Watch David O. Russell Newbie Virginia Madsen in Hilariously Heated 'Joy' Scene
Following team-ups in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Bradley Cooper appear in their third David O. Russell film with Joy, in theaters Christmas Day. The film spans four turbulent decades in the life of Joy Mangano, the tenacious single mother who invented, marketed, and sold the self-wringing Miracle Mop.
New to the Russell fold is Virginia Madsen, featured along with Lawrence and De Niro (as Joy’s father, Rudy) in the exclusive clip above. Madsen plays Terry, Joy’s neurotic, soap opera-addicted mother. Here, she gets an unwelcome visit from her estranged partner, who has been dropped off at Joy’s house by his current paramour (who has grown sick of him). Joy’s parents immediately launch into a post-marital bickering match that includes Rudy’s hilariously cruel observation: “You’re like a gas leak: We don’t smell you, we don’t see you, but you’re killing us all!”
Joy also features Cooper as a quick-witted QVC executive, Diane Ladd as Joy’s grandmother, Édgar Ramírez as her basement-dwelling ex-husband, and Isabella Rossellini as a wealthy Italian woman.
