Adrienne Shelly, 1966-2006

Adrienne Shelly, I always felt, was one of those iconic New York actors, on the same level as the Parker Poseys, the Griffin Dunnes, the Maggie Gyllenhaals and the Cynthia Nixons of the city. That she was also a talented director (though I didn't care for her first film, Sudden Manhattan, I very much enjoyed her follow-up I'll Take You There, and her new movie Waitress starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion will be at Sundance this year) was just gravy. Best known for her starring roles in two of Hal Hartley's best films (The Unbelievable Truth and one of my favorite movies of all time, Trust), Adrienne was well-loved for being able to project a pitch-perfect blend of innocence and world-weary cynicism with a perfectly deadpan comic grace.

I had the privilege of meeting Adrienne two times. The first was at the 2000 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, where her movie I'll Take You There premiered. The Wild Colonials, who had done a song on the soundtrack, were giving a small, intimate, acoustic set. I was seated at a table in the second row, Adrienne was directly in front of me in the first. About halfway through the show, this photographer dude with this ENORMOUS bag walks into the room and decides to set up camp RIGHT in front of us. Adrienne looked taken aback for a second, looked around her in the cutest did-that-just-happen? kind of way, then did the only thing she could do: she laughed. It was such a small moment, but so funny, so real and surreal at the same time.

The second time I met Adrienne was at a surprise Q&A session that broke out after a screening of another of her movies, Revolution #9, down at either the Quad or Cinema Village, can't remember which. Nothing particularly dramatic about that time.

Last Wednesday, Adrienne Shelly was spending the night at the apartment that she used as her office and sometime guest quarters, down in the Village. Sometime during the night she got into an argument with Diego Pillco, a construction worker in the building, regarding the noise he was making. Pillco punched Adrienne, killing her, then dragged her body back up to her apartment and hung her from her shower curtain rod to make it appear that she had committed suicide.

Adrienne Shelly turned 40 in June. She leaves behind a husband and a 3 year-old daughter.

Sorry to start the day on such a downer. I'm just upset that none of the news headlines even mention her name, only refer to her as "actress". I recognized her picture and had to check online to make sure it was her. NY1 to my knowledge wasn't even reporting the story until the whole murder angle broke, and even still in the whole of their report only refer to her as "actress", and never once mention her name.

Her name was Adrienne Shelly, and she was awesome.