Biography
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii. So the four years she lived in the United States when her family moved to Australia. Her father, a biochemist, was researching on breast cancer in the city of Washington and was both a university professor in Sydney, Australia.
She had started taking classes in ballet at the age of three years and in Australia entered a theater school for youth. Her father worried that she and her younger sister they had a good physical condition, which made them do exercises every morning gymnastics.
At 16 years (in 1983) she began her acting career when she intervened in a film set at Christmas, Bush Christmas which is often projected in the holiday season. When her mother ill with breast cancer, she dropped out school, but once her mother recovered, she resumed her acting career. Over the years eighty appeared in numerous films and television series in Australia.
In 1988 was released in Europe and the United States with the film Dead calm, shot still in Australia, and co-starring the actor Sam Neill, also Australian , and with her next movie, U.S., Days of Thunder, in which she played a role alongside Tom Cruise.
She already attained fame, and proved her acting skills and elegance in the following films, which acted with such popular actors as Bruce Willis and Dustin Hoffman. In 1998 she starred alongside Sandra Bullock 's film Practical magic, based on the novel by Alice Hoffman. In 1999 he along with her husband Eyes Wide Shut (Eyes Wide Shut), which would be the latest film from director Stanley Kubrick, and had a great response.
Also in 2001 participated in a duet with British singer Robbie Williams on cover of the song Something Stupid by Frank Sinatra. The song was a huge success in Europe being No. 1 in several countries.
The professional recognition until then he got her in 2002, when he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress for her role in Moulin Rouge!. In the thriller The others, directed by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, shot in the same year, also won a major success. Had to resign to take part in the film Panic room due to a knee injury incurred during the filming of Moulin Rouge, but in the year 2002 won the Oscar as Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
In 2004 she obtained her last nomination for Golden Globe for the film Birth.