Rebecca Hall

Rebecca Hall (born 19 May 1982) is an English actress. In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs Warren's Profession.^[1] In 2006 she made her cinematic debut, appearing in two high-profile films, Starter for 10 and The Prestige. In December 2008 she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, for her role of Vicky in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Early life

The daughter of director Peter Hall and opera singer Maria Ewing (they divorced when she was five), her sister is Emma Hall, her half-brother Edward Hall is a theatre director.

Hall attended Roedean School where she became head girl.^[2] She later read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, for two years before dropping out in 2002, prior to her final year. During her time there, she appeared in "nearly a dozen" plays and set up a theatre company.^[3] She also appeared in student stage productions alongside Dan Stevens, later her As You Like It co-star.

Between 2003 and 2004, she was in a relationship with her As You Like It co-star Freddie Stevenson.^[4]

Career

Film and television

Hall's first role came in 1992 when she appeared as Young Sophy in her father's television adaptation of Mary Wesley's The Camomile Lawn.

Hall’s feature film debut came in 2006 as Rebecca Epstein in the film adaptation of David Nicholls's Starter for Ten. This was followed by her role as Sarah Borden in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. Her most recent appearance on the small screen was in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace.^[5]

She appears in the TV drama Einstein and Eddington and the films Frost/Nixon and Dorian Gray as well as Nicole Holofcener's as yet untitled project.

Stage

Her professional stage debut came in 2002 when she starred as Vivie in her father's production of Mrs Warren's Profession at the Strand Theatre in London. Her performance received such reviews as "admirable"^[6] and "accomplished"^[7] and was enough to earn her the Ian Charleson Award in 2003.

In 2003 her father celebrated fifty years as a theatre director by staging a season of five plays at the Theatre Royal, Bath. Hall starred in two of these five plays performed by the Peter Hall Company. She appeared as Rosalind in her father's production of As You Like It, which gained her a second Charleson nomination and starred in the title role of Thea Sharrock's revival of D. H. Lawrence's The Fight For Barbara.

In 2004 she appeared in three plays for the Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal, Bath, two of them under the direction of her father, namely Man and Superman in which she played Ann, and Galileo's Daughter in which she played Sister Maria Celeste and the third, Molière's Don Juan, in which she played the part of Elvira, was directed by Sharrock.

In 2005 she reprised her role of Rosalind in a touring production of As You Like It, again under the direction of her father. This tour took in the following venues: The Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames; The Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York; The Curran Theatre at San Francisco; The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and venues in New Haven, Connecticut, Columbus, Ohio, and the historic Wilbur Theater in Boston.

In 2008-9 she appeared in the first Bridge Project as Hermione in The Winter's Tale and Varya in The Cherry Orchard^[8] which gave performances with the same cast in the US, UK, Singapore, New Zealand, Spain, Germany and Greece^[9]

Filmography

References

External links

• Rebecca Hall at the Internet Movie Database
• "For Rebecca Hall, it's all in the family business", The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 20, 2005.