chicago 2018
