For fourteen years, she said that family was the most important
thing to her and she set most of her time aside to be a "present"
mother to her son. Movies, plays and television were chosen, for the
most part, when they occurred in town or on a school break. She took
one year to homeschool her son for his seventh grade. But it
wasn't always this way. She was raised in New York City and wanted to
be an actress from the time she was a child, graduating with acting
honors from the High School of Performing Arts. She chose to opt out of
studying acting in college and attended a small college in Europe,
majoring in art history and literature, knowing that acting would take
up a great deal of her life and that her college years would be her
only real time to learn about something else. Upon graduation, she
returned to New York City but a chance trip to Chicago inspired her to
move there and become a part of its budding theatre community. It was
in a production of "Curse of The Starving Class", directed by
Robert Falls and co-starring
John Malkovich, that she was first seen
by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and, subsequently, asked to join
their troupe. She did and learned what it really was to be an actress
on her feet, performing in all kinds of roles in both comedy and drama.
During this time, she won four
Joseph Jefferson awards for
best supporting actress.
With a return move to New York, she received a Theatre World Award for
"best newcomer" for her role in "the Philanthropist" at the Manhattan
Theatre Club and appeared in "Extremities" with
Susan Sarandon. This was followed by her
appearance in the very successful Steppenwolf production in New York of
"Balm in Gilead". She then starred on Broadway opposite
Kevin Kline and
Raul Julia in "Arms & the Man", directed by
John Malkovich, her husband at the time.
She was cast in several smaller films including
Nadine - Eine kugelsichere Liebe (1987),
Making Mr. Right - Ein Mann à la Carte (1987) and
Paperhouse - Alpträume werden wahr (1988) as well as
Der Ruf des Adlers (1989) for
television for which she received her first of two Emmy nominations for
best supporting actress. But her breakout film performance was in
Zwei hinreißend verdorbene Schurken (1988),
in which she played the cunning "victim", who gets the best of con
artists Michael Caine and
Steve Martin. This led to her being
cast in the blockbuster comic strip parody,
Dick Tracy (1990), in which she
portrayed the girlfriend, "Tess Trueheart", to
Warren Beatty's lead.
She went on to appear in the films
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
opposite Richard Dreyfuss,
Tödliche Gedanken (1991) opposite
Demi Moore,
2 Tage in L.A. (1996),
Schlimmer geht's immer! (2001),
Breakfast of Champions - Frühstück für Helden (1999),
Spurensuche - Umwege zur Wahrheit (2004) and
Bekenntnisse einer Highschool-Diva (2004).
On television, she had a recurring part on
Emergency Room: Die Notaufnahme (1994) and
Monk (2002) and was in the short-lived
sit-com
Applaus! Applaus! (1998) with
Nathan Lane and
Joan Plowright. She was in the live
theatrical presentation of "On Golden Pond" as the troubled daughter of
Christopher Plummer and
Julie Andrews and also appeared in
the telefilms
Frauen gegen Männer (2002),
My Own Country (1998)
and Pronto (1997), among others.
She received her second Emmy nomination for best supporting actress for
Schutzlos - schatten über Carolina (1996),
directed by Anjelica Huston.
Some of her later appearances were in the films
Dirty Movie (2005) (aka "The
Amateurs"), Namesake - Zwei Welten, eine Reise (2006),
Comeback Season (2006),
Kit Kittredge - Ein amerikanisches Mädchen (2008)
and Familie Jones - Zu perfekt, um wahr zu sein (2009).
