Most Distinctive...Rutina Wesley

PEOPLE IN HOLLYWOOD LOOK ALIKE. Moving on.
This week's Distinctive Face is Rutina Wesley.

Wesley has bounced into a tiny spotlight from out of nowhere. She was in one pretty crappy movie in 2007, and a couple of TV shows, before landing the role of Tara Thorton in HBO's True Blood in 2008. Her no-nonsense, also-alcoholic character is tormented by the writers. Everything that could go wrong with her goes wrong. Her mother's an alcoholic, her brother's a drug dealer, she gets kidnapped, beaten, possessed, used, misused, and abused. And Wesley is beautiful throughout. She does an incredible job of portraying Tara as both strong and vulnerable. She's a survivor.

Possibly because she's freakin' buff.

The entire cast of True Blood was nominated in 2009 and then 2010 for outstanding ensemble performances, awards which Wesley was included in. Overall the show has garnered eight Emmy noms, four Golden Globe noms, three Grammy nominations, and a total of 35 nominations counting every other guild and awards ceremony for TV ever. Check out any top ten list of Best Shows on Television, and this one is one it, guaranteed. The show is written by Academy Award winner Alan Ball (American Beauty) and has emerged as one of HBO's strongest shows since Sex and the City and The Sopranos. It runs in the summers and takes 9-month-long breaks between seasons, but that hasn't stopped viewership from rising from 2 million in its first season to 3 and then more than 5 million viewers last summer. The show's fourth season is set to premiere this June.

"Watch my shoooow!"

The show's ad campaign is so incredible that it will soon get its own article by yours truly on this blog, but let me just say that the marketing team behind this show is incredible. I mean look at this tagline:

Ah chuckle chuckle, that's a good one. This is a teaser, I'll write you a whole thing about it soon. Well back to Tara- er, Rutina.

"Hey just chillin', lookin' gorgeous in this weird
dress thing"

She's amazing. I don't get how Anna Paquin wins an Emmy for her performance and this girl here gets no major award nominations, because Wesley here is wonderful.

OH.Right.

Well if you can stomach a lot of violence, gore, sex, language...pretty much anything and everything considered offensive, and you want to see a good show, check out True Blood. The entire cast works together so well, and a show set in the redneck South rather than the Upper East Side or LA is wonderfully refreshing.

IMDb