Rise to Fame
She dropped out of journalism school in her senior year to model in Milan, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, which is not the typical path to Hollywood. The acting pivot came quietly: soap operas, bit parts, nothing that suggested what was coming. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 changed the math. Shane Black's sharp neo-noir gave her the role of Harmony Faith Lane opposite a resurgent Robert Downey Jr., and she matched him line for line. The film barely cleared $5 million at the box office. Mission: Impossible III called the following year anyway.
In the Spotlight
The White Lotus Season 3 arrived as the career reset she'd been working toward. True Detective made her famous in 2014 for a character that existed mostly to react to Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and she got a Golden Globe nomination for essentially being the wife who got cheated on. Playing Jaclyn Lemon, a famous actress at a Thailand resort, gave her something True Detective didn't: interiority and comedic timing. The show is the best argument she's made in years for what she can do when the writing matches her range.
Side Notes
Growing up in Winthrop, Iowa, population 750, and deciding to drop out of a journalism degree to walk runways in Milan is a specific kind of American ambition. She reportedly holds a private investigator license in California, which either says everything or nothing about the roles she gravitates toward. Three Mission: Impossible films to her name (III, Ghost Protocol, Fallout) make her one of the more durable presences in that franchise without ever being its face.