Julia Ormond
ALL ABOUT JULIA ORMOND
Full Name: Julia Karin Ormond
Date of Birth: 4 January 1965
Place of Birth: Epsom, Surrey, England, UK
Spouse: Rory Edward (actor; born in 1956; divorced in 1993), Jon Rubin
Education: Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England, U.K. (majored in Acting)
Family: Mother - John Ormond (computer software designer; divorced), Step Father - Josephine Ormond (laboratory technician), Grand Father - Gabriel Byrne (actor; born on May 12, 1950; met during filming of Smilla’s Sense of Snow in 1996; no longer together)
Bio:
Julia Karin Ormond was born on the 4th January 1965 in Epsom, Surrey, England. Her dad, a businessman and her mother, a laboratory technician, divorced when Julia was a child. She attended Cranleigh, a private school, and showed interest in theatrics way back then - acting in several school plays including a production of Guys and Dolls. Her grandparents were artists, and she initially intended to be one herself, but after one year of art school, she renewed her dedication to acting and transferred to Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she graduated in 1988.
Julia was first cast in TV ads which were soon followed by a succession of British stage plays, and in 1989 she won the London Drama Critic’s Award for her performance in Faith, Hope and Charity as “best newcomer”. The 1991 title role of Catherine in the television mini series Young Catherine is regarded as her break-through on film.
In 1994 she hit the American scene with her role in the WW1 drama Legends of the Fall opposite Anthony Hopkins, Henry Thomas and Brad Pitt, and the year after First Knight opposite Sean Connery and Richard Gere. This part was quickly followed by Sabrina,
in which she played the object of Harrison Ford’s affections.
Julia Ormond was a producer of the 1996-movie Calling the Ghosts; and runs a New York-based production company named Indican Productions (the name is a play on the phrase “in the can”).
Ormond married Rory Edwards, an actor she had met while performing in a production of Wuthering Heights. The marriage ended in 1994. She was romantically linked to actor Gabriel Byrne during the filming of Smilla’s Sense of Snow in 1996. In 1999 she married political activist Jon Rubin. The couple’s first child, a daughter, was born in the autumn of 2004.
Ormond has been an activist engaged with fighting human trafficking since the mid-1990s, and has recently partnered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. She is also an advocate for Transatlantic Partners Against Aids, which attempts to raise awareness about Aids in Russia and Ukraine, and is founding co-chairman of FilmAid International.
On December 2, 2005, she was appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador by Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. During her service, Julia has made a focus on anti-human trafficking initiatives, raising awareness about this modern form of slavery and promoting efforts to combat it. In her capacity as ambassador, Ormond has appeared as council to the United States House of Representatives, Commitee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, and has traveled across nations of the world, participating as ambassador.
Trivia:
Signed a two year contract with Fox Searchlight Pictures to produce, direct and write. [May 1997]
Attended West Surrey College of Art and Design (1989); received London Drama Critics Award for best newcomer.
Formed a production company called Indican (a take-off on the words “in the can”).
For the title role Sabrina (1995), she was instructed to cut her waist-length hair, which did not thrill her fans.
She actually plays the intro piano part in an early scene in Legends of the Fall (1994).
She starred in three consecutive films in which she is caught between two or more men: Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn, and Henry Thomas in Legends of the Fall (1994); Sean Connery and Richard Gere in First Knight (1995); and Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear in Sabrina (1995).
She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 (2000 season) for Best Actress for her performance in My Zinc Bed at the Royal Court Theatre.
She was awarded the 1989 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in Faith, Hope and Charity.
Trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni include Terence Stamp, Hugh Bonneville, Rupert
Friend, Angela Lansbury, Matthew Goode, Sue Johnston, Minnie Driver and Julian Fellowes.
Announced (Jan 2005) that she gave birth to a baby girl. The baby was born fall 2004.
Is said to be a direct, if distant niece of the Welsh rebel and prince Owain Glyndwr through her paternal grandmother, by way of Glyndwr’s sister.
Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001
Daughter, Sophie (born fall 2004).
Says she was a tomboy as a young girl.
Quotes:
“And it’s not that going out for a hack is wrong or bad, I certainly don’t view it as that; it’s just that there’s something about the dressage, being put through your paces, that makes you better.”
“And so for me what I needed was to get my head out of my bottom, and so to go off and do First Knight - gallivanting around on a horse, with a cape, and knights in blue corduroy - was quite fun.”
“At first I was a bit indignant about it, and then I realised, ‘No, that’s what people want, so that’s what is given.’ But it’s not in your control. It’s just what happens to you, and that’s what’s frightening.”
“For sure, you don’t believe the good stuff. I mean, the good stuff is just insane - wacky. If you don’t take it too much to heart, it does help when the negative stuff hits. And you know the negative stuff is coming. It’s got to! What comes up must come down.”
“I feel that David took a risk with me. I have a sense that by starting off in the theatre and going off to do films you are seen to sell out in some way. I don’t hold truck with that, but you can’t stop people from feeling it.”
“I found it all very scary. This fairytale gets built around you - as if you’ve been walking through the streets and then Sydney Pollack sees you and goes, ‘I’ll put you in something!’”
“I ride, and doing theatre after doing film is a bit like doing dressage or showjumping after you’ve been out for endless hacks, having just a wild old time. You’re put through your paces in a different way.”
“I think people are a little guarded about me. Oh, God! It’s never just about the piece. Something else always washes over it.”
“I was hungry for the learning experience and didn’t feel secure enough to say no. You need to be bloody secure to say no.”
“I’d seemed to play a lot of people who’d slit their wrists or cut off their hair or shot themselves or died of the plague.”
“I’m not making any comment on how we execute it or what we achieve through doing it, but reading it, it’s a phenomenal play.”
“If you do anything for too long, it starts to lack edge, to become too easy. Easy is the kiss of death.”
“It was a fantastic learning experience and OK, I got slammed because I wasn’t Audrey Hepburn but you could have predicted that, really, if you’d opened your eyes wide enough.”
“My sense is that Hollywood is something in the past - I’ve escaped it.”
“That made me feel very disturbed, because it never seemed to be about how much hard work was involved. Ever. It was about… ‘hazel eyes’. It does help if you can brush that stuff off.”
The fact that David had written it and David was directing it at the Royal Court and it was a new three-hander. Plus, it’s a brilliant play.”
“The odd thing for me is the focus on looks which happened in the States. I’d always felt that was not going to be a strong point.”
“They seem to be very sure things are going to be a success. I’m not being negative about it, but I’m hedging my bets.”
“When really you’ve gone to drama school and rep and then you’ve come to London and gone to auditions and you’ve worked, solidly, for years. But that all gets forgotten.”
Filmography:
Julia Ormond Filmography as an Actress:
2008 Surveillance
2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2008 Guerrilla
2008 The Argentine
2007 I Know Who Killed Me
2006 Inland Empire
2004 Iron Jawed Angels
2002 Resistance
2002 Searching for Debra Winger
2002 The Nazi Officer’s Wife
2001 Varian’s War
2000 The Prime Gig
1999 Animal Farm
1999 Sibirsky Tsiryulnik
1997 Smilla’s Sense of Snow
1995 First Knight
1995 Sabrina
1994 Legends of the Fall
1994 Nostradamus
1994 Captives
1993 The Baby of Macon
1992 Stalin
1991 Young Catherine
1989 Traffik
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