It seems way too easy for an actor to become underrated in this day and age but it’s something that’s been happening for a long time to be honest. Merritt Wever isn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last to experience that kind of effect, but it’s still something you don’t like to see if you happen to enjoy the actor it’s happening to. Unfortunately the way Hollywood is today you get that effect whether it’s wanted, or warranted, or not. There are so many talented individuals in Hollywood in this day and age that trying to find the perfect role for all of them is more than a little difficult, it’s borderline impossible at times. While everyone has their strengths and weaknesses it goes without saying that some of them tend to overlap so much that competition for certain parts is savage enough that those that deserve it aren’t always the ones that get it. This is just a part of the reason why Wever is underrated at this point, she’s taken on roles that she can fill perfectly, but they’ve been roles that only a handful of people really know about.
Acting Roles
For instance, her role in Nurse Jackie, the same role that won her an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Series, is only known to fans and a certain amount of people. Granted those that love the show no doubt have her on their mind a good portion of the time since she’s been one of the most popular characters on the program. But for those that have no idea that the show even exists it’s kind of hard to get excited.
As Zoey Barkow she’s absolutely excellent and is the kind of woman you’d want to be best friend and coworkers with largely because she’s just so “there” and yet kind of not there at the same time. That’s hard to explain, but she’s the kind of woman that can be kind and still be a bit mischievous all at once, which is a hard quality to pull off. She tends to say what’s on her mind while still trying to spare peoples’ feelings. In other words she’s the perfect friend/coworker/human being since she acts so natural.
Then there’s her acceptance speech at the Emmy’s which was perhaps one of the shortest in history and one of the best ever. She seemed absolutely blown away by the fact that she won, and even better she just up and said the first thing that came to mind. No long-winded speech here, she just got her award and lit out. Eventually though she did give a speech backstage. Obviously she was just so choked up that she couldn’t come up with anything on the spot, which has been known to happen when you win such a prestigious award for the first time.
Of course that’s not the only show on which she’s been allowed to shine, as she took over the role of Denise on The Walking Dead right up until her untimely death. The death scene in question was supposed to happen to Abraham as per the comics, but seeing as how so much had already been changed from the pages that spawned the show this wasn’t too much of a surprise when the dust finally settled.
Denise’s death took a heavy toll on a lot of fans but eventually everyone got over it, in their own way of course. It was pretty hard since Denise and Tara had been getting pretty close and watching that relationship suddenly shatter was something that people didn’t expect to happen. Of course it turned a lot of people even more against Dwight since he’d been racking up some serious karma up until that point. She was about to make a great speech to, something that Daryl and Rosita really needed to hear. Of course Dwight would have to mess it up.
Why She’s So Important
There’s really no one reason why Merritt should need to be included in as many projects as possible to push her name further into the spotlight, it’s just something that needs to happen continually so that her acting talents don’t fall by the wayside as so many others have done. She might not need to be the lead in everything she does, in fact she’s proven that she’s definitely a great and even amazing supporting actress, but keeping her in the forefront and recognizing the hard work and great effort she puts in is a must. Supporting actors are after all the lifeblood of any production. The main actors are great and all, they get TV shows and movies noticed in the first place, but without someone that’s good enough to back them up then they can become kind of one-dimensional and unable to do more than pull in the crowd without being able to keep them around. That’s where folks like Merritt come in.
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