Rebecca Hall

Rebecca Hall
Biography

Birth Name                  Rebecca Maria Hall
Birth date                    May 3, 1982,
Birth place                   London, England, UK
Height                         5' 9" (1.75 m)
Occupation                  Actress
Years active                1992–1993, 2002–present
Father                          Peter Hall
Mother                        Maria Ewi
Awards                        Nominated for 1 BAFTA and 1 Golden Globe


Personal Life
It's hard to escape the shadow of a famous parent, tough to take accusations of privilege and nepotism on top of the usual criticisms aimed at actors. For Rebecca Hall, then, the child of a celebrity couple, it's been doubly difficult. Her father, Sir Peter Hall, was the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and artistic director of the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne, while her mother, Maria Ewing, was an opera star of immense renown. They were a controversial couple, too, often appearing in the tabloids despite their lofty positions in high culture. Any kid might be intimidated by their achievements and steer well clear of a career on stage, yet Rebecca accepted the challenge wholeheartedly and, within just five years of her stage debut, would be feted as an actress in theatre, on TV and on film, even being nominated for a Golden Globe. Of all the up and coming British thespians, she was undoubtedly the brightest prospect.


Robecca  was born in London, the daughter of English director Peter Hall and American-born opera singer Maria Ewing, who divorced when she was five.  Her mother is of Dutch, Scottish, African American, and Sioux ancestry.  She has a half-brother, Edward Hall, who is a theatre director, and four other half-siblings. They include theatre designer Lucy Hall, veteran TV drama producer Christopher Hall, and Jennifer Caron Hall a writer and painter. Hall's brother-in-law, the screenwriter Glenn Wilhide co-produced The Camomile Lawn in which she starred aged 9, from his former production company, Zed Productions.

Hall attended Roedean School, where she became head girl. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University for two years, before dropping out in 2002. During her time there, she appeared in a number of plays and set up a theatre company.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.

Career
Film and television

In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs. Warren's Profession. She has appeared in three high-profile films: The Prestige, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy category), and The Town.

On 6 June 2010, she won the Supporting Actress BAFTA for her portrayal of Paula Garland in the 2009 Channel 4 production Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974.

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. She got her breakthrough with the role of Sarah Borden in Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige. She then appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace in 2007,as well as appearing in several other TV movies including Wide Sargasso Sea and Rubberheart.

Her Hollywood fame grew when she starred in the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, playing one of the title characters, Vicky.  Critics praised her performance  as well as Penélope Cruz's, who won an Academy Award. Hall was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. She also appeared in Frost/Nixon in 2008.

She was cast alongside Ben Barnes in the 2009 film Dorian Gray, which was released nationwide 9 September 2009.

Hall appeared in Please Give with Catherine Keener and Amanda Peet and The Town with Ben Affleck and Blake Lively. She will star in the female lead role in the British ghost film The Awakening.

Rebecca Hall
Mesmerising in the Channel 4 drama, Red Riding, magnetic in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, we can't wait to see her on stage in The Winter's Tale and The Cherry Orchard at the Old Vic in May.

Who, me? Why everyone is talking about Rebecca Hall

Rebecca Hall is used to people always wanting to talk about her dad, but now the Bafta-winning actor is having to get used to another line of questioning: her role in the break-up of a Hollywood golden couple. She talks gossip, girls' schools and growing up

'There's a part of me that doesn't mind the most far-fetched things printed about me, because I'm actually keeping the reality shielded.' Photograph: Jake Chessum for the Guardian

Rebecca Hall is a fine actor who starred in the best Woody Allen film in years, but she's better known now for her role in a recent tabloid splash, after she was cast as the femme fatale, or deadly English rose, who could, possibly, have destroyed the marriage of Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet. After all, she had worked with Mendes, they were friends, and apparently she was his type of girl (brainy, arty, good-looking).

We meet in a Manhattan cafe. She arrives on foot, alone, long, black dress, no make-up, flat sandals, sore ankles from where high heels have been rubbing. I look for Sam Mendes hiding round a corner with his high-art posse. Nothing doing. Does she live round here? No, she says apologetically, she's not been here before. So where is home these days? "That's a good question."

There is a quietness to Hall, and to her acting. Perhaps the most obvious example is Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Whereas Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson burned up the screen, Hall made her impact with a sober intensity. It may be the stage of her career, but often you remember her characters by their relationship to others. So in Starter For 10 she's the bright girl who eventually gets James McAvoy's studious geek, in Frost/Nixon she's Michael Sheen's jet-set girlfriend, and in Einstein And Eddington she's David Tennant's devoted sister. Even when Hall does shocking, she does it with subtlety, notably in Red Riding, in which she plays the traumatised mother of a missing girl seeking solace in casual sex; last weekend, that performance won her a TV Bafta.

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