Katie Holmes

Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress from Ohio best known for her role as Joey Potter, the tomboy down the titular waterway on The WB television drama Dawson's Creek. Holmes' movie roles have ranged from art house films such as Pieces of April to thrillers such as Abandon. In June 2005, she became engaged to the actor Tom Cruise, which made her the center of international press attention.

Film career

Holmes in 2005 characterized her film career as being a string of "bombs". "Usually I'm not even in the top ten," she said, the highest grossing film of her career at that time being Phone Booth.

Related Topics:
2005 - Phone Booth

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Her big break came when she had a role in the movie The Ice Storm (1997) she starred in a part opposite Tobey Maguire. Her first leading role came in Disturbing Behavior (1998), a Stepford Wives-goes-to-high school thriller where she was a loner from the wrong side of the tracks. Holmes won a MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for the role, though Holmes said the film was "just horrible". Next she was a disaffected supermarket clerk in Doug Liman's stylish ensemble piece Go (1999). She had an uncredited cameo with Dawson's Creek co-star Joshua Jackson in Muppets From Space (1999), which was also filmed in Wilmington. Kevin Williamson's disaffection for his own high school days spawned Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), which he wrote and directed. Holmes played a straight-A student whose vindictive teacher (Helen Mirren) threatens to keep her from a desperately needed scholarship.

Related Topics:
1997 - Tobey Maguire - Disturbing Behavior - 1998 - Stepford Wives - MTV Movie Award - Doug Liman - Go - 1999 - Joshua Jackson - Muppets From Space - Teaching Mrs. Tingle - Helen Mirren

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In the academic world of Wonder Boys (2000), the witty and intelligent film version of the Michael Chabon novel, she had only a small role (six and one-half minutes of screen time). Even so, she attracted the attention of numerous film critics with her performance as Hannah Green, the talented creative writing student of pot-puffing Pittsburgh professor and one-hit novelist Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas). Hannah, who is smitten with Grady, is a boarder in his house. In a memorable scene, she offers a critique of his huge, unwieldy 2,611-page second novel, commenting, "Even though your book is really beautiful, it's... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices." For Holmes, this role was the right choice, since it became a turning point in her career, demonstrating she could create a film character with depth and dimension when given a sophisticated screenplay.

Related Topics:
Wonder Boys - 2000 - Michael Chabon - Michael Douglas

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In The Gift (2000), a Southern Gothic story directed by Sam Raimi and starring Cate Blanchett, she played the antithesis of Joey Potter: a slutty rich girl carrying on with everyone in town, from a white trash wife-beater (Keanu Reeves) to the district attorney (Gary Cole), and who winds up dead for her trouble. Holmes did her first nude scene for the film, baring her breasts in a scene where her character was about to be murdered. Of the scene, she said, "I just hope there aren't a lot of pauses on DVD players." Her appearance deshabille was lamented by Varietys Steven Kloter: "It seems the only time we see a naked woman on screen is when someone like Katie Holmes needs to break with her sanitized WB past and march brazenly into a new future."

Related Topics:
The Gift - 2000 - Sam Raimi - Cate Blanchett - Keanu Reeves - Gary Cole - DVD - Variety

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In Abandon (2002), written by Oscar winner Stephen Gaghan, Holmes was a delusional and homicidal college student named "Katie." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commended Holmes' performance and the film's intelligence, but other critics and audiences savaged ithttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021018/REVIEWS/210180301/1023. Holmes was the mistress of the public relations flack played by Colin Farrell in Phone Booth (2002) and Robert Downey, Jr.'s nurse in The Singing Detective (2003). Her next starring role was in Pieces of April (2003), a gritty comedy about a dysfunctional family on Thanksgiving. Variety said it was "one of her best film performances."

Related Topics:
Abandon - 2002 - Oscar - Stephen Gaghan - Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times - Colin Farrell - Robert Downey, Jr. - The Singing Detective - 2003 - Pieces of April - Dysfunctional family - Thanksgiving

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Holmes played the President's daughter in First Daughter, which was originally to be released in January 2004 on the same day as Chasing Liberty, the Mandy Moore film about a presidential daughter, but was ultimately released in September 2004 to dismal reviews and ticket sales. First Daughter, directed by Forest Whitaker, also starred Michael Keaton as Holmes' father and Marc Blucas as her love interest. The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt called Holmes' character, Samantha Mackenzie, "a startling example of how a studio film can dumb down and neutralize the comic abilities of a lively young star." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000641292

Related Topics:
First Daughter - January - 2004 - Chasing Liberty - Mandy Moore - Forest Whitaker - Michael Keaton - Marc Blucas - ''The Hollywood Reporter''

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In 2005, Holmes played Rachel Dawes, the love interest of the title character in Batman Begins.

Related Topics:
2005 - Batman Begins

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