Juliette Lewis
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| Juliette Lewis was born on June 21, 1973 in Los Angeles as daughter of actor Geoffrey Lewis - appeared in many of Clint Eastwood's films- and graphic designer Glenis Batley. She has 11 siblings and half-siblings. Even at the age of seven Juliette recognized she wanted to become an actress. She began her professional acting career at age of 12. As a precocious teen she became legally emancipated at the age of 14 in order to gain exemption from child-labor laws, which mandate that child actors work no more than five hours a day on school days and that they be supervised by a guardian. Lewis dropped out of high school at 15 and subsequently passed the equivalency exam with the help of a tutor. While adequate in elementary school, she began failing her courses in the seventh grade because she did not like the 'whole format'. "If you're forced to study, you're not going to learn." Though she's always lived responsibly she admitted to some wild years, she was even arrested of being underage - 15 - in an underground disco. The mugshot she got from the policeman now hangs posterized in her house. After leaving school, Lewis moved to Hollywood where she lived with friend Karen Black for a few months before moving into an apartment with one of her friends. She had several roles, in 1987 she appeared in 'Home Fires' as Mary and as Kate Ferrel the 13-year old daughter of widower/architect who marries his Central American housekeeper, an illegal alien, in the poorly received ABC sitcom 'I Married Dora'. She played in 'Christmas Vacation', however the first chance to demonstrate her talent was 'Too Young to Die?', based on the true story of Amanda Sue Bradley, a sexually abused runaway teen who was the first minor to receive death penalty. That role not only helped her land her co-star Brad Pitt (they broke up in 1993, after a nearly four year relationship), it also led to the role as the narcoleptic sister in the quirky film "Crooked Hearts". But more importantly, it grabbed the attention of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro, so she got the role of Danielle Bowden in 'Cape Fear'. For her fascinating play at the age of 17 she was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe. Among the films followed 'Cape Fear' were Woddy Allen's 'Husbands and Wives', 'Romeo Is Bleeding', 'Kalifornia' and 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' co-starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. After playing Gracie in Nora Ephron's comedy 'Mixed Nuts' she made another hit success as Mallory Knox in 'Natural Born Killers' in 1994. in 1996 she played Kate Fuller in 'From Dusk Till Dawn' co-starring Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney. Juliette's hobbies are collecting antique clothing and walking around with a tape recorder documenting everyday moments in an effort to capture reality for future use in her film career. She is a member of the Church of Scientology and listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1991" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 43. Fox N. Barnley. |