so violently by Bobo Justus with a sack of oranges that she defecates alarmed her with its explicitness. A few months later, Frears contacted Huston again to see if she was still interested. Still wavering, Huston's talent agent Sue Mengers told her bluntly "Anjelica, if Stephen Frears tells you he wants you to shit in the corner, then that's what you must do." The next day Huston auditioned for the role in front of Frears at the Chateau Marmont. Frears' initial reluctance to cast Huston because she looked too much like "a lady", was resolved with the decision to cheapen her look with a bleached blond wig and "vulgar clothes." To research her part, she studied women dealers at card parlors in Los Angeles County, California. The shoot was emotionally challenging for Huston. After completing the final scene between Lilly and Roy, she was so drained from the experience that she ran from the set and the studio. It took her hours to recover. After shooting the scene where Bobo Justus tortures Lilly for betraying him, Huston was so affected by the rough quality of the scene (which did not make the final cut of the film) that she spent that night throwing up. Annette Bening explained she accepted to get full frontally nude in this film because she felt the scenes were comedic rather than dramatic. "I thought I could do them because of the context it was in. It made sense to me. It was appropriate to the part, it wasn't exploitative," she said. Reception The Grifters had its world premiere on September 14, 1990, at the Toronto Festival of Festivals at the Elgin Theater. The film had a brief Academy Award-qualifying run in New York City and Los Angeles before opening wide in January. The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 91% rating based on 45 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 4 out of 4 and wrote "This is a movie of plot, not episode. It's not just a series of things that happen to the characters, but a web, a maze of consequences." Box office The movie was successful in its limited run. Accolades References External links The Washington Post Reviews: Hal Hinson, Desson Howe. Roger Ebert's review: Films directed by Stephen Frears 1990 films 1990s crime drama films American crime drama films American heist films