Liv Tyler

Liv Tyler

Actor
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Life Story

Liv Tyler is an actress of international renown and has been a familiar face on our screens for over two decades and counting. She began modelling at the age of fourteen before pursuing a career in acting. After making her film debut in Bruce Beresford's Silent Fall, she was cast by fledgling director James Mangold (who would go on to direct such hits as Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line and Logan) in his first feature Heavy, a critical and commercial success that went on to gain cult status. This was followed by another indie cult hit, Empire Records, but it was the leading role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty that catapulted her to stardom at the age of eighteen.

Liv was next seen in Tom Hanks' hugely successful passion project That Thing You Do!, his paean to the glory days of 1960s rock 'n' roll (as the child of a rock 'n' roll background, this was a film whose subject was also dear to Liv's heart). This was followed by Michael Bay's action blockbuster Armageddon, starring alongside Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Steve Buscemi, who would later go on to direct Liv in Lonesome Jim.

Liv had come to the attention of director Robert Altman in Stealing Beauty and the late, great auteur went on to cast her in two of his final projects, Cookie's Fortune and Dr T and the Women, describing her as "very serious, very prepared and very professional...I am crazy about her."

In between her work for Altman, Liv starred opposite Ralph Fiennes in Onegin, directed by his sister Martha, from the classic novel by Alexander Pushkin. Ralph Fiennes said of Liv, "We tested a lot of actresses but Liv has an acute sense of emotional truth that's not performed or projected, but just is."

In 2001, Liv portrayed Arwen in the ground-breaking epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

Nothing if not eclectic, Liv then defied expectations by starring in cult director Kevin Smith's gentle low-budget comedy Jersey Girl, re-uniting her with her Armageddon co-star Ben Affleck, before playing Betty, the female lead to Edward Norton's Bruce Banner in Marvel's The Incredible Hulk.

 
 
 
Family

Royston Langdon (25 March 2003 - 10 October 2009) ( 1 child)

 

Trivia

Liv's mother named her after Liv Ullmann because she was on the cover of TV Guide several weeks prior to Liv's birth, on March 5, 1977.
Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1997).
A cameo role in Everyone Says I Love You (1996), a musical directed by Woody Allen, was cut; Allen was impressed enough by her performance to write a personal letter explaining that her role was cut in editing.
Her half-sister, Mia Tyler, is a fashion model for Lane Bryant.
The science fiction epic Armageddon (1998) opened on her 21st birthday.
Aerosmith's music video "Crazy", in which Liv co-starred with Alicia Silverstone, was voted #23 in VH1's top 100 music videos of all time.
During filming for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), she left her pair of prosthetic ears on the dashboard of her car. When she returned, they had melted.
She quit smoking after starting at age 14 (2002).
Voted the 6th Sexiest Female Movie Star in the Australian Empire Magazine. [September 2002]
She did not meet her father until 1988.
Her name Liv means "life" in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
Learned swordfighting for her role as Arwen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). But the script was changed and she never got to use her skills.
Was nicknamed Liv Taylor by film critics and the media when she first began acting because her dark hair and striking blue eyes reminded them of Elizabeth Taylor.
The decision to cast her in the music video "Crazy" was based on seeing her Pantene commercial, with absolutely no knowledge her father was in the band.
Was born at 6:08 a.m.
Celebrity spokesperson for Givenchy Perfume and Cosmetics.
Has three younger half-siblings: Chelsea Tallarico, Taj Tallarico and Mia Tyler.
She got married in Barbados.
Ranked #2 in The Age.com's Top 100: Natural Beauties of All Time (Audrey Hepburn took the top spot).
Ex-sister-in-law of Dave Buckner.
Gave birth to an 8-lb. son named Milo William Langdon on December 14, 2004, in Manhattan.

 
 
 

Personal Quotes 

I have these slumber parties with my father and when we can't sleep we stay up all night trading beauty tips. He knows all about the good creams and masks.
[on her favorite smell] Those smells that remind me of home. I can smell my dad [Steven Tyler] from a mile away. I can smell it whenever he's worn my clothes. He has this ambery smell that just melts into him.
[on playing Arwen in The Lord of the Rings] It wasn't until I came back home after such a long time away that I realized how much hype there was about this. I get to play someone 3,000 years old. I'm 23, so that's quite an acting challenge.
I've been told that if I'd lose weight I'd have more work, but I refuse to submit myself to those standards. To the rest of the world, I'm slim, and I like the way I am.
When I did Stealing Beauty (1996), I was just a kid. I'd done a couple of movies, but I'd never been to an acting class in my life. But what I took away from it more than anything was the sense that, even though I was the central character, it was my job to get completely lost in the film. I had a real awareness of Bernardo Bertolucci as a filmmaker, not just a director, painting a canvas in which I was just one element.
Subtlety is my favourite thing in cinema. It lets you dream. When everything is on the nail and on show, it leaves no questions in your mind. I find that so boring.
Clothes have become too important and films are saturated with fashion. So you find yourself wearing designer clothes that aren't relevant to your character. I'm always so intrigued by Christopher Guest and his movies, like Best in Show (2000) and A Mighty Wind (2003). He hires the actors and they all come up with the story and the concept, improvise. And they are all responsible for their own hair and make-up. They buy their own clothes, are in control of creating their characters. I would love to do that.
Life excites me. I'm not talking about appearing in movies or doing interviews, but just little, normal, everyday things. Getting out of bed. Getting dressed. Making food. I find it all exciting, you know?
I don't live a very posh life. There are no drivers waiting or people doing everything for me. I pretty much live like a normal person... It's not good to have a life without responsibilities, you know?
It's cool to be compared to her [Elizabeth Taylor], but honestly, who gives a damn?
There were times when I would get mad at him (Viggo Mortensen) because he would push me harder. There was a weekend when I got really sick and had a horrible flu, and that was my one and only day to sleep and recover and not work. We were supposed to go horseback riding together and I cancelled it because I wasn't feeling well, and Viggo gave me a really hard time about it. So I went, and it was one of the greatest days of my life. It was actually the one time, while I was riding, that I really broke through to the other side with the canter and becoming more comfortable on the horse. I had a beautiful day and am incredibly grateful to Viggo for pushing me further. He taught me so much about that, about really being willing to submit and submerge yourself into making the film and the character work.

 
 
Filmography

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