Rise to Fame
She auditioned for The Princess Diaries on her way to catch a flight to New Zealand for another film. That happy accident made her a Disney princess at 18. The Devil Wears Prada changed the read on her five years later. Playing the naive outsider to Meryl Streep's terrifying fashion editor required holding the screen against someone essentially unbeatable, and she held it. By 2013, she cut her hair on camera and sang live on set for Les Miserables, and walked away with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
In the Spotlight
The "Hathahate" era was real. She has said the post-Oscar backlash cost her actual roles because directors decided her online identity had become too "toxic." Christopher Nolan cast her in Interstellar anyway, and she's credited that as the move that saved her career. The rehabilitation has held. The Idea of You worked, and she's assembled a slate that includes Devil Wears Prada 2, Nolan's The Odyssey, and Verity. The internet's verdict flipped, and the job offers followed.
Side Notes
She was the first teenager ever admitted to The Barrow Group acting program in New York, and performed in Carnegie Hall three days before landing her first TV role. She shares a name with Shakespeare's wife, which people keep pointing out. She grew up Catholic and seriously considered becoming a nun, then left the church at 15 after her older brother came out as gay. None of this fits neatly into the Disney-princess-to-serious-actress arc, but it explains why she's always seemed slightly at war with her own image.