Few actresses have a debut performance as acclaimed as Emily Lloyd’s in WISH YOU WERE HERE. Playing a girl coming of age in 50’s England, critics went wild over her performance. She got so much publicity that, while the film wasn’t released in the US much beyond the arthouses, she made it to the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Yet, a little over a decade later, she was gone from US theatrical screens.
How could this happen?
David Leland’s WISH YOU WERE HERE was truly a star making role. A very funny, moving performance, she was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Best Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics.
She followed that up with two films for Warner Brothers.
In Susan Seidelman’s COOKIE, Emily played the daughter of a mob boss (Peter Falk). The film wasn’t a success. It has yet to be released on DVD. All I remember about it is a closing sequence, set to a Kylie Minogue song, and thinking how much Emily and Kylie look alike.
Next up was Norman Jewison’s IN COUNTRY. Here, she played a Kentucky farm girl, whose uncle (Bruce Willis) is a Vietnam Vet. The film ended with an extremely powerful trip to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in D.C. Critics were divided on the film (I think it is an underrated film) but Emily convincingly played a Southern character.
While the films didn't do well at the box office, no one really doubted the fact that she was a fine actress.
Unfortunately, her next couple films didn’t get much (if any) attention. 1990’s CHICAGO JOE AND THE SHOWGIRL (with Kiefer Sutherland) was a misfire. 1991’s SCORCHERS was interesting for its cast (James Earl Jones, Denholm Elliot, and Faye Dunaway), and Emily once again played a Southern character (actually a Cajun), but it wasn’t released theatrically in the US.
She had a supporting role in Robert Redford’s A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT in 1992. It wasn’t a star vehicle that she had been used to. In the next few years, she continued to act, with only 1995’s UNDER THE HULA MOON getting much of a release.
In 1997, she had what is to date her final appearance on US screens, an 8th billed role in Michael Winterbottom’s WELCOME TO SARAJEVO. 
So, whatever happened to her?
Emily seemed to always have had difficulty in Hollywood. During the making of COOKIE with Peter Falk, according to her own reports, Emily was goofing around too much on set. Falk was unhappy with this and slapped her. Shocked by this, and not wanting to let it go, she turned and slapped him back.
Things on IN COUNTRY were rumored to not be the best either. One reports states that Bruce Willis wouldn’t speak to her during the making.
In 1992, she was hired to star in Woody Allen’s HUSBANDS AND WIVES. They shot for two weeks. Then, Woody fired her and reshot her role with Juliette Lewis.
There were also problems after her original casting in MERMAIDS (Cher didn’t think she should play her daughter, so Winona Ryder was cast instead) and TANK GIRL (where she wouldn’t shave her head. Lori Petty got the role)
But the biggest problem happened in 1997.
Emily traveled to India for work on a film. To ward off malaria, she took the drug Larium. Apparently, she took too much which caused a chemical imbalance. Then, while waiting for a meeting with the Dalai Lama, she was bitten by one of his temple dogs. This, along with the drug, caused a breakdown of sorts.
From an article in the Telegraph
“When her mother and younger sister, Charlotte, met her at the airport on her return, they were horrified. "She had only been away a week, but she had lost a stone in weight," says Sheila. "We hardly recognised her and she hardly recognised us. Charlotte and I burst into tears.''
She developed a form of OCD, that caused severe anxieties, making daily actions difficult.
Also from the Telegraph:
For a year after her return from India, she lived alone in the Notting Hill flat she had acquired from the proceeds of the film parts that came her way after Wish You Were Here. But her mother worried that she wasn't managing the basics of life - eating, sleeping, paying the bills - so she brought her to live in her small rented house in Hackney. Although Emily now rents a flat nearby, it is at her mother's house that we meet.
She hasn’t completely gotten out of the business. She played the lead in a 2002 film called THE HONEYTRAP that received good notices, but doesn’t appear to have had much of a release. She was said to star in the UK version of SEX AND THE CITY, but that was cancelled. And, she played Ophelia in the Shakespeare Festival's HAMLET in London.
Every actor is just one role away from a career revival. Judging by her performances in the past, there is no question that Emily has the talent involved to restart her career. Let’s just hope someone gets the right role for her.
EMILY LLOYD ON DVD
9 comments:
I recalled that Emily Lloyd had been originally cast in Mermaids before losing her role, but had no idea her personal problems ran quite that deep.
Great article, Moviezzz. The amount of research you put into this series is truly an anomaly on the Internet.
It is sad that someone so talented was not really been recognised by the US public. Emily is a far better actress than most of the 'plastic stars' you see who lack real class. We have some really great actors in the UK but the need to find fame sees them head for the USA. When you look at the mass of trashy movies they produce it makes you cringe. I hope Emily Lloyd will find her way back into the business l am sure she could follow in the footsteps of Helen Mirren she is that good. Alan
I miss her. I actually think about her. She would just control a scene. You'd watch what she was doing. She had such tremendous presence, animation, and a great mouth. I loved her hair and eyes. I hope she makes her way back, too, She just got rare and wonderful qualities.
Ms. Lyoyd was HOT!!! I really liked her acting as well..I'm in the U.S. and unimpressed with the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyress--I wish Hollywood would wake up and hire some real actresses such as the above mentioned Ms. Lyoyd!
One doesn't have to take "too much" Lariam to have that particular prescription anti-malarial drug destroy one's life, as many have found: http://www.lariaminfo.org/
Ms. Lloyd is one of my favorite actresses, ever, based solely on her performance in A River Runs Through It. Hoping she is well and working again soon.
How sad, I still find her performance so refreshing in Wish You Were Here. Maybe she should have stuck to British films, she's got that kind of quirkiness about her. Hope she's doing ok now
Have you seen these Emily Lloyd pictures here on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300299483101&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:GB:1123
She was BITTEN, ffs, NOT she was BIT! You yanks are always so quick to say "gotten" instead of got, you could at least be consistent in your grammatical mistakes!
I've just seen her on the 38 bus in Hackney!!!
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