Brit Marling

Brit Marling

Born Brit Heyworth Marling
August 7, 1983
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Residence Los Angeles, California
Alma mater Georgetown University
Occupation Actress, screenwriter, film producer
Years active 2007–present
Known for Another Earth, The East

Brit Heyworth Marling (born August 7, 1983)[1] is an American actress, screenwriter and film producer. After majoring in economics at Georgetown University, Marling moved to Los Angeles with friends Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij to pursue screenplay writing and acting.[2] She first gained recognition in 2004 with the documentary Boxers and Ballerinas and later became a Sundance star with the Searchlight movies Sound of My Voice (2011), Another Earth (2011) and The East (2013) which she co-wrote in addition to playing the lead role.

Early life

Marling was born in Chicago, Illinois[3] to property developer parents John and Heidi Marling.[4][5] She was named "Brit" after her Norwegian maternal great-grandmother.[6] She grew up in Winnetka, Illinois[7] and in Orlando,[3] where she enrolled in the arts program at Dr. Phillips High School.[5] Marling was interested in acting, but her parents encouraged her to focus on academics.[8] She graduated from Georgetown University in 2005 with degrees in economics and studio art, and was her class valedictorian.[9][10]

Career

Following graduation from Georgetown, where she met friends and future directors Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij,[11] Marling spent her junior year summer interning for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs as an investment analyst.[12] She realized the lack of meaning a life spent there would have[11] and later turned down a job offer from the firm, opting instead to move to Cuba with Mike Cahill to film the documentary Boxers and Ballerinas.[1] The Cahill documentary gained Marling recognition in 2004, having co-written the film with Mike Cahill and Nicholas Shumaker and co-directed with Cahill.[13]

Marling went to auditions and was offered roles in horror films, but rejected them.[14] In an interview with The Daily Beast, she "wanted to be able to cast herself in roles that wouldn’t require her to play the typical parts offered to young actresses, the perfunctory girlfriend or a crime victim."[15] She was discovered by talent agent Hylda Queally.[16]

In the summer of 2009 she joined a group of freegans with friend Zal Batmanglij, living in tents and retrieving food from dumpsters,[17] to explore how other young people were constructing a meaningful life.[18]

Marling co-wrote, co-produced, and acted in the 2011 films Sound of My Voice and Another Earth, directed by Batmanglij and Cahill respectively. Both of these films were featured at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, with Another Earth winning the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for outstanding film with science, technology or math as a major theme.[19] In 2012, she played Richard Gere's daughter in Arbitrage.

In 2013, she collaborated with Searchlight once again on her lead role in The East alongside Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård. Directed by Zal Batmanglij and co-written by Marling and Batmanglij, The East is based on the duo's experience as freegans and their concern with the side effects of drugs.[17]

Marling and Zal Batmanglij collaborated to create drama series The OA that is slated to debut in 2016 on Netflix. It will be written by Marling and Batmanglij, who will produce the series along with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B, and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content.[20]

Despite her many roles in films she has co-written, Marling stated she "get[s] a lot more pleasure in acting in other people’s stories"[17] since "one of the great pleasures of acting is surrendering to someone else's point of view of the world."[21]

Personal life

She was previously in a relationship with Mike Cahill.[14][22]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2007 The Recordist Charlie Hall Zal Batmanglij's AFI thesis short film[18]
2009 Political Disasters Brit Short film
2011 Another Earth Rhoda Williams Also co-writer/producer
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Sitges Film Festival Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Performer
Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Writing
Sound of My Voice Maggie Also co-writer/producer
Nominated—Georgia Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
2012 Arbitrage Brooke Miller
2013 The East Sarah Moss/Jane Owen Also co-writer/producer
The Company You Keep Rebecca Osborne
2014 The Better Angels Nancy Lincoln[23]
I Origins Karen
The Keeping Room Augusta
Posthumous McKenzie Grain

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2011 Community Page Episode: "Early 21st Century Romanticism"
2014 Babylon Liz Garvey 7 episodes[24]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "How to Succeed in Hollywood Despite Being Really Beautiful". New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ The East: from Goldman Sachs to freeganism, Brit Marling is a Hollywood conundrum, The Guardian
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hornaday, Ann (July 22, 2011). "Brit Marling of ‘Another Earth’ does stardom her way". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ Broadben, Lucy (January 29, 2014). "Brit Marling: the Hollywood star on her Channel 4 series Babylon". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Moore, Roger. "Great Brit". Orlando Magazine. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Brit Marling Exclusive Interview - Another Earth". Movies.about.com. July 22, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ Caro, Mark (June 2, 2013). "Covert actress: Brit Marling infiltrates Hollywood". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  8. ↑ Hirschberg, Lynn (March 2013). "The New Guard: Brit Marling". W. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ The otherwordly Brit Marling, Interview Magazine, July 6, 2011
  10. ↑ Alums Win Prizes at Sundance Film Festival, Georgetown Voice blog
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Brit Marling on Writing, Anarchists, and the Need to Get Her Heart Broken". TIME. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Q&A: BRIT MARLING, INDIE STAR YOU NEED TO KNOW". Esquire. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  13. ↑ Boxers and Ballerinas (2004). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Seymour, Tom (June 28, 2013). "The East: from Goldman Sachs to freeganism, Brit Marling is a Hollywood conundrum". The Guardian. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  15. ↑ Fernandez, Maria Elena (July 18, 2011). "Hollywood’s Anti-It Girl". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Hylda Queally". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "‘The East’ Intersects Anarchy Collectives With Corporate CEOs". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Director Zal Batmanglij Talks Making 'The East,' Harnessing The Power Of Young Filmmakers & Creating An Anarchist Collective". Indiewire. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Awarded to Mike Cahill's Another Earth at 2011 Sundance Film Festival", Sundance.org, January 28, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  20. ↑ "Netflix Greenlights ‘The OA’ Reuniting Brit Marling And Zal Batmanglij". Deadline. March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Q&A: Brit Marling, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, and Director Zal Batmanglij on Sound of My Voice". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  22. ↑ Shone, Tom (November 26, 2011). "Brit Marling: True Brit". The Independent. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  23. ↑ Movies. "Wes Bentley and Brit Marling Join 'The Green Blade Rises' | The Wrap Movies". Thewrap.com. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  24. ↑ Sharf, Zack (December 1, 2014). "Watch: Brit Marling Heads to TV in Danny Boyle's 'Babylon' Trailer". Indiewire. Retrieved December 1, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brit Marling.