Patricia Charbonneau

Patricia Charbonneau (born April 19, 1959) is an American actress, perhaps best known for playing the part of Cay Rivvers in Desert Hearts (1985), her first film role and for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Early life Charbonneau was born in Valley Stream, New York on Long Island, the youngest of 10 children. Her father is French and her mother is Austrian. She graduated in 1977 from Valley Stream Central High School, which she attended with fellow actors Steve Buscemi and Steve Hytner. She later attended Boston University as a theater major, and left after a month to take a position with the Lexington Conservatory Theatre company in the Catskills. Early work At age 19, Charbonneau moved to New York City. She appeared in New York in the Lexington Conservatory Theatre production of The Revengers, a rock opera adaptation by William C. Sandwick and Philip Soltanoff at Playwrights Horizons, alongside Sofia Landon Geier. She also studied with noted acting teacher Fred Kareman and worked in smaller roles, including a part with the New York City Opera. In 1982, as a member of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, she originated the role of Lea in My Sister in this House by Wendy Kesselman, a part that she also played Off-Broadway, helping to launch her film and television career. Desert Hearts In 1985, Charbonneau made her film debut in Donna Deitch's film Desert Hearts, at a time when it was still considered a risk to portray a lesbian in a romantic drama, complete with a lengthy love scene. She told The Globe and Mail, "Kissing Helen wasn't the hard part, really. The hard part was walking out on the set naked and just standing there." Two days before shooting began, she found out that she was pregnant with her first child, whom she once called her "Desert Hearts baby."