Samantha Soule Explained

Occupation:Actress
Years Active:2008–present

Samantha Soule is an American actress. She is known for her role in the Netflix series Godless, as well as Nurse Jackie, The Blacklist, The Queen's Gambit and Tales of the City. She also appears in the Martin Scorsese film The Irishman.[1] She is also known for her roles in Broadway plays, including Dinner at Eight,[2] and Off-Broadway performances, which include The Other Thing and Killers and Other Family. As a film director, her movies, include Midday Black Midnight Blue, for which she also co-wrote the screenplay.

Theater

Soule performed a leading role in a theater festival in 2013 that was devoted to playwright Lucy Thurber, and was titled The Hill Town Plays.[3] It was produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and took place in a number of theaters in New York City. Soule described the experience to The New York Times saying, "Doing one play is like a novella, but this is like a novel, telling a much bigger story and asking questions that root much deeper."[4] Soule appeared as "Lizzie" in Thurber’s play Killers and Other Family, when it premiered in New York, and again when it was revived at Axis Theater One Sheridan Square. Soule's performance in the demanding part, a role of "terrifying physicality",[5] [6] was described as "Enormously powerful and deeply moving."[7]

Soule appeared off-Broadway in The Other Thing, a new play written by Emily Schwend, and produced by the Second Stage Theater.[8] In it she gives a "mesmerizing performance as a woman in constant battle with her own demons."[9] It was a "truly terrifying performance", according to one reviewer.[10] Variety describes Soule as "a riveting onstage presence".[11]

In A. R. Gurney’s play The Dining Room, at the Clurman Theater in New York, she and the cast won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.[12] [13] The CurtainUp review said of her, "Samantha Soule is multiple-wonderful: as a shy, wide-eyed teenager ... as a young wife and mother who wants to put life with her husband (as well as her Lesbian lover) behind her and come home ... and, most touchingly, as a grandmother with signs of Alzheimer’s."[14]

Film and television

Soule appears in films including No Retreat, How We Got Away with It, and The Irishman―which stars Robert De Niro[15] and is directed by Martin Scorsese. The Irishman is considered "one of his best films".[16]

Soule's appearances on television include Nurse Jackie, The Blacklist, and . She appears in the miniseries The Queen's Gambit as Miss Jean Blake, in Tales of the City as Inka, and in the Netflix series Godless as Charlotte Temple. Godless, produced by Steven Soderbergh, is a Western that focuses on women's experiences.[17] [18]

As a film director, Soule's films include Birdwatching and Midday Black Midnight Blue. She also stars in, and wrote the screenplay for Midday Black Midnight Blue, which was nominated for Best Screenplay Award at the 2021 Anchorage International Film Festival. The film is described as "an intimate and stirring portrait of souls struggling through grief in order to at last discover something resembling solace."[19] [20]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
2008Revolutionary RoadParty Guest
2013The Penny Dreadful Picture ShowAlice
2014How We Got Away with ItSarah
2016No Retreat Emily
2017Cigarette SoupHeidi
2019The IrishmanPeggy's Godmother

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2012SmashDonna1 episode
2012Ariel BaskinsEpisode: "Justice Denied"
2013Do No HarmDana Curtis1 episode
2014Blue BloodsJoyce1 episode
2014Nurse JackieAnna1 episode
2016The BlacklistRachel Hobbs1 episode
2017GodlessCharlotte Temple7 episodes
2018Amanda LandryEpisode: "Risk Assessment"
2019Tales of the CityInka4 episodes
2019–2022City on a HillMichaela Freda5 episodes
2020Emma KaneEpisode: "Reveille"
2020FBIEmma KaneEpisode: "American Dreams"
2020The Queen's GambitMiss Jean Blake1 episode
2020–presentOuter BanksAnna Carrera8 episodes

Videogame

Stage Credits

YearTitleRoleNotes
2002Dinner at EightPaula JordanBroadway Revival
2007Coram BoyChoirOriginal Broadway Production
2009The PhilanthropistElizabethBroadway Revival, Roundabout Theatre Company
2012A Summer DayPerformerOff-Broadway
2014A FablePerformerOff-Broadway, World Premiere
2014And I and SilenceDeeOff-Broadway, Signature Theatre
2015BarbecuePerformerOff-Broadway, Public Theater
2018TransfersPerformerOff-Broadway, MCC World Premiere Production
2019The ConventPattiOff-Broadway, A.R.T. New York

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 'Godless': Whitney Able & Samantha Soule Join Netflix Limited Series. Deadline Hollywood. June 20, 2016. November 23, 2017.
  2. Isherwood, Charles. "Review: ‘Dinner at Eight’" Variety, December 19, 2002
  3. Hetrick, Adam. "The Verdict: Critics Review Lucy Thurber's Five-Play Cycle, The Hilltown Plays Off-Broadway". Playbill. September 06, 2013.
  4. Miller, Stuart. "Village Rallies Round a Playwrights Tale". The New York Times. August 9, 2013
  5. Vincentelli, Elisabeth. Killers and Other Family; review. New York Post. September 6, 2013.
  6. https://variety.com/2009/legit/reviews/killers-and-other-family-1200475872/
  7. https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/killers-and-other-family_21406.html
  8. Isherwood, Charles. "Review: In ‘The Other Thing,’ a Ghostly Vigil Turns Ominous". The New York Times. May 21, 2015.
  9. https://variety.com/2015/legit/reviews/off-broadway-review-ghost-hunter-tale-the-other-thing-1201502873/
  10. https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/the-other-thing_73006.html
  11. https://variety.com/2015/legit/reviews/off-broadway-review-ghost-hunter-tale-the-other-thing-1201502873/
  12. https://www.dramadesk.org/awards/nominees-and-recipients/2008-awards/
  13. Zinoman, Jason. "Where Change Is on the Menu". The New York Times. September 21, 2007
  14. http://www.curtainup.com/diningroom07.html
  15. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/04/remembrance-of-kills-past-in-the-irishman
  16. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/13/the-irishman-review-martin-scorseses-finest-film-for-30-years
  17. Petski, Denise. "Godless: Whitney Able & Samantha Soule Join Netflix Limited Series". Deadline. June 20, 2016.
  18. Blake, Meredith. "Scott Frank and Steven Soderbergh bring a shoot-’em-up to Netflix with Godless." Los Angeles Times. Nov. 22, 2017.
  19. https://newmusicusa.org/projects/midday-black-midnight-blue/
  20. https://deadline.com/2021/02/will-pullen-samantha-soule-daniel-talbott-midday-black-midnight-blue-indie-film-1234686844/