Abbie Cornish Biography

Abbie Cornish Biography

By all accounts, Abbie Cornish is as grounded a celebrity as you’re likely to meet. The second of five children, Cornish grew up on her father's 70-hectare farm, where she and her siblings would explore their surroundings with the childlike curiosity that often produces artists. When Cornish was 13, she began modeling and landed her first job on ABC’s Children’s Hospital after her agency sent her to an audition. Cornish was hooked. She left home at age 16 -- the same year her parents split -- and set to live the life of a struggling artist in Newcastle. There, she attended high school with the goal of becoming a veterinarian while taking acting gigs on the side on shows like Wildside and Outriders.

Becomes a Movie Star in Australia

Abbie Cornish’s first film role wasn’t exactly a memorable one. In The Monkey’s Mask, the young actress played a girl who was abducted in the film’s first act and found dead later. But her second feature, the Australian indie Somersault, would change Cornish’s life forever. After playing at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Somersault, which also starred the then-unknown Sam Worthington, swept the Australian Film Institute Awards, winning 13 in total, including Best Actress for Cornish. Suddenly, the charismatic blonde was the most in-demand actress in her country, appearing in the films Everything Goes and Candy, alongside Heath Ledger, for which she earned her second Australian Film Institute Award nomination.

Takes Her Talents Stateside

Every year, a new set of young, foreign ingenues try to achieve crossover success in Hollywood, but only the cream of the crop are embraced by North American audiences. Cornish’s first three attempts at mainstream success were either overshadowed by bigger stars or weakened by muddled scripts. In Ridley Scott’s A Good Year, she played second fiddle to Russell Crowe. The same goes for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a film dominated by the majestic Cate Blanchett. Kimberly Peirce’s Iraq-War drama Stop-Loss could have been the breakthrough Cornish was looking for, but a weak script and an even weaker box-office performance nixed that hope. It wasn’t until Abbie Cornish starred as Fanny Brawne in Jane Campion’s acclaimed film Bright Star that North American audiences finally saw Cornish’s true movie-star potential.

The Cusp of Movie Stardom

With Nicole Kidman approaching the twilight of her career, Hollywood is in need of another Australian beauty to assume her crown. They may have to look no further than Abbie Cornish, whose role as Bradley Cooper ’s love interest in the film Limitless is proof that she has what it takes to be a movie star. Her next film will see her team up again with 300 director Zack Snyder (Cornish provided her voice in his animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole) in Sucker Punch, one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year (and a fan boy’s wet dream). After Cornish is done kicking ass alongside Emily Browning and Vanessa Hudgens, she’ll take direction from the Material Girl herself in the film