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Full Name: Miranda Otto
Birthdate: 16 December 1967
Place of Birth: Brisbane, Australia
Height: 5' 9"
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Blue/Green
Spouse: Peter O'Brien
Awards : she has been nominated four-times for best actress by the Australian Film Institute. Won an Australian 'Mo' Award for her role in A Doll's House in the Female Actor in a Play of the Year category, in 2003.
Miranda Otto was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on December 16, 1967. She is the daughter of famed Australian actor, Barry Otto. She graduated from the prestigious NIDA Theatrical School in 1990 and has been nominated four-times in the Australian Film Institute's for best actress. Otto made her film debut in Emma's War in 1986 and gained critical recognition in 1991's The Girl Who Came Late. She has been in many critically acclaimed but little-seen films. Otto finally got Hollywood's attention with small roles in major motion pictures such as The Thin Red Line (1998) and Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath (2000). After Cameron Diaz decided to star in being John Malkovich, Otto lost the role in a film she really wanted to do. The director, however, remembered her and cast her in the movie Human Nature (much to Otto's delight). Otto landed the role of Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and is Tolkien's only really detailed female character in the books. She spent six-months on set learning sword fighting and horseback riding. Otto was married to Peter O'Brien in early 2003. The Lord of the Rings movies have gained her world-wide attention, something she's not entirely sure she wants.
Miranda's Quotes:
On Eowyn:
"I auditioned for this in Australia, after all, not ever meeting the director or writers, being handed some scripts back to front because they had the wrong numbered covers on them, not having been able to get through the whole book in the couple of days I had to audition for it and thinking because it was in New Zealand and a Peter Jackson film, it would be something small and low-key."
Miranda sees Eowyn "as a fighter and someone who is idealistic, who wants to live her life, not compromise and stand up for the things that she believes in as well as look after her people. Her main frustrations are that she may be led into compromising inactivity. As far as her romantic streak goes, she's been someone who's been brought up with men her whole life, so romance has never been a significant part of her life, until Aragorn and it's a little frightening as much as anything. I don't think she's a romantic, Sleeping Beauty-type character, but rather someone determined to be who she is and stick up for that."
'Eowyn is the only real human heroine in The Lord Of The Rings.' says Miranda. 'Although there are very few woman in the books, Tolkien did make them strong characters.'
Other
"I often think the scenes I'm most frightened of doing end up being the best things I've done -- it opens up a whole new area. I think fear really concentrates my energy. If I'm scared of doing a scene, I don't think of anything else. I don't think 'Oh, I should be doing this at home,' or 'Oh, I forgot to take the laundry in.'"
“When I was growing up, I always looked younger than I was. At 17, I was playing a 12-year-old. And I was never one of those girls who grew up early. I was into ballet, so I never really cut my hair until I was 25. I never coloured my hair, I never pierced my ears and I never wore a lot of make-up. I just never did the thing that other girls did.”
"I've had a good career, without giving up much of my private life.' she says. 'When I look at the sacrifices some actresses have made to live their lives, I feel lucky. When I spilt up with my ex boyfriend Richard Roxburg, who worked with Nicole Kidman on Moulin Rouge [ he played the Duke], it took the papers a year and a half to realise that we were not together. Compare that to the reaction when Nicole and Tom Cruise announced they were getting a divorce. It became international news. I 'm not sure I could ever deal with that. So I don't resent the fact that it has taken so long to get a role like this. I know that I look younger then I am - I was still playing teenagers until a few years ago. But it wasn't particularly mature. Being in my thirties is much better because I was pushed around in my twenties. I wouldn't go back to those years thanks very much."
"I like that about my career," she says. "Because I'm anonymous, I can change myself from one thing to another. That's no good if you want to be a star, because then you want to be recognized - but that doesn't really interest me. I like working with people who are questioning life and the reasons why we do things."
"Actors sometimes get into set behaviors of how they think things would be if certain news was delivered or if something happened," she muses. "What's great is when you see performances that turns that on its head and you go, 'That's completely true!' It goes past your brain and hits you in the stomach."
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