Miranda Otto

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Miranda Otto
Image:MirandaOtto.png Miranda Otto in a scene from the film Dead Letter Office (1998).
Born
December 16, 1967 Brisbane, Australia
Occupation
Actor
Famous for
A Doll's House (theatre) (2002) The Lord of the Rings (2002-2003) War of the Worlds (2005) Boy Meets Girl (theatre) (2005)

Miranda Otto (born December 16, 1967) is an Australian theatre and Australian Film Institute-nominated film actress. She began her career in the Australian film Emma's War in 1986 and gained critical recognition in 1991's The Girl Who Came Late. After a decade of critically acclaimed roles in Australian films, Otto gained Hollywood's attention after landing minor roles in The Thin Red Line (1998) and What Lies Beneath (2000), before her breakthrough in 2003 when her character Éowyn was introduced to audiences in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. She performs predominantly in minor roles in a wide variety of low-budget and major studio films, ranging from romantic comedies and drama to science fiction and action thrillers. Her most popular films include The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2002, 2003) and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005).

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early works, 1986 – 1993 2.2 Lead roles, 1994 - 1998 2.3 Hollywood, 1999 - Present 2.4 Theatre 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Notes 5.1 References 6 External links

Early life and education

Otto was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is the daughter of Australian stage and film actor Barry Otto and former actress Lindsay Otto, whom retired from acting upon Otto's birth. Otto was named after the character Miranda from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. She was raised in Newcastle and Brisbane, but briefly resided in Hong Kong following her parents' separation in 1973. She eventually settled in Newcastle, a town north of Sydney.<ref name="SunH">Claire Scobie. "Balancing Act." The Sun-Herald Magazine, Sunday Life. (June 26, 2005)</ref> Her parents remain married, but they live with other partners. Otto spent weekends and holidays with her father in Sydney when she was not with her mother and developed an interest in acting.<ref name="Fam">Catherine Keenan. "Family Viewing". SMH.com.au (October 1, 2005)</ref>

Growing up she excelled academically and in ballet, even considering it as a career option before realizing that she could not become a soloist due to having a slight scoliosis as many ballet soloists had to be physically perfect.<ref name="SunH" />

As a child Otto and her friends wrote scripts and songs, made costumes and flyers, and created sets out of whatever materials they had around. She took these plays very seriously and in her teens she appeared in a play at the Nimrod Theatre attracting the attention of casting director Faith Martin who was impressed with Otto’s performance, giving her a movie role in Emma's War (1986).<ref name="Fam" />

After briefly considering a career in medicine, Otto enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where she spent three years studying acting. At NIDA she was known as "the Flagellator" for her tendency to worry about a role until she had it right.<ref name="HQ">Amruta Slee. "Miranda Otto Goes Off". HQ Magazine (September/October 1997)</ref> While still in school Otto appeared in minor roles in the films The 13th Floor (1988) and Heroes II: The Return (1990), before she graduated in 1990.

Career

Early works, 1986 – 1993

Image:Otto-EmmasWar.jpg Although Otto made her film debut in 1986 as Emma Grange in the Australian film Emma's War, she began to seriously focus on acting after graduation from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1990. Her first roles were in the low-budget Australian films The Girl Who Came Late (also known as Daydream Believer) (1991) and Last Days of Chez Nous (1992). Both films garnered Otto an Australian Film Institute nomination for best actress and critical recognition.

Her next film was the sexually provocative The Nostradamus Kid (1993) co-starring Noah Taylor, which was based on the memories of Australian author Bob Ellis. The film was hard to do for Otto as it required multiple sex scenes, which made her uncomfortable. On the sex scenes in the film Otto commented: "The first time you do it, though, it's very technical - do you want my arm there, that's not working, do you want me to scream louder, that sort of stuff. It's hard, cos it's not something you've seen other women do, so you're scared that you'll do something that gives you away as really strange."<ref name="HQ" />

Soon after the release of Last Days of Chez Nous, Australian magazines were eager to profile the actress, and new roles were available for her. Otto also received praise from her co-stars and directors, quickly earning a reputation for being very professional and for taking dark, challenging roles.

Lead roles, 1994 - 1998

After a small role in the low-budget Sex is a Four Letter Word in 1995, Otto began to doubt her career choice as she was not getting the parts she auditioned for and underwent a loss in self confidence. The feeling lifted partially when she was offered a part she loved in Love Serenade (1996), but, even then, she was not wholly convinced that acting was what she wanted to do with her life.

In 1997, the 29-year-old Otto starred in two of her most complex and demanding films of her career, The Well and Doing Time for Patsy Cline. The Well revolves around Hester (Pamela Rabe), a lonely young woman, and her claustrophobic relationship with Otto's Katherine, onto whom Hester projects her dreams of freedom. When Otto first read the script she did not want to audition for the part, for fear that she would not get it. She believed that she was too old to play the character Katherine, who is supposed to be eighteen.<ref name="HQ" /> At the audition she was able to get into her characters head and how she thought, landing the part. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, Australia's only entry, which caused a sensation, being labelled as "Australian Gothic".

Image:Loveserenade-MirandaOtto.jpg In Doing Time for Patsy Cline she was the lead character Patsy, the object of male fantasy. On her character in the film Otto commented: "I went through a huge thing about Patsy," she says. "A lot of women, when they play that part these days - characters who are party sex-object - they're always doing a really tough-talking short-skirt-wearing, punchy, sexy kind of American thing. She was really gentle and passive and retiring and sexual in that way. It was a part of myself I hadn't really used because I'd been a more aggressive character in life, more cerebral, nutting things out, and argumentative - that's who I am as a person, and then this other thing came out which was soft, protected."<ref name="HQ" />

In 1998 she followed the two challenging roles up with smaller parts in Dead Letter Office and In the Winter Dark. Both films were critical hits, but were not seen by large audiences. Otto gained Hollywood's attention after landing a minor role in The Thin Red Line co-starring with George Clooney and Sean Penn. Although the role was very small, it gave Otto great exposure and lead to further roles in films outside Australia.

Hollywood, 1999 - Present

After her minor role in A Thin Red Line, Otto appeared in the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath (2000) co-starring Harrison Ford. Her next film was Human Nature (2001), which follows the ups and downs of an obsessive scientist, a female naturalist, and the man they discover, born and raised in the wild. Originally Otto had auditioned for a role in Being John Malkovich, but lost out on the lead female role after Cameron Diaz decided to take it instead. The film's director, however, remembered Otto and cast her in Human Nature, a film she really wanted to be a part of.<ref>"Miranda Otto as Éowyn". TheOneRing.net (2004)</ref>

Her breakthrough in Hollywood came in 2002 when her character Éowyn was introduced to audiences in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Otto beat off many talented actresses for the role as the strongest female character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy. Peter Jackson, the trilogy's director, was convinced that she was the best for the role after watching her audition tape only once.<ref>Ian Nathan. "The Two Towers Preview: Miranda Otto, The White Lady: Meet Éowyn, Tolkien's Ballsiest Lady". Empire Magazine (January 2003)</ref> For the role she took on a grueling nine month schedule between March and December 2000 to film the part, for which she was given training in horseriding and sword-fighting. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers would also become one of the most successful films of all time when it grossed over $900 million on a budget of $94 million USD.<ref>The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers box office data</ref> The following year Otto would reprise her role in the third and final film in the trilogy The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which also was a box office success and earned Otto a nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards.

Image:LOTRTT1.jpg Films of varying quality and success followed The Lord of the Rings. She starred opposite of Rhys Ifans in the low-budget, moderately successful 2003 comedy Danny Deckchair as a police officer. In 2004 she starred opposite Matthew Macfadyen in the drama In My Father's Den, another low-budget film which was not seen by a large audience. Later that year Otto starred in two-part miniseries, Through My Eyes, which told the story Lindy Chamberlain who was convicted of killing her baby daughter, Azaria in Australia's most publicized murder trials. Otto was interested in the role because it was challenging to play someone so different from herself, and because of the prospect of exploring an unconventional character.<ref>Debi Enker. "Through Their Eyes". TheAge.com.au (November 18 2004)</ref> The miniseries was hit with audiences and scored highly with critics, and earned Otto a Logie Award for "Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series".

After seeing her as Eowyn in The Lord Of The Rings, Otto received a phone call from director Steven Spielberg inquiring if she would play opposite Tom Cruise in the big-budget science fiction film War of the Worlds in 2005. Otto at the time was pregnant and believed she would have to turn down the role, but Spielberg reworked the script to accommodate her pregnancy.<ref>"The Right Stage of Life".The Sun-Herald (September 26, 2005)</ref> It would become a box office and critical success when it grossed over $591.4 million, making it the fourth highest grossing film of 2005.<ref>War of the Worlds box office data.</ref>

After the birth of her first child in 2005, Otto took a hiatus from major film roles to concentrate on motherhood and theatre work in Australia.

Theatre

Otto made her theatre debut at the age of seventeen in the 1986 production The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kan for the Sydney Theatre Company.<ref>In My Father's Den official website</ref> Her performance was well received by critics and led to further parts in stage plays with the Sydney Theatre Company. Otto's most popular performance was as Nora Helmer in the 2002 production of A Doll's House. It earned her a 2003 Helpmann Award nomination and the prestigious MO Award for "Female Actor in a Play".

Her most recent stage production was 2005's Boy Gets Girl, in which she played Theresa, a journalist for a big-time New York magazine. Otto committed to the project a few days before she found out she was pregnant, but production was halted until Otto gave birth. The play also marks the second time she has worked with her father, the first being briefly in the film Dead Letter Office (1998).

Personal life

In 1997 Otto began dating her Doing Time for Patsy Cline co-star Richard Roxburgh, but the relationship ended in 2000. It ended reportedly because of the little time they spent together, due to their busy acting schedules.

On January 1, 2003, she married actor Peter O'Brien, after the two had met while performing in the stage play A Doll's House in 2002. They have one child, a daughter Darcey (b. 2005). O'Brien was unable to attend the birth as he was filming in Texas. Many media reports stated that he watched the birth via webcam, but Otto denies these reports as being untrue.<ref name="Fam" /> She and O'Brien are determined to raise their daughter on their own and rotate their working life, with one parent always around to babysit.

Filmography

Notes

References

External links

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• {{{2|{{{name|Miranda Otto}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• Miranda Otto's Agent Page
• Miranda Otto Fansitede:Miranda Otto

fr:Miranda Otto ja:ミランダ・オットー pl:Miranda Otto sv:Miranda Otto