From Portlandia to Cincinnati… Sketch Comedy Queen Carrie Brownstein Lands Role on Haynes’ Carol

Eat your heart out Julianne Moore. Less than 24 hours after actor John Magaro was mentioned as a supporting player add-on, we now learn (via THR) that sketch comedy queen in Portlandia’s writer/star Carrie Brownstein will trade in hipster chic for 50’s garb making her feature film debut alongside thesps Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett and Sarah Paulson in Todd Haynes’ Carol. Brownstein will play Genevieve Cantrell, a woman who has an encounter with Therese (Mara). Several onlookers will be curious in seeing how the actress moves from banal characterizations to certified Haynes-dramatic material.

Gist: Based on Patricia Highsmith’s “The Price of Salt”, this chronicles the burgeoning and tempestuous relationship between two very different women in 1950s NYC. Mara will play a 20-something clerk working in a department store and dreaming of a better life who falls for an older, married woman (Blanchett) who is essentially a trapped wife in a dead marriage who’s desperate to leave but also fears losing her daughter if she does. Chandler plays Harge, the Blanchett character’s jealous husband.

Worth Noting: Via wiki, Before Portlandia, Brownstein was the guitarist and vocalist in Sleater-Kinney.

Do We Care?: We’ve mentioned it before: Carol is a top tier highly anticipated item for us (#11 out of 200). Kudos to casting director Maribeth Fox for considering the actress for a period look that should fit.