The emergence of the latest heir to the U.K.'s most dramatic theater dynasty, the Redgrave/Richardsons/Neesans, but Joley's in a class by herself.
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When you're born into British theater's most daunting dramatic dynasty and your mum's one of the most outspoken political activists of the era, making a name for yourself is tough. So it is for Joely Richardson--daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and Tom Jones director Tony Richardson, younger sister of Natasha Richardson, sister-in-law of Liam Neeson, granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and niece of Lynn Redgrave.
Richardson's regal bearing and fragile beauty bespeak her blue-chip heritage, but she insists, "The one thing I've had to fight against is coming from a famous family." The result? An eclectic oeuvre that amounts to what she describes as "a hodgepodge of characters that were all reactions to each other." For example, she played a German spy who had a catfight with Melanie Griffith in 1992's Shining Through, which happened to star her future brother-in-law. "Liam's a big heartthrob. I would never in a million years have imagined he and my sister would marry," laughs Richardson, who's married to producer Tim Bevan.
In her efforts to break out of the aristo arena in which she's been typecast, the actress, 32, cut up as a flighty movie exec in 1994's I'll Do Anything ("People said it was my big break, but it was a disaster"), played a murdering, incestuous maid in Sister My Sister, and then starred as the endearing doggie majordomo in 101 Dalmatians. Richardson's latest role--as an acid-tongued astronaut second-in-command to Captain Laurence Fishburne in the sci-fi thriller Event Horizon--shows just how far she'll go to find a new niche for herself. "It's a genre I never thought I'd get into. And it just goes to show how you should read the script bits between the dialogue," she chuckles, describing how she spent weeks covered in blood. Richardson sees herself more as an Anna Karenina type than an action hero, but that's only one of her frustrations. "If I ever won an Oscar," she figures, "people would just say, 'Following in the footsteps of...' But I've got to let that go now and just find interesting roles like everyone else."
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Vicki Jo Radovsky