‘Misty Green’ TIFF premiere, Rosalind Eleazar Best Actress Oscar analysis

Chris Rock is coming up on his 40th year in the film business, having made his first big screen appearance in 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop II. And he brings all of that Hollywood experience to Misty Green, his fourth film as a director and a peek behind the curtain at the often harsh business of show. The film had its world premiere at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night, and Rock was all smiles introducing Misty Green and its star, Rosalind Eleazar, to the world — and into the Best Actress race.

“I love a messy woman,” Rock cheekily remarked at a post-premiere Q&A about his title character. “I like to make things I haven’t seen. I haven’t seen it, I haven’t seen it with a woman, I haven’t seen it with a Black woman. So I hadn’t seen it, and I wanted to see it — so I wrote it.

“I tend to gravitate to female-driven movies,” Rock added. “Women are, I guess, inherently in more danger in a movie. Guys aren’t quite in as much physical danger, and guy have guns in movies and s–t.”

And Eleazar’s alter ego is put in some dangerous situations throughout Misty Green. Once a rising star in the biz — with a supporting role in a hit TV series and an Emmy to her name — Misty is currently down and out… and not in Beverly Hills. Her predicament is due both to the inherent challenges of being a Black woman in an unforgiving industry, as well as personal demons ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to a troubled family life that includes a brother (Daniel Kaluuya) struggling with mental health issues.

During the course of the film, Misty gets a second shot at stardom when she reconnects with Jordan Green (Rock), a director who is well-acquainted with her brilliance and her self-destructive tendencies. Jordan is helming a new film version of Dreamgirls and wants her to play the lead — but in Tinseltown almost every golden opportunity comes with a price.

While Misty’s journey may not be a true Hollywood story, Rock does weave in cameos from real stars (including Busta Rhymes and Ice-T) and knowing references to a number of familiar celebrities, Samuel L. Jackson, the Kardashians, and Shonda Rhimes among them. At 61 — an age disclosure that inspired a vocal reaction from the TIFF crowd — Rock is halfway to EGOT status with four Emmy wins and three Grammy statuettes over the years.

“I’m just in a different place in life,” he said about how Misty Green might point to the kinds of movies he makes going forward. “I just realize there’s more work behind me than in front of me, so I’m just getting it in man. You might see a tap dance musical from me next!”

Rock also revealed that his original version of Misty Green had more overt comedy in it, making it closer to his previous directorial efforts like I Think I Love My Wife and Top Five. “The movie was never going to be a comedy, but we had more stuff in there,” he said. “But the performances were so strong that the comedy felt like it was stepping on some of it. There’s so many joke-type things that we just got rid of and I’m happier for it. … Sometimes jokes can be a crutch, a way to cut from one thing to another. It wasn’t required.”

Misty Green earned an appreciative reaction from the TIFF crowd, but Eleazar’s performance won the biggest applause in the room and seems like the movie’s best bid for awards attention as it makes its way out to the awards circuit beyond Toronto. The Slow Horses star has several standout moments in the film, including an extended audition sequence where Misty fights through the casting directors’ indifference — and a cocaine hangover from the previous night’s extracurricular activities — to nail a scene. Another scene finds the stage-trained Eleazar singing a down-tempo version of the signature Dreamgirls tune “One Night Only,” that left the crowd audibly impressed.

“Rosalind goes for it,” Rock said of his leading lady after the film. “It was hard to cast that part. It’s a very risque part; as I like to say [Mikey Madison] won Best Actress the other year and it would be hard to cast that part, because not everyone wants to be a stripper or hump a guy on a couch. Rosalind was more than down for that.”

Eleazar confirmed that she was indeed down for all that playing Misty Green entailed. “When I first read the script, I was so overwhelmed,” she remarked. “I thought it was such an honest and raw take on the darker side of our industry. I feel in love with Misty; she’s such a complex, contradictory, and flawed character. I’m drawn to characters who are difficult to love.

“I was desperate to do this film,” the actress added. “So I did whatever I could. Normal things, to be clear! Just like Zooms and stuff like that.”

Best Actress

Inde Navarrette

Obsession

Sandra Hüller

Fatherland

Ruth Madeley

Being Heumann

Virginie Efira

All of a Sudden

Rosalind Eleazar

Misty Green

10.

Lea Seydoux

Gentle Monster

Eleazar is currently sitting at No. 8 on Gold Derby’s experts-only Best Actress leaderboard, behind Being Heumann‘s Ruth Madeley, who saw her own odds rise after that film’s world premiere at TIFF’s opening night. She and Rock will be taking Misty Green on the road to the New York Film Festival at the end of September, ahead of the film’s October release date.

“How ridiculously brilliant was she?” Eleazar’s co-star Amy Landecker asked the TIFF audience as the Q&A wound down. The big round of applause was a telling answer — with more clapping still to come.