Curated playlist

American stage actresses

Britney SpearsBritney Spears sold the rights to her entire music catalogue for a reported $200 million. The buyer was the music publisher Primary Wave, and the BBC reported that the purchase closed on the 30th of December 2025. The price reflects a body…
Annette BeningAnnette Bening has stood at the edge of the three biggest prizes in American acting and has yet to take home a single one. She has been nominated five times for an Academy Award, twice for a Tony Award, and once for a Primetime Emmy. Very…
Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway is an American actress whose films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide. In 2015 she ranked among the highest-paid actresses in the world. Yet that same year she said, "I always assume that every film is my last, and I…
Katharine HepburnKatharine Hepburn bought out her own studio contract after theater owners called her box office poison.
Meryl StreepDino De Laurentiis insulted Meryl Streep in Italian, not knowing she spoke it. She answered him in Italian too.
Julia RobertsJulia Roberts was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 28th of October 1967. Her hospital bill was paid by Coretta King, whose children attended an acting school run by Julia's parents. The Roberts family was struggling with money at the time.…
Demi MooreIn 2025, Demi Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The honors landed on a career that reaches back to the early 1980s and has…
Elizabeth TaylorAfter Rock Hudson said he was dying of AIDS, Elizabeth Taylor helped found a research foundation in 1985.
Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow won the lead in Emma with a perfect Texas accent. The director said it sold him.
Judy GarlandMGM fired Judy Garland in 1950, and Bing Crosby invited her onto his radio show. The audience gave her an ovation.
Amy AdamsAmy Adams finished work on a Steven Spielberg film in 2002 and then went a full year without a job. Careers that stall that early rarely end up looking like hers. Adams was born on the 20th of August 1974. She has since won two Golden…
Bette DavisBette Davis's tombstone reads, "She did it the hard way." A director suggested the epitaph after All About Eve.
Ginger RogersGinger Rogers and Fred Astaire were only supporting players in Flying Down to Rio, a film meant for other stars.
Natalie PortmanNatalie Portman turned down a $2,000,000 prize in 2018. She skipped the Genesis Prize ceremony, and it was canceled.
Maggie GyllenhaalMaggie Gyllenhaal did not learn her own legal first name until 2013. The name on her birth certificate is Margalit, a Hebrew word that means pearl. She found this out when she took on her husband's surname, which turned the full name into…
Eva MendesEva Mendes, born Eva de la Caridad Méndez, played a cabaret performer named Cat in her final film, Lost River, in 2014. The film was the directorial debut of Ryan Gosling, and it competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film…
Marisa TomeiMarisa Tomei's first film role was a waitress with exactly one line. She later earned three Oscar nominations.
Kristen BellKristen Bell's first audition came in 1992, for a suburban Detroit production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. She won two parts at once: a banana and a tree. Nobody could have guessed from that start where she would end up. Bell became an…
Michelle PfeifferMichelle Pfeiffer was born on the 29th of April 1958 in Santa Ana, California, and by the early 1990s she ranked among the best-paid actresses in the world. Her start was far less certain. After her first leading role, in the 1982 musical…
Sadie SinkSadie Sink was 14 years old when casting directors for Stranger Things decided she was too old for the part she wanted. She refused to let it end there. She begged and pleaded for more material to perform, and that stubbornness set the…
Claire DanesClaire Catherine Danes, born on the 12th of April 1979, is an American actress who holds three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world twice, in 2012…
Scarlett JohanssonAs a child, Scarlett Johansson practiced Judy Garland's emotions in a mirror until she cried.
Zoe SaldañaZoe Saldaña is the highest grossing actor in history, a title that sits oddly beside a childhood spent speaking Spanish at home in Queens. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her road to…
Alanis MorissetteAlanis Morissette recorded a demo cassette in August 1989 and sent it to Geffen Records. The tape has never been heard. It was stolen, along with other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989. Whatever it held is…
Jane FondaJane Fonda sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during a 1972 visit to Hanoi, and a photograph of that moment outraged a large number of Americans. It earned her a nickname that has followed her for decades: Hanoi Jane. For many…
Amy MadiganAmy Madigan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on the 15th of March 2026. The role was Aunt Gladys, a villain in the horror mystery Weapons. Her previous Oscar nomination had come 40 years earlier, and no other actress has…
Jennifer GarnerIn August 2018, Jennifer Garner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Variety praised her "radiant likability" and said she was second only to Tom Hanks. Garner is an American actress, and that honor capped a career with an…
Alicia SilverstoneAlicia Silverstone, the American actress, was legally emancipated at the age of 15 so that she could make her first film. The shooting schedule for The Crush required a certain number of working hours, and emancipation was the way she met…
Michelle Williams (actress)Michelle Williams, the American actress, was paid $1,000 for reshooting an entire film role. In late 2017, a month before All the Money in the World reached cinemas, Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct. He had been playing the…
Goldie HawnGoldie Hawn was born on the 21st of November 1945, and her first major film role won her an Academy Award. That is a startling debut for a performer who, only a short time earlier, had been known for giggling her way through a television…
Carrie FisherCarrie Fisher once asked to be reported as drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
Glenn CloseGlenn Close has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and has never won one. No other actress has been nominated so many times without a win. Her shelf is hardly empty, though. She has three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards and…
Jessica ChastainJessica Chastain missed so many days of her final year at El Camino Fundamental High School in Sacramento that she did not qualify for graduation. Many of those days went to reading Shakespeare. She later earned an adult diploma. In 2022,…
Minka KellyMinka Kelly dedicated her memoir to her own mother and to working-class single mothers "who were dealt a bad hand." That dedication hints at the life behind the polished television career. Kelly is an American actress, born on the 24th of…
Amanda PeetAmanda Peet's first screen performance was a television commercial for Skittles. From that small start she built a long list of films and series, and eventually moved into writing and producing her own work. She also graduated from…
Jayne MansfieldOn the 26th of May 1957, Jayne Mansfield played the violin on The Ed Sullivan Show, backed by a six-person band. Afterward she exclaimed, "Now I am really national. Momma and Dallas see the Ed Sullivan show!" According to Nielsen, the…
Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver once said she felt like "a giant spider" as a girl. By the age of 11, she reportedly stood 180 cm tall. She also recalled never having "the confidence to ever think she could act". Weaver, born on the 8th of October 1949,…
Leighton MeesterLeighton Meester, the American actress and singer, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on the 9th of April 1986. Her mother gave birth in a hospital while serving a federal prison sentence. Afterward, the baby stayed with her for three months…
Julia Louis-DreyfusElaine Benes on Seinfeld was not part of the original show. NBC executives found the pilot too male-centric.
Lupita Nyong'oAfter her Oscar, Lupita Nyong'o says she was offered another slave role, this time on a slave ship.
Sally FieldSally Field is an American actress whose 1984 Academy Award speech has never stopped being quoted. At the podium she said, "And I can't deny the fact that you like me...right now...you like me!" People often remember it as "You like me,…
Gillian AndersonGillian Anderson was arrested on her graduation night. She had broken into her own high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hoping to glue the locks of its doors shut. Her classmates had voted her "class clown," "most bizarre girl" and "most…
Kate MaraKate Mara, the American actress, once told Esquire magazine that she was painfully shy as a child and had only one friend. She was born on the 27th of February 1983 in Bedford, New York. That quiet girl grew up to share screens with some…
Katie HolmesKatie Holmes, an American actress and filmmaker whose full name is Kate Noelle Holmes, once summed up her own film career in a single word. In 2005 she called it a string of "bombs." Her explanation was blunt. "Usually I'm not even in the…
Deborah Ann WollActor Deborah Ann Woll was long reluctant to do anything public with Dungeons and Dragons.
Olivia WildeOlivia Wilde was 19 years old in 2003 when she married in secret on a school bus, with only a pair of witnesses present. The ceremony took place in Washington, Virginia. She said later that the bus was the one place where the couple could…
Diana RossDiana Ross got her name from a birth certificate mistake. Her mother had planned to name her Diane.
Anne HecheAnne Heche was on location in Nebraska in 1991, filming a television movie, when her agent phoned with news that she had won a Daytime Emmy Award. Her reply was a question. "Does this mean I'm an actress?" she asked. It is a strange thing…
Linda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt sings harmony on Under African Skies, a track on Paul Simon's album Graceland, and its second verse contains a line written for her. The line reads, "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona...." Simon's tribute suits a…