ONE TO WATCH: Cailee Spaeny
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At only 25 years old, actress Cailee Spaeny is already receiving Oscar buzz after taking home the award for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in the titular role of Sofia Coppola's Priscilla. Here’s everything to know about the breakout star herself!
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Cailee found her knack in the arts by performing in a local theatre company. Between dance, vocal, and acting classes at the Springfield Little Theatre, Callie and her mom would make summer trips to Los Angeles for auditions.
But it was a self-tape at home in Missouri that landed the actress her first major role in 2018, playing opposite John Boyega in Pacific Rim: Uprising. It wasn’t her only film of the year -- 2018 also found her playing the honorable Ruth Badger Ginsburg’s daughter in the late SCOTUS judge's biopic On The Basis of Sex, alongside playing the younger version of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife in the biographical flick Vice.
Last Fall, Caillee, by now no stranger to stepping into the shoes of real-life women, was cast in the lead role of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, based on Priscilla Presley’s autobiography about her life with and marriage to Elvis Presley. A part of what led her to select Cailee for the role, Coppola has said, was the director’s belief that she could pull off playing Priscilla as the film takes her from a wide-eyed 14-year-old girl to a 27-year-old woman who has experienced the best and worst of being in the public eye.
Coppola also noted that Cailee is a strong actress, which should come as no surprise given her recent win at the 80th International Venice Film Festival. It was there that Cailee won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. Past winners of the award -- some of whose Volpi Cup winning performances went on to be nominated for Oscars -- include Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swanson, Emma Stone, and Penelope Cruz. Not bad company to be in!
Following Priscilla, Cailee is set to star in Alien: Romulus, the 7th installment of the iconic Alien movie franchise, as well as a film entitled Civil War from Ex Machina and Annihilation mastermind Alex Garland.
In the meantime, be sure to catch Cailee in Priscilla, which will be released in theatres in the U.S. theaters on November 3!