Kiss or Kill Nikki

Background:

"You get to be in a world that is immediately removed from your own existence. That's just really interesting, I think, as an actor. And it's very romantic." Frances O'Connor

Australian actress Frances O'Connor gained public notice while playing Nikki Davis in Bill Bennett's acclaimed Kiss or Kill in 1997. She was also recognized playing roles in such films as Love And Other Catastrophes (1996), Mansfield Park (1999), Madame Bovary (2000, TV), and Artificial Intelligent: A.I (2001).

As for her upcoming film project, Frances is currently scheduled to work in William Nunez's romance-drama Poetic Unreason. In the film she will portray the role of lover Laura Riding and share the screen with actors Andy Garcia and Angela Bassett.

"We all like to think we are in control of our lives, but I don't think we are." Frances O'Connor


Most Isolated City

Childhood and Family:

"There was a lot of land around us, so we spent a lot of time in our imaginations and being very creative." Frances O'Connor on her homeland, Melbourne

Born in Oxfordshire, England, UK, two-year-old Frances O'Connor went with her parents when they moved to a secluded area in Perth, Australia. Frances describes it as "the most isolated city in the world." Frances was born on June 12, 1967 to a nuclear physicist father and pianist mother.

Together with her four siblings, Frances grew up in a devoted Roman Catholic family. Her parents sent her to a strict Catholic school. She said, "That's why I'm an actor. They got repression going and it's very good for acting." After graduation, Frances continued her studies at the Curtin University in Western Australia and trained at the West Australia Academy for the Performing Arts.


The Actress' Diary

Career:

"I remember writing in my diary as a fifteen year old - I've decided I'm going to be an actress and I am going to keep it secret and not tell Mum and Dad." Frances O'Connor

A model and English teacher in Japan for one year, Frances O'Connor also worked with the Melbourne Theatre Company and landed a job on the Australian sitcom Law of the Land (1993), as well as the TV film Halifax f.p: The Feeding (1994). After a bit part in the movie Bathing Boxes (1995), Frances appeared in the popular romance-comedy feature film Love and Other Catastrophes (1996), playing lesbian student Mia.

In 1997, she received critical acclaim when she portraying the role of Nikki in Bill Bennett's romance-thriller Kiss or Kill. She was also noticed playing ex-girlfriend Jenny in the romance-comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997) and went back to the Melbourne Theater Company in 1998 to star in the production of The Herbal Bed. Subsequently in 1999, Patricia Rozema cast her as Fanny Price in Jane Austen's adaptation drama Mansfield Park.

In 2000, Frances costarred with Kate Hudson and Stuart Townsend in the feature About Adam, which was launched in the USA in 2001. After portraying the title role in BBC's classic Madame Bovary in 2000, she played the lead role, Brendan Fraser's love interest Alison Gardner/Nicole Delarusso in the reproduction of Bedazzled and was cast as a robotic child's mother, Monica Swinton, in Steven Spielberg's sci-fi A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). She also went back to the London stage playing a role in Fraser's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Meanwhile, big screen parts continued to roll in, including costarring with Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater in John Woo's World War II drama Windtalkers (2002), and working with gifted actors Dame Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Reese Witherspoon, in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, in Oliver Parker's romance-drama The Importance of Being Earnest (2002, played Gwendolen). Frances also starred in Richard Donner's fantasy Timeline (2002), a film based on Michael Crichton's novel.

In 2004, Frances was seen in the romantic comedy Piccadilly Jim, in TV's Iron Jawed Angels, starring in Book of Love, and starring with Andy Garcia and Angela Bassett in Graham Theakston's drama, The Lazarus Child.

2005 will see Frances starring as Tanya Harnovey in Robert Connolly's drama Three Dollars (based on the novel by Elliot Perlman).

"I've had a really good run so far. I've enjoyed myself and I'm happy in my life." Frances O'Connor

Awards:

• Film Critics Circle of Australia: Best Female Actor, Kiss Or Kill, 1998
• Montreal World Film Festival: Best Actress, Kiss Or Kill, 1997