Mary-Louise Parker: After Almost Quitting Acting, Actress Scores Well-Reviewed Role In ‘Jamesy Boy’

Mary-Louise Parker was ready to give up acting, but decided to stick with it and found a role in the upcoming Jamesy Boy that critics think could earn her award buzz.

Based on the true-life story of James Burns, the movie focuses on a boy whose troubled life led him to a street gang and lockup in a maximum security prison before he put his life back on track.

In the newest clip of Jamesy Boy, Mary-Louise Parker plays the mother of James (Spencer Lofranco) trying to get him into a public school.

“Miss Burns, let me be frank with you. We have some concerns,” the admissions officer tells Parker’s character. “We’ve read your son’s record and we’re not convinced that our school is the right place for a student with his particular history.”

She adds “Obviously we’re sensitive to the experiences of abuse that your son endured but the fact is that James has had a record of unstable, even violent behavior. He could be a danger to the other children…At 14, James already has convictions for robbery, vandalism and assault. He’s be institutionalized three times in eight years, once for threatening your boyfriend with a knife.”

But Mary Louise-Parker’s character does not give up, telling a committee: “You spend 20 minutes with this file and suddenly you’re an expert on my son? You’re the James expert?”

The movie had earned good reviews from critics, and for Mary-Louise Parker marks a milestone that almost was never reached. Earlier this year the 49-year-old actress said negativity from critics and commenters online almost drove her away from the movie business.

Parker said: “I don’t know how many more movies I wanna do… I wouldn’t mind doing a TV show again, I’d like to do a couple more plays, but I’m almost done acting, I think… The world has gotten too mean for me, it’s just too b**chy. All the websites and all the blogging and all the people giving their opinion and their hatred … it’s all so mean-spirited, it’s all so critical.”

But Mary Louise-Parker stuck with it, and critics her role in Jamesy Boy may earn the actress some award hardware.