Juliette Lewis recalls a previous trip to Ireland and talks about her career to date.
Juliette Lewis began her professional acting career at the age of thirteen and at the age of eighteen was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role as Danielle Bowden in Martin Scorsese's film Cape Fear.
After roles in films like Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers she is now embarking on a whole new career as a singer with her rock band 'Juliette and the Licks’.
This is not her first time in Ireland. At the age of eleven, Juliette Lewis and her friend Fiona stayed on a farm south of Mayo. Although it was a total culture shock for a California valley girl it is a trip she remembers fondly.
It was the best experience ever.
Juliette Lewis has Irish and Welsh roots. Her mother’s family name is Duggan. She describes her parents as bohemian artist types, hence the rather unusual choice of a name for her brother ‘Lightfield’ named after a light in a field.
Her father is actor Geoffrey Lewis and so Juliette was introduced to the world of film from an early age and learnt quickly that acting was hard work and a noble profession, not the image presented in the glossy tabloid magazines. While she did get support and help from her parents, she had to work hard.
I had an intuition about acting.
The important thing for an actor is to make a part honest and believable.
I always try to make my characters somewhat complicated and multi-layered rather than the cliché.
One of her first big parts came while working on the long running US TV series ‘The Wonder Years’.
A career breakthrough came with the TV movie ‘Too Young To Die?’ in which Juliette Lewis starred alongside Brad Bitt. The film tells the real life story of the youngest girl ever to be put on death row. Too Young To Die?' was a launch pad for both Lewis’s and Pitt’s careers as well as their relationship which lasted around three and a half years.
This episode of 'Tubridy Tonight' was broadcast on 19 February 2005. The presenter is Ryan Tubridy.
