Betsy Rue

The Impact of the Third Dimension

Betsy Rue was born in May 1979, and her entry into the industry was anything but quiet. In 2007, she took part in The Heartbreak Kid (where she shared the screen with Ben Stiller), but audiences remember her mostly for a much bloodier reason.

In 2009, Rue became the center of attention thanks to My Bloody Valentine 3D. That film, directed by Patrick Lussier, used 3D technology for more than just throwing objects in the viewer's face. The actress starred in a full nude sequence that lasted nearly seven minutes while she was chased by a killer with a mining pick.

And the gamble paid off.

That scene was analyzed for months in forums and specialist magazines. Rue not only brought the physical presence the script demanded, but also managed to convey genuine vulnerability in the middle of a B-movie production with a studio budget. But horror was not her only genre.

Laughs and blood on the small screen

Before that bloodbath, Rue had already appeared on television in episodic roles. In 2007, she appeared in How I Met Your Mother and shortly after in According to Jim. Her talent for physical comedy allowed her to work on Miss March for 2009. In that film, she played Strawberrius and handled the absurd humor with ease.

Horror pays the bills.

That same year, Rob Zombie called her to take part in Halloween II. It was a brief but intense role in which she played Jazlean Benny. Genre audiences tend to be the most loyal of all, and Rue knew how to connect with them through characters who met violent deaths on screen.

In 2010, she stepped away from the screams and entered the world of True Blood. She appeared in the episode Beautifully Broken as Sabine. And although she was a constant presence on television, she never led a long-running cast on a major network.

Music and Media Silence

Rue didn't limit her work to film and television. She tried to make a name for herself in the music industry as a pop singer and released several singles aimed at a commercial, direct sound. Her single The It Girl tried to capture the aesthetic of the late 2000s.

But the music industry is tougher than a killer in a gas mask.

From 2014 on, her appearances in major productions became scarce. That year she worked on Lucky Bastard (a film that explored the world of pornography through a mockumentary lens). It was one of her last high-profile performances before she stepped away from the commercial circuit in Los Angeles.

Her last notable technical credit dates back to 2015 with the project The Last Resort. Since then, Rue has kept a low profile, away from the Hollywood spotlight and focused on her private life in California. Filming her most famous sequence in 2009 required two full nights of work in freezing temperatures.