About the Players
Helen Mirren (Mrs Wilson)
Helen Mirren is probably best known for her role as DCI Jane Tennison in the multi-award-winning Prime Suspect miniseries. For her work as Tennison, she has earned three BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award. Mirren received a second Emmy Award for her portrayal of Ayn Rand in Christopher Menaul's telefilm The Passion of Ayn Rand.
Her film credits include Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man!, Ken Russell's Savage Messiah, Piers Haggard's The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (starring opposite Peter Sellers), John Boorman's Excalibur, John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday, Pat O'Connor's Cal, Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast, Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (starring opposite Michael Gambon of Gosford Park), Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), Terry George's Some Mother's Son, Kevin Williamson's Teaching Mrs Tingle, Sean Penn's The Pledge, Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (starring with Clive Owen of Gosford Park), Hal Hartley's soon-to-be-released No Such Thing, and, most recently, Fred Schepisi's Last Orders.
Mirren's distinguished stage career began at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played such Shakespearean characters as (among others) Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Cressida, and Julia (of Two Gentlemen of Verona). More recently, she starred in New York and London in A Month in the Country; in London as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra; and at London's Donmar Warehouse in Nicholas Hytner's production of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending. She will return to the Broadway stage, from September 2001 until January 2002, starring opposite Sir Ian McKellen in August Strindberg's Dance of Death, adapted by Richard Greenberg and directed by Sean Mathias.
Jeremy Northam (Ivor Novello)
Jeremy Northam will soon be seen starring in another USA Films release, Possession, directed by Neil LaBute and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, and Jennifer Ehle; and in Vincenzo Natali's The Company Man, opposite Lucy Liu.
His performances in Oliver Parker and David Mamet's adaptations of An Ideal Husband and The Winslow Boy, together with his work in Mark Illsley's Happy, Texas, garnered him these honors: the London Evening Standard Award for Actor of the Year, the Variety Club Film Award for Actor of the Year, and the London Critics Circle Award for Best British Actor. His other film credits include Christopher Hampton's Carrington, Irwin Winkler's The Net, Douglas McGrath's Emma, Brian Skeet's The Misadventures of Margaret, Guillermo del Toro's Mimic, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Sidney Lumet's Gloria, the Merchant Ivory production of The Golden Bowl, and Michael Apted's Enigma (which costarred Tom Hollander, who has since also appeared in Gosford Park and Possession).
His U.K. television credits include the telefilms Journey's End (directed by Michael Simpson), A Fatal Inversion (directed by Tim Fywell), and The Tribe (directed by Stephen Poliakoff), as well as the miniseries Piece of Cake (directed by Ian Toynton).
Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (1984-1986), Northam won the 1990 Olivier Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performance as Edward Voysey in Richard Eyre's National Theatre production of The Voysey Inheritance. His many other stage credits include Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Love's Labour's Lost, The Country Wife, and The Gift of the Gorgon; National Theatre productions of Hamlet, The Shaughraun, and School for Scandal; and stagings of Certain Young Men, Way of the World, Three Sisters, and La Bete.
Clive Owen (Robert Parks)
Clive Owen's performance in the title role of Mike Hodges' sleeper hit Croupier had critics comparing him to the likes of Bogart, Mitchum, and Connery.
Owen first came to the U.K. public's attention as the star of the television series Chancer. U.S. television audiences later saw him starring opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in Jack Gold's telefilm adaptation of The Return of the Native, which aired on CBS. More recently, the BBC's Second Sight police dramas, in which he stars as DCI Ross Tanner, aired on PBS' Mystery! His U.K. telefilm credits also include Andrew Grieve's Lorna Doone, Andy Wilson's An Evening with Gary Lineker, Diarmuid Lawrence's The Echo, and David Blair's Split Second.
Owen's feature films also include Beeban Kidron's Vroom, Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes and Century, Sean Mathias' Bent, and Joel Hershman's Greenfingers (his first teaming with Helen Mirren of Gosford Park). He will be reuniting with Croupier director Mike Hodges for a new film.
His acclaimed stage work includes portraying Romeo at the Young Vic; starring in Sean Mathias' staging of Noel Coward's Design for Living; and playing the lead role in Patrick Marber's original production of Closer at the Royal National Theatre. In the fall of 2001, he will be starring in London in Laurence Boswell's staging of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
Owen most recently starred in "The Hire" series of BMW Internet short features, in which he was directed by (respectively) John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Guy Ritchie, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Ryan Phillippe (Henry Denton)
As actor, producer, and writer, Ryan Phillippe has established himself as an in-demand talent in Hollywood. The diversity of his projects has enabled him to explore a variety of different characters.
His first major feature film role was in Ridley Scott's White Squall (as part of the young ensemble cast captained by Jeff Bridges). Next came the independent features Little Boy Blue (directed by Antonio Tibaldi) and Nowhere (directed by Gregg Araki).
Phillippe then starred in the boxoffice smash I Know What You Did Last Summer (directed by Jim Gillespie and written by Kevin Williamson, and for which he received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination). In quick succession, he filmed starring roles in Stephen Gyllenhaal's Homegrown, Mark Christopher's 54, Willard Carroll's Playing by Heart (in which, as a member of the ensemble cast, he acted opposite Angelina Jolie, Gena Rowlands, and Sean Connery), and Roger Kumble's hit Cruel Intentions (opposite Reese Witherspoon and his I Know What You Did Last Summer costar Sarah Michelle Gellar). The latter film earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Male Performance.
More recently, he played a cameo role in Peter Askin and Douglas McGrath's Company Man; and starred in Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun (opposite Benicio Del Toro) and Peter Howitt's Antitrust. He will next be seen starring in Burr Steers' Igby Goes Down, as part of an ensemble cast that includes Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Jared Harris, Amanda Peet, Bill Pullman, and Susan Sarandon.
Phillippe has formed a production company, Lucid Films. The company produces projects for all mediums, and is headquartered with Intermedia Films.
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