 A strikingly talented star of films since the mid 1990s when she was Oscar and BAFTA-nominated for her debut role as the sexually obsessed heroine of Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (Denmark/France/Netherlands/ Norway/Sweden, 1996), and followed this with equally eye-catching work in The Boxer (UK/Ireland/US, d. Jim Sheridan, 1997) and, especially, as gifted, wayward Jackie du Pré (again Oscar and BAFTA nominated) in Hilary and Jackie (d. Anand Tucker, 1998).
Her unconventional, rather grave beauty made her an ideal Maggie Tulliver in the telemovie of The Mill on the Floss (d. Graham Theakston, 1997) and she fashioned an enigmatically real character of the head housemaid in Gosford Park (UK/Germany/US, d. Robert Altman, 2001). In the artificiality of Angela's Ashes (UK/US, d. Alan Parker, 1999), she strikes no false note as the much-tried, poverty-stricken mother, and has filmed several times in the US.
She trained at the Drama Studio and has acted with the RSC and the National Theatre. She is married to actor Jack Waters, who appeared in The Boxer.
Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Cinema
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