Hypnotic Celebrities Blog

Elisha Cuthbert – Career

Early career

When she was nine, Cuthbert started modeling for various lines of children’s clothing and also became a foot model. She made her first televised appearance as an extra in the horror-themed series for children Are You Afraid of the Dark?; she later became a series regular. Cuthbert also co-hosted Popular Mechanics for Kids, which was filmed in Montreal. Her reporting captured the attention of then–First Lady Hillary Clinton, who invited her to visit the White House.

Cuthbert landed her first role in a feature film in the family drama Dancing on the Moon (1997). She appeared in several other Canadian family-themed movies and an airplane thriller, Airspeed. Cuthbert starred in the Canadian television movie Lucky Girl in 2001 and was awarded a Gemini Award for her performance.

Soon after her move to Los Angeles, Cuthbert was cast in the role of Kim Bauer, daughter of federal agent Jack Bauer in the television series 24. She appeared in the show’s first three seasons, but not in its fourth; she guest-starred in only two episodes in the fifth season. She also reprised her role as Kim Bauer in 24: The Game and again guest-starred in five episodes of the seventh season.

2003-2005: Commercial success

Cuthbert auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film, but the role went to Kirsten Dunst.

She began her Hollywood film career with small roles in Old School and Love Actually in 2003.

Cuthbert’s next film, The Girl Next Door, cast her in her first lead role as an ex–porn star, Danielle, opposite Emile Hirsch. Cuthbert had initial reservations about taking the part, but was persuaded by director Luke Greenfield into accepting. She researched the role, speaking to actual adult actresses from Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment. Upon its release, the film received comparisons to Risky Business, – although Cuthbert claims her character was not directly based on Rebecca De Mornay’s character. Critics were divided; some praised the film for its boldness, while others, notably Roger Ebert, decried it as gimmicky and exploitative. Ebert wrote that he saw Cuthbert’s character Danielle as “quite the most unpleasant character I have seen in some time.”

In her next big-screen outing, Cuthbert starred with Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray in the 2005 remake of the classic horror film House of Wax. Cuthbert, along with the rest of the cast, was made up to look haggard. In one scene, her character was to attempt to open her mouth while her lips were sealed with glue. For the sake of realism, Cuthbert opted for real superglue over prosthetics. Despite her efforts, House of Wax was largely panned, with critics citing a range of flaws. It was called “notable for having some of the most moronic protagonists ever to populate a horror film,” though out of those characters, critics tended to think Cuthbert “fares the best.” Though receiving negative reviews the film was a box office success. Others noted Cuthbert as an “exception,” playing her role “earnestly” and “fine.”

2006-2007: Career transition

Cuthbert’s next film project was the indie film The Quiet, which she not only co-starred in but also co-produced and helped finance. She played Nina, a temperamental 17-year-old cheerleader who suffers from sexual abuse. Cuthbert looked to her younger cousin for inspiration as to how to play a teenager. The Quiet, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in Los Angeles and New York City on August 25, 2006, before expanding regionally on September 1.

Cuthbert appeared in the music video for Weezer’s “Perfect Situation” in early 2006, where she played the group’s fictional original singer who threw a tantrum that led to Rivers Cuomo, the unlikely roadie, becoming the frontman of the band. Cuthbert also had a small role in Paris Hilton’s music video for the song “Nothing In This World”.

In 2007, Cuthbert appeared in the film, Captivity, a thriller centered around a fashion model taunted by a psychopath who has imprisoned her in a cellar, a role for which she was nominated for a Razzie award as “worst actress.”

In He Was a Quiet Man, Cuthbert played Vanessa, a quadriplegic, starring opposite Christian Slater. The film was in limited release in 2007, and it was released on DVD in early 2008.

2008-present: Current and future projects

In 2008, Cuthbert appeared in My Sassy Girl, a remake of a Korean film, starring alongside Jesse Bradford. Her next film is the family comedy The Six Wives of Henry Lefay with actor Tim Allen, in which she plays his daughter. She is one of the stars in the Canadian mini-series Guns, due to premiere sometime in 2009 and has appeared as a guest judge in season two, episode two of Project Runway Canada, where designers were challenged to create a “party dress” for Cuthbert.

Cuthbert reprised her character Kim Bauer in the seventh season of 24. She also was scheduled to star in the CBS drama pilot Ny-Lon, playing a New York literacy teacher/record-store clerk who embarks on a transatlantic romance with a London stockbroker. The project, which was based on a British series starring Rashida Jones and Stephen Moyer, has since been canceled.

Cuthbert is slated to voice Cleo, “the feline daughter of a wealthy kitty litter baron,” in Cat Tale, an animated film set in a civilized world of cats and dogs.

Elisha Cuthbert -Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	Dancing on the Moon	Sarah
1997	Mail to the Chief	Madison Osgood
	Nico the Unicorn	Carolyn Price
1998	Airspeed	Nicole Stone
1999	Believe	Katherine Winslowe
	Time at the Top	Susan Shawson
2000	Who Gets the House?	Emily Reece
2001	Lucky Girl	Katlin Palmerson
2003	Love Actually	American Goddess Carol
	Old School	Darcie Goldberg
2004	The Girl Next Door	Danielle (aka “D”)
2005	House of Wax	Carly Jones
2006	The Quiet	Nina Deer
2007	Captivity	Jennifer Tree
	He Was a Quiet Man	Vanessa
2008	My Sassy Girl	Jordan Roark
	Guns	Frances Dett
2009	The Six Wives of Henry Lefay	TBA
2010	Cat Tale	Cleo (voice)	In-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997-2000	Popular Mechanics for Kids	Herself
1999-2000	Are You Afraid of the Dark?	Megan
2001	Largo Winch	Abby
2004	MADtv	Herself and Kim Bauer (“24″ parody)
2001- 2004, 2006, 2008-present	24	Kim Bauer

Music videos

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Perfect Situation	Lead singer of Weeze.
2006	Nothing in This World	Popular Girl
2006	I want you so hard (Bad News)	Bar Girl

External links

• Elisha Cuthbert at the Internet Movie Database
• Elisha Cuthbert at TV.com
• Elisha Cuthbert at Complex Magazine
• Elisha Cuthbert at ImageOverflow
• Elisha Cuthbert at Sky TV

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 6:07 am and is filed under Celebrieties, Sexy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.