Skye McCole Bartusiak, the Houston actress who shot to stardom as Mel Gibson's youngest daughter in the 2000 movie, The Patriot, was found dead in her home Saturday. She was 21.
According to news reports, she died in her sleep, although the cause of death has not been determined. Her mother, Helen McCole Bartusiak, told CNN that Skye had been suffering from epileptic seizures in recent days.
"We think she had a seizure and choked and nobody was there," Helen McCole Bartusiak said.
The actress's boyfriend found her in the garage apartment adjacent to her parents' home where she lived. Her mother started cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her daughter before paramedics arrived.
Bartusiak was only 7 years old when she won the role opposite Gibson in the hit movie about the Revolutionary War. As a child actor, she also appeared in The Cider House Rules, with Charlize Theron and Tobey Maguire, in 1999 and Don't Say A Word, with Michael Douglas, in 2001.
She also appeared on network shows like House, Lost, CSI and 24, where she had a recurring role at Megan Matheson.
In recent years she has starred in short films, including a 7-minute comedy called Frame of Reference. She had been preparing to produce and direct her first feature film, her mother said.
A family friend told Deadline that she was a "brave and caring young woman" who "is deeply missed by her family and friends."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Skye McCole Bartusiak, 21, died in her Houston home.
skyemcolebartusiak.com
Skye McCole Bartusiak, 21, died in her Houston home.
Director Sam Raimi has gone through different phases as a filmmaker, including leading the first Spider-Man trilogy and joining the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But he first gained notice with the gory and funny Evil Dead movies, a sensibility he’s returning to with his latest film, Send Help.
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a meek and eccentric middle manager at a financial firm that’s just named Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) as its new nepo CEO. Bradley’s dad had promised Linda a promotion to vice president, but she gets passed over in favor of one of Bradley’s frat buddies, sending her into a mild rage. Still, she gets invited along on a planned business trip to Thailand, during which she hopes to prove her worth.
Unfortunately for most of the passengers on the private plane, it crashes into the ocean, leaving only Linda and Bradley alive on a deserted island. Linda, who has privately developed survival skills, adapts quickly to the forbidding environment, while Bradley tries to revert to bossing her around. But Linda quickly understands the power dynamic has shifted, and she uses this knowledge to try to keep Bradley in line, turning their stranding into a battle of wills.
Directed by Raimi and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the film is the classic “so bad it’s good” kind of experience. McAdams, inarguably an attractive and charming person, is given stringy hair, an antisocial personality, and quirks like eating tuna fish at her desk to make her as off-putting as possible. Bradley, along with almost everyone else at her office, is stereotyped just as hard in order to set up the twist of fate.
When the action shifts to the island, things get even more over the top. The audience has already been primed for Linda to demonstrate her survival expertise, but the film does way more than just show her making fire. Whether it’s flawlessly building a shelter or hunting a wild boar, everything Linda does is portrayed in a slightly off-kilter manner. Then they turn everything up to 11, indulging in gore that is so unnecessary that you can’t help but laugh.
The filmmakers prove they’re in on the joke the rest of the way, including a variety of preposterous but hilarious scenarios that would cause massive eyerolls if they were actually trying to take the film seriously. While they do a great job of showing Linda’s ability to handle herself in the wild, they also show that she is somehow the only person in the world who could get a glow up after a plane crash and weeks living in nature.
McAdams, an Oscar-nominated actor for Spotlight, is way too high class for a movie like this, which makes her presence here all the more interesting. She is all-in on whatever Raimi wants her to do, and she’s at her most fun when she goes the animalistic route. O’Brien, who was great in the recent Twinless, doesn’t get as much of an opportunity to show his range, but he still proves to be an interesting foil for her.
Were it released in any other month, Send Help might be looked at as bottom of the barrel material. But with the movie year just getting started, it’s easier to forgive its outrageous plot twists and just have fun, especially since Raimi and his team put the rest of the film together so well.
