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Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born July 3, 1965) is a Danish actress. A statuesque Danish beauty, Connie Nielsen has lent her considerable talents to parts that have cast her as everything from Satan's spawn to an astronaut to an emperor's daughter. Regardless of the role or the quality of the script, she has managed to transcend the limitations and delivered memorable full-bodied performances. Raised in a small coastal village in Denmark, Nielsen became enamored with movies at a young age through weekly visits at the local movie theater. She was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by her actress-writer mother, alongside whom she made her stage acting debut at age 15. Three years later, Nielsen moved to Paris to pursue a career and she further studied her craft in such far-flung locations as South Africa, NYC and Rome. Fluent in several languages, she easily found work in films produced in Italy and France and caught a break with the American made-for-cable movie "Voyage" (USA Network, 1993). Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn, Denmark to an insurance clerk mother and a bus driver father. She was raised nearby in a small seaside village named Elling. She began her acting career working alongside her mother on the local revue and variety scene. At 18 she travelled to Paris, France where she worked as an actress and model, which led to further work and study in Italy at drama school in Rome and in master classes with Lydia Styx, a teacher at il Piccolo Teatro di Milano in Milan. She lived in Italy for many years, before moving to the United States, where she still resides. Nielsen's feature film debut was the Jerry Lewis French film, Par Où T'es Rentré? On T'a Pas Vu Sortir in 1984, followed by a role in the Italian mini-series Colletti Bianchi in 1988. She appeared in the 1991 Italian Vacanze di Natale '91 and the French film Le Paradis Absolument in 1993. In 1994, Nielsen auditioned for a role in "French Kiss". While director Lawrence Kasdan felt she was inappropriate for what he wanted, he encouraged her to try her luck in America. After moving to the USA, she finally achieved a breakthrough when she was cast in a pivotal role in "The Devil's Advocate" (1997). As Satan's sensuous daughter, Nielsen cut a memorable figure as a seductress who plies her trade on Keanu Reeves' somewhat innocent lawyer. Similarly, her one scene in "Permanent Midnight" (1998) saw her as a sexy German woman who in the throes of passion with a drug addicted screenwriter (Ben Stiller) utters a disturbing but amusing line. Even in the superior "Rushmore" (also 1998), Nielsen was cast primarily for her looks, playing the fantasy-inducing mother of a prep school student. She moved to the United States in 1996 and made her first appearance in a major English-language film in 1997 as Christabella Andreoli in The Devil's Advocate, starring opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in a somewhat "revealing" role. This led to roles in films as Permanent Midnight (1998), Rushmore (1998) and Soldier (1998). In 2000, Nielsen became known to worldwide audiences as Lucilla in Ridley Scott's internationally acclaimed Academy Award-winning epic Gladiator, where she starred opposite Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Brian De Palma tapped her to play the sole female member of a "Mission to Mars" and Ridley Scott cast her as Lucilla, the conflicted sister of a despotic emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) in "Gladiator" (both 2000). While the former barely utilized her except as a plot device, the latter epic offered her a meaty role. With her regal bearing and stunning looks, Nielsen perfectly captured the languid hauteur of the privileged but proved enough of an actress that she could convey layers of emotion with a single look. Her performance made it clear that Hollywood had barely begun to tap into her capabilities. She has since then starred in some notable American films, including Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), The Hunted (2003) and Basic (2003). She also starred in the acclaimed French thriller Demonlover (2002), directed by Olivier Assayas. In 2002, Nielsen co-starred with Robin Williams in the feature "One Hour Photo". In this thriller, Nielsen portrays a woman who is stalked by an employee (Robin Williams) of a one-hour photo lab. The following year, she was cast in the action crime feature "The Hunted," which co-starred Oscar recipients Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro. Neilsen also made for a quintessential film noir femme fatale in director Harold Ramis' pitch black "The Ice Harvest" (2005) as a strip club owner who considers an escape with a mob accountant (John Cusack) after he steals a bundle from his boss. In 2004, Nielsen made her Danish film debut in the drama, Brødre (aka Brothers) for which she won the Danish Best Actress Award, The Bodil, as well as Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards. In 2006, Nielsen appeared in several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Det. Dani Beck. She filled in for Mariska Hargitay who was on maternity leave at the time of filming. Since fall of 2003 she has been dating Metallica drummer and fellow-Dane Lars Ulrich. On May 21, 2007, Lars and Connie had a son named Bryce Thadeus Ulrich-Nielsen. Nielsen also has a son, Sebastian (b. 1991), from a previous relationship. She speaks six languages: Danish, English, French, German, Italian and Swedish. Her favorite bands include The Clash and she is a fan of the work of, among others, fellow Danes film directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. |
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