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Best Actress BAFTA Award winners

  • Reese WitherspoonReese Witherspoon walked into an open casting call in 1991 intending to read for a bit part. She left with the lead in The Man in the Moon, playing Dani Trant, a 14-year-old country girl in Louisiana. Thirty years later, in 2021, Forbes…
  • 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.
  • Nicole KidmanNicole Kidman was born on the 20th of June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani, which means heavenly star. The inspiration for the name was a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo. Since…
  • Kate WinsletKate Winslet pleaded for the part of Rose in James Cameron's Titanic while he still preferred Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow. She told the director that she was Rose, and she could not see why he was seeing anyone else. The plea worked.…
  • 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.…
  • Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson is the only person to win Oscars for both acting and screenwriting.
  • Olivia ColmanOlivia Colman was born Sarah Caroline Colman, and she had to give up that first name before her career properly began. The actors' union Equity already had a Sarah Colman on its books, so the newcomer needed another. She took the name of a…
  • Natalie PortmanNatalie Portman turned down a $2,000,000 prize in 2018. She skipped the Genesis Prize ceremony, and it was canceled.
  • Brie LarsonBrie Larson's 2005 album Finally Out of P.E. sold only 3,500 copies. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
  • Scarlett JohanssonAs a child, Scarlett Johansson practiced Judy Garland's emotions in a mirror until she cried.
  • 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…
  • Judi DenchJudi Dench won an Oscar for a role that lasted about eight minutes. She played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
  • Emma StoneEmma Stone, born Emily Jean Stone, once built a PowerPoint presentation for an audience of her parents. Its title was "Project Hollywood," and its purpose was to persuade them to let a teenager from Arizona pursue acting in California. The…
  • Jessie BuckleyJessie Buckley, an Irish actress and singer born on the 28th of December 1989, became the first Irish winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won it in 2026 for playing Agnes Shakespeare in the period drama Hamnet. The win closed…
  • Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on the 26th of July 1945, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London. Neither the first name nor the surname on that record would last. The woman who…
  • Diane KeatonDiane Keaton was born Diane Hall, but she gave up that surname before her career took off, because another actress was already registered under it. She chose her mother's maiden name instead. The new name would be credited in films across…
  • Jodie FosterJodie Foster was a teenager when she acted as a French interpreter at a press conference during the Cannes Film Festival. The film was Taxi Driver, which won the Palme d'Or that year, and the journalists in the room came away impressed. By…

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