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My better half is an absolutely maniacal fan of the TV series "Highlander." At first I thought the show was a reasonably lame offshoot of mediocre movies that I never cared for to begin with, and it took her quite a bit of effort to get me to watch. With relationships being give-and-take, though, the price of getting her to watch what I'm into (my favorite show of all time is "Cheers," a sitcom which never did much of anything for her) was watching her stuff - so I'd sit down with her to watch the show.
While she's into everything about the show - especially Adrian Paul, whether she dares to admit it or not - the first thing that I ever really found myself enjoying about it was when someone saw a Quickening for the first time. For whatever reason, I really got a charge out of the amazed looks on Richie's face when Slan lost his head, Tessa's face when Caleb lost his head, Anne Lindsay's face when Daimler lost his, etc.
Well, one day we watched a rerun of a "Highlander" episode called "Rite of Passage," in which a teenage girl becomes an Immortal but refuses to take The Game seriously. The actress, one Gabrielle Miller, had actually appeared on the show before, and to be honest I failed to remember her from her brief flashback scene in the previous season, but in this episode she really made an impression on me. She was exactly what the role called for - someone who drives you nuts early on but generates sympathy from you later - and then Duncan took another Immortal's head in her presence. The way Gabrielle portrayed the initial look of shock at the stroke of the sword was - and I use this word in the most literal sense - perfect. It'd be easy to overdo such a scene or even screw it up entirely, but there was really something about this performance - she simply nailed it. It was an extremely brief moment, but the impression it made on me was huge. From that point on, she followed the scene through with a nicely convincing shocked stare - not necessarily difficult, but she had to nail the initial shock part first for this to work as well. When you combine the two, you have an absolutely monster scene that she gets all the credit for. Of all of the scenes I've seen where someone sees his or her first Quickening, Gabrielle did it best by a longshot.
Quite some time later, I saw Gabrielle in a rerun of "Sliders" called "Summer of Love," in which she did another great job for in her role, and discovered that the impression she made on me was strong enough that I instantly remembered where I saw her before, even though I still had no idea what her name was. I'm generally not too good at this sort of thing and frequently ask "where have I seen him / her before" when watching TV, but I definitely remembered Gabrielle and her performance in "Rite of Passage." Still, I didn't even bother to learn her name after the episode - but shortly afterwards I saw her in an episode of "The Outer Limits" in which she uncorked the best single-scene performance I've ever seen from an actress (see my review of the episode "From Within"). This time, I made sure to learn this mystery actress's name.
Eventually, I saw her in a few more roles that really impressed me - in no particular order, as Betty Marsh in "Inspectors 2: A Shred of Evidence," as Molly Simon in "Susperience," as Angela Perry in "The Twilight Zone" (2002 edition), as Jill Martin in "The Silencer," and others. It was getting harder and harder to believe that the same performer was playing all of these extremely dissimilar roles. All of a sudden, it hit me - she had actually become my favorite actress.
I can't speak for others, but one thing that drives me nuts (one of more than a couple, I must admit) is Hollywood's tendency to try to shove the same arm candy down our throats, based on looks alone, whether or not the actresses in question can act with any ability or range. All of a sudden, here was a pretty actress who kept showing up on my TV screen who actually could act, in a wide variety of roles, and excelled in all of them. How many actors and actresses can make you say the same thing? I know of two actors who fit this description and only one actress - to whom this site is dedicated.
Eventually, my better half - knowing I was a fan of Gabrielle's - one day surprised me with a DVD set of the first season of Corner Gas, and I soon learned that Gabrielle could do a killer job in comedy as well. At this point, I was actually motivated to put her name in an Internet search engine to see what other shows she's been in (I've never before sought out one performer's work like that), only to learn that I seem to have no hope of finding over half of her work (see "The Milk Carton"), but I also found out that there weren't any fan sites of her worthy of her name. Accordingly, I decided to put an end to this madness immediately. This site, of course, probably won't be worthy of her name either - but not for lack of effort.
As for me, it really doesn't matter - my favorite actress is Gabrielle Miller, my favorite actor is Michael Caine, and my favorite author is Nelson DeMille (I heartily recommend "The Gold Coast," "The Lion's Game" and "The Charm School"). I love German beer and hate mail-in rebates. I love good comedy but hate laugh tracks. I love politics but hate politicians. I love Russian Mafia novels and visiting Russia, but hate Russian classics. I love the sport of football but hate the parity-fest of enforced mediocrity that the National Football League has become. I love Canadian television and collect Canadian coins (I grew up on the border), but haven't been to the country in about ten years. To sum up: I'm a fan of the New York Islanders and New York Mets who likes dogs, and I live with a fan of the New York Rangers and New York Yankees who loves cats. It's an interesting household under my roof, to say the least - especially with Duncan and Tessa constantly on the prowl.
Enough about me, though - this site is about Gabrielle Miller. I invite you to go click on another link and learn something new about the most versatile and talented actress I've ever seen.
- Grad 86, Washington, District of Columbia, April 26, 2005
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