Hollywood is full of "almost" stories. Usually, it's about the actor who turned down the role that made someone else a legend. In 1990, that role was Myra Langtry. Before Stephen Frears started filming his nasty, sun-drenched noir, Geena Davis was actually the one attached to play the part. But things shifted, and Annette Bening in The Grifters became the performance that fundamentally altered the trajectory of 90s cinema. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in those high-waisted shorts now.
Bening wasn’t a "nobody" when she walked onto the set, but she wasn’t a household name yet either. She’d done Valmont. She’d done The Great Outdoors. But Myra was different. Myra was a shark in a sundress.
The Con of the Century
Most people remember the movie for the twisted, Freudian tension between John Cusack and Anjelica Huston. And yeah, that’s there. It’s heavy. But Myra Langtry is the engine that actually makes the plot explode. She is a long-con artist who has run out of rope and money. She’s looking for a partner to get back into the "big game," and she thinks she’s found him in Roy Dillon.
The thing about Myra is the joy. She loves the grift. While Huston’s Lilly Dillon is a woman forged in iron and trauma, Bening’s Myra is almost terrifyingly bubbly. She uses a high-pitched, "tinny" chirp of a voice—a choice Bening made specifically to weaponize the "dumb blonde" stereotype. It’s a mask. When the mask slips, her voice drops into a husky, dangerous register that tells you exactly who you're dealing with.
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Why the Performance Still Ranks
Why does this role still matter thirty-six years later? Basically, because it avoided every trope of the "femme fatale."
Usually, noir women are either victims or ice queens. Bening played Myra as a professional. There’s a scene where she explains the "long con" to Roy, using a series of flashbacks to show how she used to swindle oil millionaires. She isn’t just sexy; she’s competent. She’s a technician.
- The Look: Costume designer Richard Hornung put her in "tarty," form-fitting outfits that contrasted sharply with Roy’s Armani suits.
- The Energy: She’s "recklessly hungry," as critics noted at the time. She doesn't just want the money; she wants the thrill of the win.
- The Rivalry: The first time Lilly and Myra meet is cinematic napalm. Lilly says, "I imagine you're lots of people's friends." Myra fires back about Lilly looking "old enough" to be Roy’s mother. It’s petty, sharp, and perfect.
The Oscar Nod and the Career Pivot
The Academy noticed. Bening landed her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She didn't win—Whoopi Goldberg took it home for Ghost—but it didn't matter. The industry saw a woman who could play "kittenish" and "ruthless" in the same breath.
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It’s actually wild to think that during this same period, she was supposed to play Catwoman in Batman Returns. She had the role. She was the choice. Then she got pregnant with her first child with Warren Beatty, and Michelle Pfeiffer stepped in. If you look at Myra Langtry, you can see the DNA of what her Selina Kyle might have been: playful, dangerous, and completely in control of her own sexuality.
What Most People Miss
The tragedy of Myra is that she isn't as smart as she thinks she is. That’s the nuance Bening brings. You see the desperation behind the grin. By the time we get to the final act—that brutal showdown that leaves the audience reeling—you realize she was just another small-time player trying to swim with the Great Whites.
She’s a "post-feminist moll," a woman who knows exactly how men think and uses it against them until the moment it stops working.
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Actionable Takeaways for Film Buffs
If you’re revisiting Annette Bening in The Grifters or watching it for the first time, pay attention to these three things to really "get" the performance:
- The Voice Shift: Watch for the moments when Myra stops performing for Roy. Her pitch drops. Her eyes go flat. It’s a masterclass in "character playing a character."
- The Hands: Bening uses incredibly expressive physical acting here. She’s always touching, leaning, and invading space. It’s predatory disguised as affectionate.
- The Ending: Don’t look away during her final scene. The shift from confidence to pure, unadulterated terror is one of the most honest moments in 90s noir.
The movie is currently available on various streaming platforms and recently received a 4K UHD restoration. If you want to understand why Bening is considered one of the greatest of her generation, skip the later dramas for a night and go back to the grift. It's where the legend actually started.
For those looking to dive deeper into the genre, your next logical step is to track down the original 1963 novel by Jim Thompson. Donald Westlake’s screenplay is brilliant, but Thompson’s prose is even darker and provides a much grittier look at Myra's internal desperation than the film could ever show.