Shue takes long journey from Karate Kid to comeback kid

Perhaps you had forgotten about Elisabeth Shue, but the actor is doing her best to remind you she’s still around.

The 48-year-old has replaced Marg Helgenberger in the TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She’ll also star opposite The Hunger Games headliner Jennifer Lawrence in the thriller House at the End of the Street, which opens in theatres Sept. 21.

In the movie, Shue plays Sarah, the mother of Elissa (Lawrence). When they move to a small town, things don’t go well. For one thing, they discover their house is next door to the home where a young girl murdered her parents. For another, Elissa befriends Ryan (Max Thieriot), the only surviving member of the cursed family, which leads to some nasty repercussions.

Hardly a rookie in a genre movie, Shue co-starred in the 2000 sci-fi remake Hollow Man and 2005’s Hide and Seek. And, she’s quick to point out, the tone of her latest performance is in sharp contrast to her role in 2010s Piranha.

“Hopefully, this is a bit more real,” Shue said of House at the End of the Street recently in Los Angeles. “I really like the tension in the film, and the way the characters are allowed to live and breathe, so things aren’t jumping out at you all the time.”

Another positive is the connection established between Shue and Lawrence as mother and daughter.

“We didn’t get too much time together before we started filming, but we had some dinners and hung out,” Shue noted.

It helped that they bonded almost immediately.

“Jen is such a great person, and I have so much admiration for her,” Shue said. “I was really blown away by her talent, maturity and confidence.”

Meanwhile, filming in Ottawa brought back fond memories, especially her stay at the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel during the summer shoot in 2010.

“I really like it a lot,” she said of the capital. “And my daughter, who was six at the time and really into princesses and castles, always looked forward to visiting me because she got to stay in a castle.”

Shue had her time to shine at a young age. In the 1980s, she was featured in a string of hits, including The Karate Kid as Ralph Macchio’s onscreen girlfriend, her first starring role, Adventures in Babysitting, the Back to the Future sequels and Cocktail, opposite Tom Cruise.

She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as a prostitute in the 1995 Nicolas Cage film, Leaving Las Vegas.

In 2000, she returned to Harvard University to obtain her degree. “I finally graduated when I was 38,” she said. Since then, the mother of three has slowly returned to the acting game, but with a sense of humour about her career.

For Steve Coogan’s Hamlet 2 in 2008, she played a fictionalized version of herself as a frustrated actor who left her profession to become a nurse. She also appeared in a few episodes of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2010, defining a once-famous actor on the comeback trail.

“What made me laugh was my agent was so worried about telling me they had offered me the Hamlet 2 role, because I would be playing myself as a has-been actress,” she said. “I laughed so hard when he told me, I knew I had to do it.”

Shue wasn’t always so selfdeprecating. “Sometimes, the ups and downs of the business mature you, even against your will. “I have finally got beyond the difficulties, and I am not afraid of the tough moments as much.”

Her CSI gig occupies her time, but she has two upcoming films. She co-stars with Gerard Butler in the surfing drama Chasing Mavericks, which opens in late October. And she just wrapped the comedy Feed the Dog, with pop star Selena Gomez and Heather Graham.

“I play a Mrs. Robinsontype character,” Shue said. “So that should be good for a laugh, too.”