From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alison Marion Lohman (born September 18, 1979) is an American actress. She has had lead roles in the films White Oleander, Where the Truth Lies, Flicka and Drag Me to Hell as well as smaller parts in Matchstick Men, Big Fish and Beowulf. She has also been on several television shows including 7th Heaven, Crusade, Tucker, and Pasadena.

Lohman also voiced the title character in the 2005 English language re-dubbing of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Career

In 1997, after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue her acting career.^[1] For the next few years, her work consisted of science fiction B-movies (such as Kraa! The Sea Monster and Planet Patrol), television productions (including the made-for-TV movie Sharing the Secret) and children's films (such as Delivering Milo and The Million Dollar Kid). Also included was the dark urban drama White Boy.

Lohman starred in White Oleander, an adaptation of Janet Fitch’s novel, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright-Penn and Renée Zellweger. Though the film was unsuccessful at the box office (it opened to $5.6 million in 1,510 theaters),^[2] Lohman's performance met with wide critical acclaim and has been described as her "breakthrough role" by media sources.^[1]

The following year, she appeared in Matchstick Men, directed by Ridley Scott. She starred with Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell, and though it was not a box office success either, Lohman continued to gain praise. Later that year, she appeared in Tim Burton’s Big Fish, which continued her trend of appearing in films of high acclaim, but little financial success.

She had no theatrical features in 2004, though she did voice the lead character in the re-dubbing of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In 2005, she appeared in Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. The film originally received an NC-17 rating for its graphic sexual content,^[3] and failed at the box office afterwards.^[4] Some critics (such as Roger Ebert) felt that she was well-suited for the role.^[5] Her next feature, The Big White, featured her alongside actors including Robin Williams, Holly Hunter and Tim Blake Nelson), but nevertheless went direct-to-video.

Lohman's next film was the drama Flicka, which was released on October 20, 2006. In the film, Lohman plays a 16-year-old girl who befriends a wild mustang. Lohman had never ridden a horse prior to filming and trained rigorously for a month. She said that she was "constantly thrown emotionally and physically" while working with the horses for this role.^[1] Flicka went on to become a surprise hit in DVD market.

She next played a recovering heroin addict in Things We Lost in the Fire.

Drag Me to Hell director Sam Raimi, actors Dileep Rao, Alison Lohman, and Justin Long discussing the film at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2008.

The actress was then signed to replace Oscar nominee Ellen Page in Sam Raimi's new horror film, Drag Me to Hell, which was released on May 29, 2009 and received critical acclaim.

Lohman, who is frequently cast as a teenager, has said that she believes she "look[s] younger and act[s] younger" than her age.^[1]

Personal life

Lohman was born and raised in Palm Springs, California, the daughter of Diane (née Dunham), a patisserie owner, and Gary Lohman, an architect.^[6] She has one younger brother, Robert (born 1982).^[7] She has two cats, Monk and Clint.^[1][8] Her family had no industry connections, but at age nine, she played Gretyl in The Sound of Music at the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater. Two years later, she won the Desert Theater League's award for "Most Outstanding Actress in a Musical" for the title role in Annie. By the age of 17, Lohman had appeared in 12 different major productions and had been a backing singer for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and the Desert Symphony.

As a senior, she was an awardee of National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and was offered the chance to attend the Tisch School of the Arts, but declined.

Lohman married director Mark Neveldine^[9] in Watertown, New York on Wednesday, August 19, 2009, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church.

Filmography

Television

• 7th Heaven (1998).... Pregnant Teen
• Crusade (1999) .... Claire
• Sharing the Secret (2000) .... Beth Moss
• Tucker (2000) .... McKenna Reid
• Pasadena (2001) .... Lily McAllister

Awards and nominations

In 2003 she was nominated for the PFCS Award at the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Newcomer for White Oleander (2002) and in the same year she won the Young Hollywood Award at the Young Hollywood Awards for Superstar of Tomorrow, the ShoWest Award at the ShoWest Convention, USA for Female Star of Tomorrow and the Supporting Actress of the Year award at the Hollywood Film Festival.

References

External links

• Alison Lohman at the Internet Movie Database
• Alison Lohman at MySpace
• Interview at Stumped Magazine

From Wikiquote

Alison Lohman (born 18 September 1979) is an American actress who was born in Palm Springs, California. Although her family has no show business connections, she has been acting since age 9.

Personal Quotes

On her role in Matchstick Men:

"I wanted to look young in this role, it was a needed thing. She’s 14. This role I really needed to feel 14, I had to be 14 in every way possible, so I hung out with my 14 year-old cousin for a month. She had a retainer and pigtails and all that. There’s something in their eyes, between age 10 and 15 I think, it’s just that sort of ‘anything is possible’ look. For me, the most beautiful thing you could ever see is like a child’s eyes. I wanted to really make sure that I captured her spirit, that youthful spirit. For me it’s all about dreaming. What does she look like when she walks? What’s the look in her eye? It’s not about, ‘Oh, on this move, I’m going to put my arm like that.’ It’s just the whole spirit, so that any way that I would move would be right."

"Actually when I first read the script I was like, ‘No. No way I’m playing 14. You can just pass on this.' Usually it’s like the first 50 pages and you kind of know. But then reading the whole script for me was like, ‘Okay, I can definitely do this.’"

On working with Ridley Scott:

"Without even saying anything, just his eyes... It’s not like he forces you to do it, but the power that he has, it’s something in his spirit. It’s almost like intangible and kind of magical. He has an energy that kind of lifts you. Any doubt that you had is just gone. You just do it – it’s really simple. It was so easy to work with him."

On her history in theater:

"I did musicals from about age 10 to 18. I still get really nervous, though, before each performance. It kind of hits about 15 minutes before we go onstage--sometimes I don't even want to go on. But once I'm onstage I'm fine."

On being 'shy':

"One of the reasons I've hesitated to be an actor is you have to do talk shows and interviews. I'm really a private person and not into telling everything about me. Michelle [Pfeiffer] told me to think of doing publicity as the work and acting as the fun part."

On her role in White Oleander:

"She's so young and so impressionable. There's an innocence and a vulnerability that you almost can't really manufacture. It's like a look in the eye that a young girl has that a 23-year-old doesn't."

On singing with Frank Sinatra:

"I'll never forget looking at Frank Sinatra. Just looking at his blue eyes. I think it's probably the most petrified I've ever been onstage."

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Alison Lohman

• Alison Lohman at the Internet Movie Database

References

[1] [2] [3] [4]