Juliet Stevenson

Juliet Stevenson
in Dustbin Baby (2008)
Born	(1956-10-30) 30 October 1956 Kelvedon, Essex, England
Occupation	actor
Years active	1980–present
Partner(s)	Hugh Brody (1993–present)
Children	Rosalind Hannah Brody (b. 1994) Gabriel Jonathan Brody (b. 2000)

Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE (born 30 October 1956) is an English actor of stage and screen.

Early life

Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer.^[1] Stevenson's father was in the army and received new postings every two and a half years.^[2] When Stevenson was nine, she attended Berkshire's Hurst Lodge School,^[3] and she was later educated at the independent St Catherine's School in Bramley, near Guildford in Surrey, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).^[4] Stevenson was part of 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Payne, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton and Fiona Shaw. This led to a stage career starting in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career

Although she has gained fame through her television and film work, and has often undertaken roles for BBC Radio, she is best known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles include her lead performance as Anna in the UK premiere of Burn This in 1990, and as Paulina in Death and the Maiden in 1991. For the latter, she was awarded the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.^[5]

In the 1987 TV film Life Story (American title, The Race for the Double Helix), Stevenson played the part of scientist Rosalind Franklin, for which she won a Cable Ace award.^[6] She is known for her leading role in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), and her roles in The Secret Rapture (1993), Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She has more recently starred in Pierrepoint (2006), Infamous (2006) as Diana Vreeland and Breaking and Entering (2006) as Rosemary, the therapist. In 2003, she played the mother of an autistic child in the television film Hear the Silence, a film based on the now debunked claims of Andrew Wakefield that the MMR vaccine was responsible for autism.^[7] The film and Stevenson were criticised for "trying to influence parents against MMR and dressing up science as entertainment."^[7]

Stevenson speaking at the 2011 Latitude Festival.

In 2009, she starred in ITV's A Place of Execution. The role won her the Best Actress Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.^[8] She performs as a book reader, and has recorded all of Jane Austen's novels as unabridged audiobooks, as well as a number of other novels, such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, Hedda Gabler, Stories from Shakespeare, and To the Lighthouse.

Personal life

Stevenson lives with anthropologist Hugh Brody, her partner since 1993. The couple live in Highgate, North London. They have two children, both born in Camden, London: Rosalind Hannah Brody (born 1994) and Gabriel Jonathan Brody (born late 2000/early 2001).^[9]

She is an atheist, but considers herself a spiritual and superstitious person.^[10][11]

In 1992, she appeared in a political broadcast for the Labour Party.^[12][13]

In 2008, she campaigned on behalf of refugee women^[14] with a reading of 'Motherland' at the Young Vic.

Stage

• Spirit in The Tempest with Alan Rickman, Royal Shakespeare Company (1978)
• Iras/Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra, with Jonathan Pryce and Patrick Stewart, Royal Shakespeare Company (1978)
• Whore/Nun in Measure for Measure, Royal Shakespeare Company (1978)
• Caroline Thompson in The Churchill Play (1978)
• Aphrodite/Artemis in Hippolytus (1978)
• Lovers and Kings (1978)
• Widow/Curtis in The Taming of the Shrew (1978)
• Yeliena in The White Guard (1978)
• Miss Chasen in Once in a Lifetime (1978)
• Lady Percy in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, On Tour, Royal Shakespeare Company (1980)
• Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981)
• Susan in The Witch of Edmonton (1981)
• Clara Douglas in Money, with Miles Anderson (1981)
• Emma and Betsy, Other Worlds, Royal Court Theatre, London (1983)
• Isabella, Measure for Measure, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre (1984)
• Polya, Breaking the Silence, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pit Theatre, London (1984)
• Cressida, Troilus and Cressida, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre (1985)
• Rosalind, As You Like It, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre (1985)
• Madame de Tourvel, Les liaisons dangereuses, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pit Theatre (1986)
• Yerma, Yerma, National Theatre, later Cottesloe Theatre, both London (1987)
• Hedda, Hedda Gabler, National Theatre, later Olivier Theatre, London (1989)
• Fanny, On the Verge, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London (1989)
• Anna, Burn This, Hampstead Theatre, later West End Theatre, both London (1990)
• Paulina, Death and the Maiden, Theatre Upstairs, London, then Royal Court Theatre (1991). Olivier Award for Best Actress (1992)
• Galactia, Scenes from an Execution, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles (1993)
• The Duchess of Malfi, Greenwich Theatre/ Wyndham's Theatre, London (1995)
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Royal National Theatre, London (1997)
• Amanda in Private Lives with Anton Lesser, The National Theatre (1999)
• The Country, Royal Court Theatre (2000)
• We Happy Few, Gielgud Theatre, London (2004)
• The Alice Trilogy, Royal Court Theatre (2005)
• The Seagull, The National Theatre (2006)
• Duet for One, London, stage revival, with Henry Goodman (2009)
• The Heretic, Royal Court Theatre (2011)
• Winnie, Happy Days, Young Vic (2014)

Filmography

Audio recordings

A partial list of Stevenson's audio recordings:

• Man and Superman, BBC Audiobooks, 1998 (Broadcast on BBC-4 in 1996). Production featured Juliet Stevenson, Ralph Fiennes and Judi Dench. It also included an interview with the director, Sir Peter Hall
• Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Penguin Audiobooks, 1997
• The Plague Tales, BDD, c. 1997
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare, BBC Radio Collection, 1999 (with Michael Sheen)
• When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) – "Sonnet 128" ("How oft, when thou, my music...")
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, Unabridged, Orion audiobook (2006)
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 7 CDs (2006)
• Persuasion by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 7 CDs (2007)
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 14 CDs (2007)
• Emma by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 13 CDs (2007)
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Naxos audiobook, Unabridged (2007)
• Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Abridged, CSA Word Classic, 4 CDs (2007)
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë,
• I, Coriander, by Sally Gardner,
• The King's General, by Daphne du Maurier,
• An Unequal Marriage, by Emma Tennant,
• From Shakespeare with Love, by William Shakespeare, David Tennant (Narrator), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator), Anton Lesser (Narrator), Alex Jennings (Narrator)
• Daphne du Maurier Collection: Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek & My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, Juliet Stevenson (Narrator), Daniel Massey (Narrator), Michael Maloney (Narrator)
• A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
• The London Tapes, by Juliet Stevenson
• Ancient and Modern, by Sue Gee (2004)
• Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali, abridged (2006)
• Middlemarch by George Eliot. Unabridged. Naxos Audiobooks (2011).
• 'Goldfish Girl' by Peter Souter (2011). http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009mtcf/Afternoon_Play_Goldfish_Girl/

Awards and honors

For her screen work, Stevenson has been nominated four times for a BAFTA (three for television, one for film), while for her stage work she has earned five Olivier nominations, winning one.

References

Notes

External links

• Juliet Stevenson at the Internet Movie Database
• Juliet Stevenson: The Power of Story Telling in The Guardian