Rise to Fame
Rollergirl was reportedly Gwyneth Paltrow's to lose. She passed. Heather Graham showed up to Paul Thomas Anderson's audition and walked out with the part. Boogie Nights (1997) made her a household name. She won the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and suddenly got offered studio leads without auditioning. The groundwork existed: Drugstore Cowboy (1989) and a Twin Peaks arc showed she could disappear into a role. But Rollergirl was the thing. Skating barefoot through the film's grimy 70s nostalgia, she was the part that stuck.
In the Spotlight
The post-Hangover years didn't bring the comeback people expected. She pivoted. Half Magic (2018) was her directorial debut, a pointed feminist comedy she wrote, directed, and starred in. Pretty Teacher followed in 2024, same deal. She's been vocal about Harvey Weinstein and the systemic misogyny baked into Hollywood casting, which reframes the career trajectory. Getting typed as a sex symbol at 18, with an FBI-agent father who actively opposed her acting career, the self-directed work reads like a delayed reckoning with both.
Side Notes
The Twin Peaks set gave her more than a TV credit. David Lynch introduced her to transcendental meditation in 1991, and she's practiced it for decades since. Her father is a retired FBI agent who moved the family constantly, which doesn't obviously square with how she turned out: two decades of NGO work with Children International and the Cambodian Children's Fund, and public statements about Hollywood misogyny that landed years before Weinstein made it trendy. Her sister Aimee is also an actress. The roller skates are the image everyone keeps. The rest is more interesting.