 Pale and willowy with striking red-blonde hair, Natalie Press has been
compared to a young Sissy Spacek or Tilda Swinton, though she has defied her
ethereal, elfin looks by specialising in provocative roles in dark-hued British
films.
Born in London on 15 August 1980, Press studied art before coming to
attention as an actress playing needy, irresponsible young mothers in two
acclaimed shorts: Andrea Arnold's Oscar-winning Wasp (2003) and Mercy (d.
Candida Scott-Knight, 2004).
Soon afterwards her major breakthrough came with a feature-length leading
role in My Summer of Love (d. Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004), as a spirited
working-class tomboy who embarks on an overheated, passionate relationship with
a rich and worldly girl (Emily Blunt). The success of the film launched both
actresses' careers, even though Press was later to take much the more
unconventional route.
From a liberal, middle-class Jewish family, Press drew on some elements of
her background to portray an Orthodox woman caught up in an intense affair with
her brother in the severe but well-received Song of Songs (d. Josh Appignanesi,
2005). In the same year she appeared in Andrew Davies' epic, award-winning
adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House (BBC, 2005).
A variety of supporting turns followed. Press worked again with Arnold in the
director's feature debut, the tough surveillance/ revenge drama Red Road (2006).
She played a tragic young orphan in Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching (2007), an
idiosyncratic murder mystery inspired by the Rembrandt painting Night Watch, and
a Russian cook in the World War Two prisoner-of-war story In Tranzit (d. Tom
Roberts, 2008).
Press took the 'girlfriend/wife' role in two gritty films based on true
stories: Cass, about a Jamaican man in Britain struggling to escape a life of
racism and violence (d. Jon S Baird, 2008) and Fifty Dead Men Walking (d. Kari
Skogland, 2008), the story of an IRA supergrass.
Press finally secured another leading part in a poorly reviewed suspense
thriller, Knife Edge (d. Anthony Hickox, 2008). However, she landed a BAFTA Best
Actress nomination for Five Daughters (2010), a highly-praised BBC serial
exploring the last days of five women murdered by the Ipswich killer Steve
Wright.
In Island (d. Elizabeth Mitchell/Brek Taylor, 2011), Press was a former
tearaway who travels to a remote Hebridean island seeking revenge on the mother
who abandoned her. She played a member of the jury at the trial of a man accused
of a triple murder in ITV's five-part The Jury II (2011).
Sheila Johnston
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FILM & TV CREDITS
