Hollywood spent 25 years telling her she was the wrong shape for a leading role, and she got one anyway.
At a glance
- Known for
- Shauna in Yellowjackets, Rose in Two and a Half Men, Heavenly Creatures debut
- Before fame
- Cast at 15 in a Peter Jackson film with zero acting experience
- Off-screen
- New Zealander who learned American accents watching movies at Joss Whedon's house
Rise to Fame
A casting call for a teenage murderer put her opposite Kate Winslet before either of them had made a film. She was 15 with no film experience, and co-writer Fran Walsh said they knew immediately she was right. Heavenly Creatures won her Best Actress at the 1995 New Zealand Film Awards. Then everyone told her to go to university and get a normal job.
She went to Hollywood instead, where she was told her body type would be a problem. She was starving herself to a size four on the set of Coyote Ugly, and the costume designer still said, "Nobody told me there would be girls like you." The eating disorder lasted a decade. The career survived, mostly in supporting roles, because directors kept discovering she was the most convincing American in the room despite being from New Plymouth.
In the Spotlight
Yellowjackets arrived when she was 44, and it did something unusual: it gave her a lead role where nobody mentioned her body. She insisted on it. "I want women to be able to watch it and be like, wow, she looks like me and nobody's saying she's the fat one." A crew member still tried, asking what she planned to do about her weight. Juliette Lewis wrote a letter to the producers.
The show earned her three Emmy nominations (two for lead, one for guest on The Last of Us) and a Critics' Choice win. Rolling Stone called her the standout of the ensemble. At 45, she said she was playing the sexiest, most fun role of her entire career. The industry had always treated her like a character actress who wandered onto the wrong set. Turns out she was just waiting for the right one.
Side Notes
She tricked Jason Reitman into casting her in Up in the Air by refusing to speak off-camera during her audition. He had a strict policy against non-American actors in American roles. He didn't find out she was from New Zealand until after she got the part. Tim Blake Nelson called her "by far the most credible version of an Oklahoma girl I saw." The accent work started when she crashed at Joss Whedon's place after moving to LA, watching movie after movie until American English replaced her own.
She and Winslet wrote letters and talked constantly for years after Heavenly Creatures. The friendship faded as Winslet became an international star. She's called losing that relationship "more heartbreaking than some breakups." They last saw each other at a premiere in 2009.