Rise to Fame
She spent a decade in Hollywood without any real traction. Near broke, close to being evicted. Then David Lynch cast her from a headshot alone, never having seen her previous work. Mulholland Drive (2001) gave her two roles at once: the bright-eyed Betty and the wrecked Diane. She played the split so completely that the film became one of those rare cases where a director's breakthrough and an actor's breakthrough happened at the same time. Two Oscar nominations followed, for 21 Grams and The Impossible, but the Lynch film remains the career proof of concept.
In the Spotlight
The TV pivot paid off. Her turn as Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans earned her an Emmy nomination and reminded the industry she could carry a scene on posture alone. Off-screen, she ran Stripes Beauty into bankruptcy when founding partner Amyris collapsed, bought the brand back at auction for $500,000, then sold it to L Catterton. Her 2025 menopause book made the whole ordeal into a platform. The actress Hollywood told would age out has turned aging into her primary business.
Side Notes
Her father was Pink Floyd's road manager, which explains roughly nothing about her career trajectory but is too good a detail to skip. He died when she was seven. She moved to Australia at 14, met Nicole Kidman at around 14 or 15, and the two stayed close. The menopause started at 36 during a shoot, and dermatologists blamed stress and allergies before anyone suggested hormones. Tuberculosis was apparently a more plausible diagnosis than perimenopause. That absurdity is part of why she built a whole company around the subject.