Emily Mortimer
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Biography
Over the course of her career, British actress Emily Mortimer established herself as a protean character actress and occasional lead in dramas, comedies, television series and even animated films, including "Elizabeth" (1998), "Lovely and Amazing" (2001), "The Pink Panther" (2006) and "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018). Born Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer on December 1, 1971 in Hammersmith, England, she was the daughter of author John Mortimer, whose most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who was depicted in the long-running Thames Television series "Rumpole of the Bailey" (1978-1992). After studying at St. Paul's Girls School in London, Mortimer enrolled at Oxford University, where she majored in Russian and appeared in a handful of school productions while also penning a column for the Daily Telegraph. But her career path moved fully into performing after a television producer saw her in one of the Oxford plays, and cast her in a miniseries, "The Glass Virgin" (1995). Mortimer quickly settled into steady work on television and in features, moving easily between period projects like "Sharpe's Sword" (ITV, 1995) and "The Ghost and the Darkness" (1996) with Michael Douglas, and grittier fare like the medical thriller series "Silent Witness" (BBC, 1996). By the late '90s, she had graduated from guest roles to major supporting parts, most notably in the quirky coming-of-age drama "The Last of the High Kings" (1997) and "Elizabeth," for which she played Kat Ashley, governess and confidante of Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett). Hollywood soon took notice of Mortimer's versatility, and cast her as Bruce Willis' romantic partner in "Disney's The Kid" (2000) and as Angelina, the star of the horror movie-within-a-horror movie in Wes Craven's "Scream 3" (2000). After a handful of additional studio film appearances, including Ronny Yu's "Formula 51" (2001), Mortimer established herself as a fearless female lead in independent films: in Nicole Holofcener's "Lovely and Amazing," she appeared completely nude on-screen while withstanding piggish comments about her figure from a boyfriend, while in "Young Adam," her character indulged in a sadomasochistic relationship with Ewan McGregor. Roles such as these drew the attention of filmmakers like Woody Allen, who cast her in his 2005 thriller "Match Point," Craig Gillespie, for whom she played the exasperated sister-in-law of a lonely man (Ryan Gosling) who falls in love with a silicone sex doll in "Lars and the Real Girl" (2007), and Martin Scorsese, who cast her as an alleged psychiatrist committed to a ghostly asylum in "Shutter Island" (2010). Mortimer again returned to a mix of art house and studio projects: the former including a rare lead in "Leonie" (2010), a Japanese drama about Leonie Gilmour, lover and assistant to writer Yone Noguchi, and the indie comedies "City Island" (2010) and "Our Idiot Brother" (2011), while the latter counted "The Pink Panther" and its 2009 sequel, both starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, a voice-acting role as a spry British sportscar/spy in "Cars 2" (2011) and Scorsese's historical fantasy "Hugo" (2011). She also enjoyed a starring role as a television news producer on the Aaron Sorkin drama "The Newsroom" (HBO, 2012-14), and created, wrote and co-starred in her own series, "Doll & Em" (Sky Living/HBO, 2014-15), a comedy in which she and her real-life friend, actress Dolly Wells, played semi-fictitious versions of themselves. After a spate of independent efforts, including Sally Potter's "The Party" (2017), Mortimer returned to mainstream features as the adult Jane Banks, one-time charge of Mary Poppins, in Disney's highly anticipated "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1995
Made TV debut in an adaptation of Dame Catherine Cookson's "The Glass Virgin"
1996
Was cast in the Irish comedy "The Last of the High Kings" (released direct-to-video in the USA as "Summer Fling")
1996
Had her first film role playing Val Kilmer's wife in "The Ghost and the Darkness"
1998
Appeared as Kat Ashley in Shekhar Kapur's Oscar-nominated epic "Elizabeth"
1999
Played Esther in the American TV mini-series "Noah's Ark" (NBC)
1999
Played Miss Flynn in the TV mini-series "Cider with Rosie" (PBS), adapted for television by her father, John Mortimer
1999
Had a small but pivotal role opposite Hugh Grant in "Notting Hill"
2000
Was featured in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaptation of "Love's Labour's Lost"
2000
Was cast as Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in "Scream 3"
2000
Played Bruce Willis' love interest in Disney's "The Kid"
2001
Changed her prim image in favor of a more provocative one when she appeared full-frontally nude in "Lovely and Amazing"
2003
Joined an ensemble cast in Stephen Fry's "Bright Young Things"
2004
Was featured in "Young Adam," opposite Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton
2004
Was featured as the mother of a deaf boy in the affecting drama "Dear Frankie"
2004
Voiced the younger version of Sophie in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle"
2005
Played the oblivious spouse of an adulterous Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Woody Allen's "Match Point"
2006
Was cast in "The Pink Panther" as the love interest of Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin)
2007
Appeared in three episodes of NBC's "30 Rock" as a love interest of Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy
2007
Played the title character's (Ryan Gosling) sister-law in "Lars and the Real Girl"
2008
Was featured in the David Mamet directed "Redbelt"
2008
Co-starred in "Chaos Theory" with Ryan Reynolds and Stuart Townsend
2009
Appeared opposite Steve Martin in "Pink Panther 2"
2010
Played escaped mental patient Rachel Solando in Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island"
2011
Voiced Holley Shiftwell, a British spy-in-training, in the animated feature "Cars 2"
2011
Played Paul Rudd's sister in "Our Idiot Brother"
2011
Was cast in Martin Scorsese's family adventure "Hugo"
2012
Played news show producer Mackenzie MacHale on Aaron Sorkin's drama series "The Newsroom" (HBO)
2016
Appeared in sci-fi flick "Spectral"
2017
Co-starred with Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling in "The Sense of an Ending"
2017
Starred in historical drama "The Bookshop"
2018
Was cast as Jane Banks in Disney's revival sequel "Mary Poppins Returns"
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