London Academy of Media Film TV

EARLY LIFE

Nicolas Cage

Born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California, on 7th January 1964, Nicolas is the youngest of three children to dancer/choreographer Joy and literature professor August Coppola. His grandfather Carmine was a composer, aunt Talia (Shire) is an actress, and uncle Francis Ford is an Oscar-winning director. He is also cousin to director Sofia Coppola, and actor Jason Schwartzman. He studied at Beverly Hills High School whilst acting in his brother Christopher’s short films, before abandoning his studies at the age of 15 to enrol at the American Conservatory Theatre in 1979. That is where he made his debut performance in a production of Golden Boy.

ASPIRING ACTOR

Nicolas made his television debut in the variety special, Best of Times, in 1981. His film debut came a year later in the Cameron Crowe-penned comedy Fast Times At Ridgmont High. 1983 marked several milestones in Nicolas’ early career; he landed his first lead role in Valley Girl, adopted the surname Cage (in reference to Marvel superhero Luke Cage) to avoid accusations of nepotism, and was featured in his first collaboration with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, Rumble Fish. From there, Nicolas’ acting career began to heat up and he soon earned himself a reputation as a distinctive method actor thanks to performances in Birdy (1984), for which he pulled out one of his own teeth, and in further collaborations with his uncle including Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). Nicolas continued to take varied roles throughout the late 1980s including the lead in the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona (1987), his first box office hit Moonstruck (1987), more method madness in Vampire’s Kiss (1988), and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990). However, the role that would define his early career was in Mike Figgis’ 1995 drama Leaving Las Vegas for which he won an Oscar. Not content with critical acclaim, Nicolas sought to reinvent himself as an action star and began a lucrative partnership with producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

ACTION HERO

Box office hits The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), and John Woo’s Face/Off (1997) helped to seal his burgeoning status as an action hero and earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998. Ever difficult to pigeonhole, Nicolas balanced his latest status with yet more diverse roles, including the romantic fantasy City of Angels (1998), and Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out The Dead (1999). However, his box office fortunes have not fared quite so well since, with the Bruckheimer produced Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), National Treasure series (2004, 2007), and Marvel comic-adaptation Ghost Rider (2007) being the only bona-fide blockbusters amid a string of flops. He hit a career nadir in 2006 with the release of Neil Labute’s poorly received The Wicker Man, for which he earned a Razzie nomination, and has infrequently regained critical favour since thanks to box office bombs Next (2007), Bangkok Dangerous (2008), and Season of the Witch (2011). Nicolas did earn himself a second Oscar nomination for his dual role in Spike Jonze’s acclaimed Adaptation (2002), and has recently received praise for turns in Kick-Ass (2010), and Bad Lieutenant (2010).

Nicolas Cage in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced National Treasure 2

PERSONAL INTERESTS

An avid comic book reader, Nicolas is thought to have a large collection and has created his own series called Voodoo Child. Aside from inspiring his own screen name, Nicolas’ passion for comics has furhter seeped into his personal life; naming his second son Kal-el (after Superman’s birthname). He is also a longtime fan of Elvis Presley. Nicolas has more recently set his talents towards producing and directing. His company, Saturn Films, released his directorial debut, Sonny, in 2002, and he served as an executive producer on the likes of Lord of War (2005) and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010).

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Nicolas has been married three times; to Patricia Arquette (1995-2001), Lisa Marie Presley (2002-2004), and currently to Alice Kim (since 2004) with whom he shares a son, Kal-el, born 2005. He also has another son, Weston, born 1990, with actress Christina Fulton. He is currently represented by Richard Lovett of Creative Artists Agency.

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Richard Roxburgh is an award winning actor. His career is one that has often seen him typecast as the villain, a role he plays well, but does not denote the capabilities of his skill.

EARLY LIFE

Richard Roxburgh

Mary Roxburgh gave birth to Richard on the 23^rd January, 1962; the youngest of six. He grew up in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. His father John was an accountant which may explain why he studied economics at the Australian National University in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. He became disillusioned with the idea and instead pursued acting, something that grabbed his attention when he was 15 when he spent a summer reading Death of a Salesman. He applied to the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, and failed on his first attempt, something he attributes to the fact that he wrote his own piece. He earned a position on his second attempt and graduated in 1986 before heading to the Belvoir St Theatre where acclaimed actors such as Cate Blanchett, Geoffery Rush and David Wenham have all performed and mastered their art.

CAREER

Richard Roxburgh is best known in Hollywood for his portrayal of villains most notably as the Duke of Monroth in Moulin Rouge! (2001). Prior to that though he hit his stride as an actor for his stage performance of Hamlet in 1994-95. The cast included both Cate Blanchett and Geoffery Rush, and earned Richard critical acclaim as well as a Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award for Best Performance by a Lead Actor. Such was the toll on his body that before opening night in Adelaide he got shingles forcing him out of the production. It was also in 1995 that he earned fame playing real-life controversial detective Roger Rogerson in the TV mini-series Blue Murder (1995). He also was in his first film, Billy’s Holiday. He won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Actor for the film Doing Time for Patsy Cline (1997), and finally grabbed America’s attention as Hugh Stamp, a henchman, in Mission: Impossible II (2000). His villainous exploits continued in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) – which with its chaotic planning and in-house fighting that caused star Sean Connery to quit Hollywood – and Van Helsing (2004), with Hugh Jackman as the title character and Richard as Dracula.

His directorial debut was the 2005 film Romulus, My Father with Eric Bana and Kodi Smit-Mcphee. Before he starred in Australian director Alieter Grierson’s Sanctum (2011), which had James Cameron as excutive producer and used his revolutionary 3D technology, Richard portrayed Australian ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke in a telemovie of the same name. He was on stage with Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and John Bell in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Uncle Vanya in 2010. He will next be seen in the UK and New Zealand produced film Ice with Stephen Moyer and Sam Neill, a film expected to be released in 2011.

AWARDS

He won an AFI award in 1997 for Doing Time for Patsy Cline and a Logie – Australia’s version of an Emmy in America – for Most Outstanding Actor when he played Roger Rogerson in Blue Murder (1995). He has been nominated a number of times at the AFI, most notably for Best Director for Romulus, My Father, which went on to win Best Actor for Eric Bana, Best Supporting Actor for Marton Csokas, a Young Actor’s Award for Kodi Smit-Mcphee and Best Film.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Richard Roxburgh & wife Silvia Colloca

One of his most publicised relationships was with Miranda Otto after they meet on the set of Doing Time for Patsy Cline in 1997 and dated for a few years, but the difficulties of sustaining the relationship caused it to end in 2000. He meet Italian actress Silvia Colloca on the set of Van Helsing and they married in September 2004. Their first son, Raphael Jack Domenico Roxburgh, was born on the 10^th February 2007 and was followed by their second son, Miro Gianni David Roxburgh, in October 2010.

MANAGEMENT

He is managed by Lindy King, the woman who split from the renowned group Peters, Fraser and Dunlop in 2007 and with other rogue agents started their own company United Agents.

With his diverse abilities and accolades, especially in Australia, we may see Richard Roxburgh lose the antagonist cloak and become an actor whose performances speak of all his talents.

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EARLY LIFE

Jacqueline Ruth Weaver, most commonly known as Jacki Weaver, was born on 25^th May, 1947, in Hurstville, Sydney, Australia. Her mother, Edith, was a Northern England immigrant who married Arthur Weaver, a solicitor. From a young age their daughter showed a desire and almost a need to act. There are a number of carrying stories how Jacki found her way to into the industry. One is about her winning a cruise ship talent contest at the age of 2 1/2. Another is about her being kicked out of Brownies for sneaking off to watch an Esther Williams festival and lastly an elocution teacher she had at the age of nine simply stated that she was born to act.

Jacki Weaver

After finishing school at Hornsby Girls’ High School she desired to be a pop star releasing a cover of ‘Something’s Got a Hold on Me’ which was disastrous, selling a mere 159 copies. But her talents would shine on stage and her fame would be increased not just from her skill as an actress but from her numerous and often capricious relationships as well.

CAREER

Jacki Weaver’s career is an interesting one not for the roles she has played but for when she was playing them. Her first role was in Stork (1971), one of the first commercially successful films of the Australian cinema revival, or New Wave films. She then was in Alvin Purple (1973), the most successful Australian film at the time, taking the box office record from They’re a Weird Mob (1966). In Alvin Purple she had the casting title of ‘Second Sugar Girl’, a role where she appeared in the nude when persuaded with $500 by director Tim Burstell. She was also in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which was one of the first Australian films to gain an international audience, and Caddie (1976) again with Jack Thompson after they played opposite each other in Petersen (1974). She did few other films before she left the screen for 15 years which was Cosi (1996). She returned to film for the acclaimed movie Animal Kingdom (2010), by David Michôd, playing the psychotic matriarch of a Melbourne crime family. She would earn an Oscar nomination in 2011 for her role and squarely put herself back in Hollywood’s mind after 48 years in the business. What is interesting about her film career is that it has seemed to follow the rise of creative Australian film talents, with the likes of Peter Weir, Tim Burstell and George Miller in the 1970’s and in the 80’s. She again gives her skill to the emerging Australian scene now which sees the likes of David Michôd, Joel and Nash Edgerton and others from Blue Tongue Films and Australia.

PERSONAL LIFE

Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom

As noted as she was on-screen and stage, her private life has often made the headlines. Before Paris Hilton was famous for being famous, Jacki Weaver could have claimed that title. Her first stage appearance was in Cinderella at age 15. From there she started a relationship with Bryan Davies, a TV star and pop singer. Following that she met David Price whom she married after one date when she was only 18. She even did a spread in Women’s Weekly where in the same edition she talked about her relationship with Bryan Davies and her up-coming marriage to David Price in separate articles. The marriage ended after two years when she had an affair with an English fellow, John Walters, who was 30 years her senior, her resultant son, Dylan, made headlines for being born out of wed lock in 1970. Her marriage was one filled with amphetamines, so much so that she fell asleep next to ex-PM Gough Whitlam at a black tie event. She swore off drugs after finding herself on a cliff face believing she could fly. Her son saved her with the words, “don’t be ridiculous, there’s no way you can fly.” He was four.

Her most lasting relationship was with Richard Wherrett, a theatre director. Although he was a homosexual they had a relationship that lasted until his death in 2001 from hepatitis C, it was one filled with love on both sides and one could argue of kindred spirits. The relationship did end at one point in the early days; she then was with boom operator Max Hessener whom she met on the set of The Removalists (1975). She left Max while he was away in England for producer Phil Davies. Four years after that break up she met media personality Derryn Hinch and they had a marriage that lasted 12 years. He won her over when she was performing in Adelaide with a $5,000 ad declaring his love for the play and for her. She was called to the bedside of Richard Wherrett – leaving a boyfriend in Paddington to do so – as he lay dying, she stayed with him for weeks and through his death. She met South African actor Sean Taylor in 2002 on the ironic named theatre production Soul Mates and have married since.

She was sexually abused from the ages of 7 to 11 by a family friend who baby-sat for the family. She then claims that she was sexually active at 12. Although a number of people would look at that abuse and connect it to her long list of sexual partners/relationships, she doesn’t, these days, worry about that part of her past. Although it did affect her during her 20’s, where she thought about physically harming him, he is now dead. She, meanwhile, is about to start a revival of her film career… much like the Australian film industry around her.

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EARLY LIFE

Toni Collette

Antonia Collette, commonly known as Toni, was born on the 1^st of November, 1972. This unique looking actress with her wide smile and diverse acting abilities has gathered a huge following in Hollywood. She grew up in Glebe, Sydney, till she was six before she moved to what was then the start of a sprawling suburb of western Sydney, Blacktown. Her father, Bob Collette, was a truck driver and her mother, Judy, a customer-service representative. She grew up with two younger brothers, Ben and Christopher, and had a very tom-boyish upbringing, something that still seems to come through today. From an early age she had an ability to act. This was evidenced when, at the age of eleven, she convinced doctors to have her appendix taken out even though there was nothing wrong with it. She left Blacktown Girls High School when she was 16 and pursued acting at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) where she only stayed for 18 months before stepping into films.

CAREER

Her first film was with Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins in Spotswood (1992), a role which earned her a nomination for best supporting actress award by the AFI (Australian Film Institute). It’s reported that Russell Crowe took her out, got her drunk, smoked pot, and even went so far as to hold her hair when she got sick from it all… and this all before she was 18 (the legal drinking age in Australia). 1994 saw the release of Muriel’s Wedding, which needed a performance by a very talented actress to show the terrible turmoil hidden behind the cheerful facade of Muriel. Toni Collette won the role and had to gain 40 pounds in seven weeks but her performance earned her an AFI for Best Actress and a Golden Globe nomination.

She did her first Broadway performance in the production of The Wild Party which earned her a Tony nomination but forced her to turn down a role in Bridget Jones’s Diary. However, this allowed her to be in M. Night Shymalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999) with Bruce Willis. A role that earned her an Academy Award nomination and brought her real international attention. One of her other big films is the record breaking indie, Little Miss Sunshine (2006). It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and was picked up for a then record breaking $10.5 million distribution right by Fox Searchlight Productions. The film went on to gross over $100 million world-wide, making it one of the most successful independent films of the mid-2000’s. She now stars in the Showtime comedy-drama The United States of Tara, which is in its third season and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oscar winning writer Diablo Cody.  Next, she will be in the 2011 remake of Fright Night.

CHARITY

Toni Collette & The Finish

One of her dreams when growing up was to sing and have an album released which she achieved in 2006 with Toni Collette & The Finish’s album Beautiful Awkward Pictures. They then lent their musical talent to the Al Gore production Live Earth in Sydney in 2007 to combat climate issues. She involves herself in a lot of charity causes – everything from UNICEF to Doctors Without Borders and she is also a very active supporter of PETA and animal rights.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

She married Dave Galafassi in January of 2011, and gave birth to daughter, Sage Florence, on the 9^th January, 2008. She is expecting another child soon and announced her pregnancy on the 25^th October, 2010. She is represented by Lindy King at London’s United Agency Pty Ltd and is managed by the Australian renowned business Shanahan Management Pty Ltd.

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EARLY LIFE

Anthony LaPaglia

Anthony LaPaglia is half Italian and half Dutch. He was born to parents Gedio “Eddie” LaPaglia and Maria Johannes on the 31^st January, 1959, who immigrated from Italy and the Netherlands respectively.  He attended Rostrevor College, in Adelaide, South Australia, and is the eldest of three sons. His father was an auto-mechanic and car dealer, an occupation that was pursued by the middle brother. Anthony, meanwhile, ventured into the dramatic arts in his late teens, going to the South Australian Casting Agency in Adelaide. He enrolled in a two and a half year course with a three month “boot-camp” style supplemental course. He lasted a year and a half. In the 1980’s, before becoming an actor, he played as goal keeper in the now defunct National Soccer League for the teams Adelaide City and West Adelaide.

CAREER

Anthony originally moved to America to pursue teaching, but supplemented his income with odd performing jobs. One of his first was an Off-Broadway production of Bouncers, before he landed a role in the feature film, Cold Steel (1987). He did not consider himself a full time actor until 1989, when he earned acclaim for his role as an overly polite gangster in Betsy’s Wedding (1990). He was typecast early as a savvy street-wise Italian New Yorker, and tried to break the mould with performances like a disillusioned Santa in Mixed Nuts (1994), and a down-on-his-luck store manager in Empire Records (1995). When he played protagonist Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller’s, A View From The Bridge, it earned him a Tony Award. At the same time the creators came to him with an offer to play Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, something he had to turn down because of prior commitments on Broadway.  In hindsight, he says, “you can’t imagine that show without James Gandolfini”. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Simon Moon in Frasier, which he followed with a Golden Globe in 2004 for his long-standing lead role in the TV series, Without a Trace (2002-09) playing FBI Agent, Jack Malone. He will next be seen in the movie version of A View From The Bridge with Mia Wasikowska, Vera Farmiga and Sam Neill, a film which he is also producing.

AWARDS

In 2001, he earned an AFI (Australian Film Institute) award for Best Lead Actor in Lantana, and followed that in 2002 with the same award and movie from the Film Critics Circle of Australia. As mentioned before he earned an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Appearance in a Comedy and a Golden Globe in 2004 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Drama. He again earned an AFI for Best Lead Actor for Balibo in 2009, when he played Roger East, a real life journalist that was killed in 1975 along with five others by the Indonesian Army in Balibo, East Timor.

PERSONAL LIFE

His first marriage was to actress Cherie Michan. Currently, he lives in Santa Monica, California, USA, with his second wife, actress Gia Carides. He has one daughter with Gia named Bridget. One of his biggest passions is football. He is a part owner

Anthony LaPaglia and David Beckham

of Sydney FC, which plays in the revived A-League in Australia. He also occasionally joins the amateur outfit, Hollywood United, which has the likes of Vinnie Jones, Frank Leboeuf and Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. He dropped his Australian accent (as Mel Gibson did) to enable him to land roles easier, but it is now something he regrets. He can, however, can still produce the accent when needed as shown in Lantana and Balibo. He is managed by the company,The Firm, and his agent is a part of the International Creative Management business. His youngest brother, Jonathan, followed him into acting.

CHARITY

Anthony played a charity football match in 2007 to benefit the Southern California Wildfire relief fund with David Beckham and raised over $90,000. He is also involved in the Young Storytellers Festival, the Oceana Celebrity charity, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Mia Hamm Foundation.

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EARLY LIFE

Miranda Otto

Miranda Otto, an auburn haired, fair skinned woman was born in Brisbane on the 16^th December, 1967 to actor parents Barry and Gracie Otto. Her parents named her after the character Miranda in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. She was raised between Brisbane and the port city of Newcastle until her parents divorced in 1973. She then divided her time between Newcastle with her mother and Sydney with her father. She excelled in school and even had ambitions to become a ballerina but a moderate case of scoliosis put an end to that dream. It was her father, the acclaimed stage actor Barry, who developed her interest in acting, which did not take much effort considering when she was young her friends all loved to develop scripts and design costumes.

CAREER

She graduated from the acclaimed arts college NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) in 1990, but before that she was picked up by casting director, Faith Martin, to play a role in the 1986 film Emma’s War after seeing her perform at the Nimrod Theatre. Her first post-graduation role came in 1991 when she played the role of a young woman who could communicate with horses in Kathy Mueller’s, The Girl Who Came Late. That role earned her an AFI (Australian Film Institute) nomination for best actress. Strong performances in little known Australian films such as The Well and Doing Time for Patsy Cline earned her praise and recognition for her work but it was not until 1997 when she had a role in the George Clooney and Sean Penn film The Thin Red Line that Hollywood started to take notice. In 1999 she was cast to play the role of Eowyn in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, Lord of the Rings, winning over Uma Thurman and Kate Winslet, although her character was only seen in the last two films, The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Prior to Lord of the Rings she was seen in What Lies Beneath (2000) with Harrison Ford. She impressed writer Charlie Kaufman so much with her audition for Being John Malkovich that he gave her a role in the box office and critically unloved film Human Nature (2001). She has done a number of miniseries and TV shows, most notably the 2004 miniseries Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story and the short-lived TV series Cashmere Mafia in 2007 (cancelled in 2008.)

Miranda Otto as Eowyn

She has also made a name for herself on the stage. Although she was on stage during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s she made a come-back in 2002 when she took the stage with future husband, Peter O’Brien, in A Doll’s House. She earned a Helpmann Award for “Best Female Actor in a Play”. She will next be on stage in the psychological thriller Boy Gets Girl, and will star in the TV series Locke and Key, which was developed by Steven Spielberg.

PERSONAL LIFE

She dated co-star Richard Roxburgh from Doing Time for Patsy Cline in 1997. The difficulties of sustaining a relationship with their careers caused the end of the relationship in 2000. She then fell in love with her co-star from A Doll’s House, Peter O’Brien, whom she married on January 1st,  2003. They have a daughter, Darcey, born on the 1^st of April, 2005 and since then Miranda has limited her work to be with her family in Australia. Her pregnancy caused some challenges on the sets of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) and the stage of Robyn Nevin’s Boy Gets Girl play, when production times and scripts were adjusted to compensate for her condition. She shuns the spotlight and publicity, something she experienced whilst dating Richard Roxburgh, and has said that she would not want to be as famous as Nicole Kidman as she would not know how to handle it. Miranda Otto is a down to earth actress who doesn’t see herself as a leading lady but has all the potential to be one.

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