Meg Tilly was set on being a dancer, and at 17 connected to the
Connecticut Ballet Company and later Throne Dance Theatre. It was in
this capacity that she had her screen debut in
Alan Parker's
Fame - Der Weg zum Ruhm (1980). Unfortunately, an injury to her
back cut short her plans for a dance career, and a small appearance in
the TV series
Polizeirevier Hill Street (1981)
turned her towards acting (her dancing skills were not all forgotten,
as was evident in
Der große Frust (1983) and
Psycho II (1983)). She received an
Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for
Agnes - Engel im Feuer (1985), and nobody
doubted that she was on her way to stardom. One step on the road to
that status was her being cast in
Milos Forman's
Amadeus (1984) as Constanza, but again
her body interfered, and seven weeks into the production with her foot
in a cast were more than the producers could accept, and she was
replaced. Her "consolation", was a role in Forman's next project
Valmont (1989), didn't do her career much
good. Since then she has averaged a movie a year, and with the
exception of
Auf und Davon (1992), none have
tapped the enormous reservoir of talent she has.
