How Rene Russo built property portfolio after Hollywood exit

Rene Russo was one of the most bankable actresses of the 1990s, commanding multimillion-dollar paychecks alongside Mel Gibson and Pierce Brosnan before vanishing from the spotlight.

Now sitting on a $60m ($US40m) net worth, The Hollywood superstar has built a savvy property portfolio generating tens of thousands in monthly income.

$30k Monthly Cash Move

While stepping back from acting, the Lethal Weapon 3 star and her screenwriter husband Dan Gilroy relied on a multimillion-dollar Los Angeles real estate collection.

The couple put one of their Brentwood residences up for rent, asking $30,000 ($US19,500) per month.

Built in the early 1990s, the four-bedroom residence sits on a wooded hillside with views across surrounding canyons. The couple purchased the home in 1999 for $3.4m ($US2.4m).

Rather than selling, the pair moved into a larger Brentwood home they purchased in 1996 for $5.3m ($US3.75m), keeping their second residence as an income-generating asset.

Russo also personally owns a separate Toluca Lake cottage purchased in the late 1970s during her modelling days.

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Rene Russo built a savvy property portfolio. Picture: Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

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Stepping away from Hollywood

Russo, who began her career as a model for Vogue and Cosmopolitan in the 1970s, made her acting debut in the 1989 sports comedy Major League.

She quickly rose to fame during the 1990s, starring in major hits like Get Shorty and The Thomas Crown Affair, while forming a bankable on-screen duo with Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 3 and Ransom.

By the mid-2000s, following a string of box office disappointments like The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Russo opted for an extended break from acting to focus on her personal wellbeing.

Russo explained in a 2014 interview that she “started ironing at 9 years old” in her household and had never stopped working.

“There was never any time, and then I was doing two movies back to back,” she recalled.

“At a certain point, I had to ask myself, ‘Well Rene, if you don’t do them, what? Are you just going to keep doing one movie, after another, after another?’”

Russo admitted she had grown especially exhausted by the relentless physical toll of film sets.

“I don’t like getting up at 4:30 in the morning,” she confessed. “Unless it’s something that I feel I can share my feelings or my emotions … then it’s just not fun for me.”

Russo and Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 film scene from The Thomas Crown Affair.

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Secret Diagnosis

During her hiatus, Russo devoted her energy toward her mental health, confronting a condition she had struggled with since childhood.

She revealed she had “pushed through” years of self-doubt before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and finally agreeing to take medication.

“I pretty much hit a wall,” Russo said during a 2015 interview with The Queen Latifah Show.

“My mum said my whole childhood, ‘You’re stop-and-go.’ I stopped and I had to [say], ‘Whoa,’ that was it for me.”

She remembered that she literally “hit a wall and couldn’t get out of bed” before making her health a priority.

“I thought it was depression, but if you take antidepressants it speeds you up more. I’m kind of stop-and-go, I either crash or speed,” she noted.

“I have some friends who don’t want to go on medication, and they are suffering.”

Russo in Thor: The Dark World

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Marvel Comeback

Now in a much better place, Russo returned to acting in 2011 to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Frigga, the mother of Thor.

She went on to appear in three Marvel blockbusters, including Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Endgame.

She followed up her Marvel run by teaming up with husband Gilroy on the critically acclaimed thrillers Nightcrawler — which earned her a BAFTA nomination — and Velvet Buzzsaw.

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