I Heart Margo Martindale

I'm always ranting and raving about character actors on CineRobot so it's time I give props to a hard-working character actress who is blowing me away with a performance she is delivering on a TV show that I love. Her name is Margo Martindale and I'm sure you've seen her before, although you might not know her by name. Like most actors who make a career in the "character" world, she's done a lot of small roles as support for the marquee actors in the film. In the past decade she's been among the cast in movies such as Iron Jawed Angels, Million Dollar Baby, Paris Je T'Aime, The Savages, Walk Hard, Orphan and Secretariat. She also has a nice little role in a film that has been mentioned a lot in the comments recently--Win Win.

I'd always paid attention to when Martindale was on the screen in all those projects, but it wasn't until she appeared on the second season of the FX show Justified that I took real notice of her. Martindale plays Mags Bennett, a soft-spoken, yet utterly ruthless, Kentucky matriarch that rules over her holler with a stern fist. Involved in moonshine and marijuana, Bennett is a wonderfully complex character that Martindale has crafted with equal parts terrifying and compassionate traits. When an episode doesn't have Martindale and one of her no-good sons [played by another trio of great actors in Jeremy Davies, Brad William Henke and Joseph Lyle Taylor], I'm kind of perturbed at the show. I want to see as much of this Mags Bennett as possible and if Martindale doesn't get some talk about nominations for this role, justice will not be served.

Are there any other Justified fans out there? The show is pretty amazing and Martindale is killing every single scene she is in.