Juliette Lewis

Juliette Lewis
Lewis in 2010
Born	Juliette Lake Lewis (1973-06-21) June 21, 1973 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations	Actress singer
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Steve Berra ​ ​ (m. 1999; div. 2003)​
Father	Geoffrey Lewis
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Genres	Alternative rock
Instrument	Vocals
Labels	Fiddler Hassle The Militia Group The End
Member of	Juliette and the Licks

Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in projects with dark themes. Lewis became an "it girl" of American cinema in the early 1990s, appearing in various independent and arthouse films. Her accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and two Primetime Emmys.

The daughter of actor Geoffrey Lewis, Lewis began her career in television at age 14 before making her film debut with a small part in My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988). This was followed by a more prominent role in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). She came to prominence with her portrayal of a troubled teenager in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Subsequent credits included Husbands and Wives (1992), Kalifornia, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (both 1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

Lewis earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress for the television film Hysterical Blindness (2002). She went on to co-star in mainstream features such as Enough (2002), Cold Creek Manor, Old School (both 2003), and Starsky & Hutch (2004). Lewis embarked on a musical career in 2003, forming the rock band Juliette and the Licks. Since 2009, she has been releasing material as a solo artist. Her film credits during the 2010s included Conviction (2010), The Switch (2010), August: Osage County (2013), and Ma (2019). Lewis has worked more frequently in television since the mid 2010s, appearing in prominent roles on series such as Wayward Pines (2015), Secrets and Lies (2015–2016), Queer as Folk, Welcome to Chippendales (both 2022), and Yellowjackets (2021–2023).

Early life

Juliette Lake Lewis was born June 21, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, to actor Geoffrey Lewis and his first wife, Glenis (née Duggan) Batley, a graphic designer. She has seven siblings or half-siblings, including Lightfield, Peter, Miles, Matthew, Brandy, Hannah, and Dierdre. She has a step-sister, Emily Colombier.

Lewis' parents divorced when she was two years old, and she spent her childhood living between both their homes in the Los Angeles area.

Career

1987–1999: Early career and success

Following an uncredited role in Bronco Billy (1980), Lewis made her first major screen appearance in the television film Home Fires (1987). Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times praised Lewis' performance, writing that she "lights up the screen". She subsequently starred on the television series I Married Dora, which ran between 1987 and 1988. At age 14, she was legally emancipated from her parents—with their approval—enabling her to work more freely. She later recalled, "I know that sounds all radical, but when you start acting when you're younger, you talk to other actor kids and their moms, and they're like, 'Yeah, if you want to get a job, they like [your] resume to say emancipated minor versus minor, because you then can work [longer hours]'". For a brief period, Lewis lived with actress Karen Black, who was a mentor to her. At age 15, she dropped out of high school.

Lewis had a minor part in the science fiction comedy My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), before landing her first major supporting role as Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). She followed this with roles in the dystopian black comedy Meet the Hollowheads and the comedy The Runnin' Kind (both 1989). That same year, she had a guest-starring role as Delores on the coming-of-age drama series The Wonder Years.

In 1990, Lewis co-starred with Brad Pitt, who she would go on to date for four years, in the Lifetime television film Too Young to Die?, a crime drama based loosely on the case of Attina Marie Cannaday. Lewis played Amanda, a troubled teenager who falls into a world of prostitution and drugs. In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Ray Loynd felt that the film worked due to its "compelling script [and Lewis'] authentic portrayal of the young and abused murderess whose first question to her public defender [is] whether he has any sugar-coated candies". During this period, Lewis herself was met with legal trouble after entering a bar at age 16, for which she was arrested and charged with underage drinking.

Lewis garnered international attention and critical acclaim for her portrayal of Danielle Bowden, the daughter of a family targeted by psychopathic criminal Max Cady, in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear (1991). Vincent Canby of The New York Times lauded her performance, calling her "a new young actress of stunning possibilities". She went on to receive Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for the role. Retrospectively, the sequence in which her character is seduced by Cady was named one of the most unforgettable scenes in film history by Entertainment Weekly and Complex.

In 1992, Lewis had a supporting role as a college student in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, followed by That Night, a coming-of-age drama set in the 1960s. She appeared in several films in 1993, including Peter Medak's neo-noir thriller Romeo Is Bleeding, where she played the mistress of a corrupt cop. She then reunited with Brad Pitt in Kalifornia, where she co-starred as the girlfriend of a serial killer. Critic Roger Ebert deemed Lewis' portrayal of the childlike Adele one of "the most harrowing and convincing performances I've ever seen". At the time of filming Kalifornia, Lewis and Pitt had been in a relationship since 1990, though they separated the year of its release. She subsequently appeared in the Lasse Hallström-directed drama What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), earning strong notices for her portrayal of Becky, a free-spirited drifter who befriends a young man and his mentally disabled brother in a small town. She starred as a psychiatric patient in the music video for Melissa Etheridge's "Come to My Window" that same year.

Lewis received the Pasinetti Award for Best Actress at the 1994 Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of Mallory Knox, a murderous woman who embarks on a killing spree with her psychotic lover, in Oliver Stone's controversial crime film Natural Born Killers. Though criticized for its graphic violence and inspiring of copycat crimes, with Lewis later admitting that playing a woman who displays such "volatility and repulsive behavior" had had a detrimental effect on her career, her performance in Killers was deemed "sensational" by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers:

Mickey and Mallory are a Bonnie and Clyde for the '90s, Stone's '90s; they're damaged goods — haunted, horny and out for blood. Harrelson and Lewis ... play the dysfunctional hell out of them ... Women don't [usually] dominate Stone films [but] Lewis towers over Killers, finding the wildcat and the bruised child in Mallory.

Also in 1994, Lewis had a supporting role in Nora Ephron's Christmas-themed black comedy Mixed Nuts. She then starred as rock singer Faith Justin in Kathryn Bigelow's science fiction film Strange Days (1995), doing her own singing on covers of two songs written by PJ Harvey. Though a box-office failure, Strange Days went on to develop a cult following in later years. Next, Lewis played a supporting role in crime drama The Basketball Diaries (1995). She entered drug rehabilitation this same year—at age 22—having been addicted to cocaine and prescription medication for several years, and completed the Narconon program within the Church of Scientology.

The following year, Lewis had a leading role in The Evening Star (1996), a sequel to Terms of Endearment (1983). She then appeared in Robert Rodriguez's action horror film From Dusk till Dawn (1996), which was written by Quentin Tarantino. Lewis portrayed a young woman who is kidnapped by bank robbers and taken to a bar inhabited by vampires. She next appeared in the romantic comedy Some Girl (1998), followed by The Other Sister (1999), in which she portrayed a mentally challenged young woman attempting to find independence. The film received largely unfavorable reviews, though Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised it as "beautifully acted ... Carla is played by Ms. Lewis with enormous heart and sensitivity, and with body language so precise that you soon forget it is a performance".

2000–2010: Film, television, and music

Lewis received praise for her performance in The Way of the Gun (2000), the directorial debut of Christopher McQuarrie. Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Baumgarten felt her portrayal of pregnant kidnap victim Robin was imbued "with rich veins of honesty and truth". That same year, she provided vocals for the track "Bad Brother" by Infidels, which featured on the soundtrack to The Crow: Salvation. She then headlined the neo-noir crime film Picture Claire (2001), followed by a supporting role in the independent lesbian-themed comedy Gaudi Afternoon (2001). The latter received unfavorable reviews, with A. O. Scott of The New York Times writing that Lewis and co-star Lili Taylor "overact like second-string sketch performers on Saturday Night Live". Next, she played the concerned best friend of a woman trapped in a violent relationship in Enough (2002), a big-budget thriller directed by Michael Apted.

Lewis received Emmy and Independent Spirit Award nominations for her performance in the 2002 television film Hysterical Blindness, where she co-starred as the friend of a woman in 1980s New Jersey who receives an unfortunate diagnosis. She then played the girlfriend of an unstable villain terrorizing a family in the poorly received Cold Creek Manor (2003). Next, she appeared in the music video for HIM's "Buried Alive By Love" and played the supporting role of Heidi in the Todd Phillips-directed comedy Old School (also 2003).

Lewis performing with Juliette and the Licks in London, 2005

Beginning in 2003, Lewis embarked on a musical career, forming the rock band Juliette and the Licks with former Hole drummer Patty Schemel. The band released their debut EP, ...Like a Bolt of Lightning, in late 2004 through Fiddler Records. She appeared as a guest vocalist on three tracks by electronic music group The Prodigy's album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (also released in 2004). The same year, Lewis appeared in the big-budget action comedy Starsky & Hutch, playing the role of Kitty, and had a supporting part in Jan Kounen's futuristic Western Blueberry. She subsequently appeared in comedy Daltry Calhoun (2005), playing the girlfriend of a Tennessee entrepreneur, and in the drama Aurora Borealis (also 2005), playing the live-in assistant of an elderly couple. In May 2005, Juliette and the Licks released their debut studio album, You're Speaking My Language. The band toured internationally in support of the album, and received a favorable concert review from The Guardian's David Peschek, who wrote that Lewis is "exactly the kind of iconic presence that boringly boy-saturated rock needs. The Licks–they are very definitely a band, not just the star and some flunkies–are fantastic".

Lewis had supporting parts in two comedies released in 2006: The Darwin Awards and Catch and Release. The same year, Juliette and the Licks recorded their second studio album, Four on the Floor, which featured drumming by Dave Grohl, and was released in 2007. Lewis appeared in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV the following year, providing the voice of "Juliette", the host of fictional radio station Radio Broker. Next, she played a key role in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, the 2009 comedy-drama Whip It!, and provided voice work for the animated science fiction film Metropia (also 2009), directed by Tarik Saleh. She released her first solo studio album that same year, titled Terra Incognita, through The End Records.

Lewis with Alexander Skarsgard at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival

In 2010, Lewis starred in a number of films, first appearing in Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut Sympathy for Delicious, followed by romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she appeared as the friend of a woman trying to conceive a child through artificial insemination. She also portrayed a murder witness in the biographical crime drama Conviction. Though only featured in a small portion of the film, The Wall Street Journal deemed Lewis a "scene-stealer", and she subsequently won the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role of Heidi—from 2003's Old School—that same year in the black comedy Due Date.

2011–present: Television and film roles

Lewis' first film of 2011 was the independent drama Hick, in which she starred as the alcoholic mother of a young girl in 1980s Nebraska. She subsequently had a minor role in the Canadian drama Foreverland, followed by the 2012 thriller Open Road and the short-lived NBC legal drama series The Firm, on which she co-starred as secretary Tammy Hemphill. Next, Lewis had a central role in August: Osage County (2013), playing one of several sisters who reunite with their dysfunctional mother in the wake of their father's suicide. An adaptation of Tracy Letts' play of the same name, the tragicomedy was a box-office success, grossing over $74 million in the United States.

Lewis at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival

Lewis was involved in musical projects in 2013, contributing backing vocals to the track "Saint of Impossible Causes" on Joseph Arthur's tenth studio album, The Ballad of Boogie Christ. She also appeared in the music video for "City of Angels" by Thirty Seconds to Mars. Her next film roles were the 2014 independent features Hellion, for which she received positive notices, and Kelly & Cal, in which she starred as a punk rocker-turned-suburban housewife. Her portrayal of Kelly in the latter was particularly well received, with The New York Times commenting that it "crackle[s] with authenticity", adding:

The distance between riot grrrl and suburban mom is quite a stretch. But as middle age approaches, time has a way of landing mouthy young rebels in roles they never expected to inhabit. Take Juliette Lewis, the personification of scary defiance [in] Natural Born Killers ... In Kelly & Cal, [she] conveys the excruciating discomfort of a slightly crumpled former upstart struggling to adapt to a staid, middle-class existence. That means reining in the anarchic impulses of her youth and tolerating polite, buttoned-up in-laws.

Lewis' next lead role was in Jem and the Holograms (2015), a film adaptation of the 1980s animated series Jem, where she played a music producer. The film was a box-office bomb, receiving a largely negative response from critics. She followed this with a starring role as a small-town detective on the ABC crime series Secrets and Lies, which ran for two seasons. The show received a mixed reception, with Neil Genzlinger commenting in his review for The New York Times, "Ms. Lewis's dour detective character, Andrea Cornell, is a cliché stretched beyond the point of believability". Next, she had a recurring guest role on the first season of the science fiction mystery series Wayward Pines (2015), contributed vocals to the song "Stickup" by Karma Fields and Morten, and played the mother of a high schooler in techno-thriller Nerve (2016).

In November 2016, Lewis returned to music with her first solo EP, Future Deep, which she released independently, marking her first musical project in seven years. She subsequently guest-starred on season two of the comedy series Graves (2017) and appeared as a reiki healer on the HBO comedy series Camping (2018), adapted from the British series of the same name. Judy Berman of Time magazine gave the series an unfavorable review, writing that Lewis is "underutilized, as usual".

Also in 2018, Lewis co-starred in the independent drama Back Roads (2018), about a young man trapped by circumstance in rural Pennsylvania after his mother—Lewis—murders his father. Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck said that it offered "many powerful moments" and featured an "excellent" performance by Lewis. Next, she played a supporting role in Sam Taylor-Johnson's A Million Little Pieces, adapted from the book of the same name by James Frey. In late 2018, Lewis was cast in the premiere season of The Conners, a spin-off of Roseanne, playing the role of Blue. She subsequently appeared in Tate Taylor's psychological horror film Ma (2019), playing the mother of one of several teenagers who grow close to a disturbed woman in their neighborhood. Ma was a box-office success, grossing over $60 million worldwide. Next, Lewis reunited with Taylor for his film Breaking News in Yuba County (also 2019), where she co-starred as Gloria Michaels, and appeared in a guest role on Hulu's biographical crime series The Act, chronicling the life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother.

Lewis starred on the Showtime mystery thriller series Yellowjackets between November 2021 and May 2023, portraying Natalie Scatorccio, a plane crash survivor haunted by painful secrets. The show was received enthusiastically by critics, with The Guardian's Leila Latif calling Lewis "sublime", noting that "[she] stunningly performs the nuances of tentative empathy and glimmers of optimism within a deep chasm of grief". During that time, she co-starred in the biographical Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales (2022), which Richard Roeper called "colorful and shiny but increasingly dark and twisted" in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that Lewis' portrayal of forthright costume designer Denise Coughlan was "outstanding".

Personal life

Lewis was born into Scientology and started practising it in the 1990s. She credited Scientology's Narconon programme for helping her rehabilitate after a years-long drug addiction in her early adult years. When asked in 2010 by Vanity Fair if she was a Scientologist, Lewis responded, "I am, yeah" and went on to explain, "I'm a Christian! I think there's so much confusion because people don't understand a religion where you can be another religion but you can still practise Scientology." In an interview with Time in 2015, Lewis remarked about protecting her freedom of choice and religion, and being annoyed at people's misconceptions about Scientology: "Whatever people's conceptions are of me, I think it's cute. I roll with it". By 2021, she began to distance herself from Scientology, telling The New York Times and The Washington Post that she is a spiritualist and does not identify as a Scientologist.

Lewis married professional skateboarder Steve Berra in September 1999. She filed for divorce in April 2003 after approximately three years of marriage. Lewis described the divorce as "amicable", later commenting, "Steve would be the first to admit he was a workaholic. You have to be ready to have a partnership. And sometimes you're like, 'Whoa, this is too much. I only actually have enough steam to focus on my own thing'".

Lewis has supported Little Kids Rock, an American nonprofit organization that works to restore and revitalize music education in disadvantaged U.S. public schools, by painting a Fender Stratocaster guitar and donating it to an auction to raise money for the organization.

Filmography

Main article: List of Juliette Lewis performances

Discography

Juliette and the Licks

Albums

• You're Speaking My Language (2005)
• Four on the Floor (2006)

EP

• …Like a Bolt of Lightning (2004)

Juliette Lewis

Album

• Terra Incognita (2009)

EP

• Future Deep (2017)

Other appearances

• "Hardly Wait" (1995) PJ Harvey cover from Strange Days
• "Come Rain or Come Shine" (1999) from The Other Sister
• "Danny Boy Song" (2004) from Blueberry
• "Hotride", "Spitfire", and "Get Up Get Off" from the 2004 Prodigy album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
• "You'll Be Sorry" from the Boots Electric album Honkey Kong

Accolades

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Lewis

External links

• Official website
• Juliette Lewis at IMDb
• Juliette Lewis at AllMovie
• Juliette Lewis discography at MusicBrainz