Biography
Date of Birth
7 December 1988, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Birth Name
Emily Jane Browning
Nickname
Em
Height
5' 2" (1.57 m)
Mini Biography
Australian actress Emily Browning was born in 1988 in Melbourne, Australia, to Shelley and Andrew Browning. She has two younger brothers. Her start in acting came after a classmate's father, involved in the acting business, noticed her "acting all ditsy" in a school play. Emily found an agent and was soon filming on location for the Hallmark TV-movie, The Echo of Thunder (1998). She received more roles from there, including parts in The Man Who Sued God (2001), opposite Billy Connolly, and Ned Kelly (2003), opposite Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom. In that film, she had to hug Heath Ledger, and she said that all of her friends, who went to see the film, at the same time sent her a barrage of text messages about how lucky she was! Emily says she tries to avoid "cheesy" movies, and her big break came when she was on a press tour in LA for Ghost Ship (2002), that was filmed in Australia and released in America. In the same year, she won an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Young Actress, and was nominated for the same award, the next year. Emily received some scripts when she was in LA and sent in a video audition for A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). She received a call and was asked to come to LA for a proper audition, which won her the part. She spent months in LA filming, for the second time acting opposite Billy Connolly. Emily said she enjoyed the experience of making a big budget film in America, and says that although she's not sure what is coming next, she's hoping to do some more Australian work.
Trivia
Got her start in acting after being noticed in a school play.
Won the coveted role of Violet in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) after her agent gave her a pile of scripts for which to submit video auditions. She was phoned by the "Lemony Snicket" director Brad Silberling and asked to come to L.A. for an audition, which won her the part.
For her underwater scene in Ghost Ship (2002), she had to wear little weights so her dress wouldn't float up over her face.
Her parents' names are Shelley and Andrew.
Has two brothers; Nicholas (b. circa 1995) and Matthew (b. circa 1997).
She wanted to be a fashion designer when she was little, but she was "discovered" as an actress at age 8 in a school play.
She was scared she was going to get fired while filming A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), because she'd be laughing at Jim Carrey so much.
Says she learned an American accent from watching Sesame Street (1969) as a child.
She has a cat named Jasper and a dog named Roxy.
She needed to wear heels for her costume in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) because Liam Aiken was much taller than she was.
Is featured briefly (archive footage from Ghost Ship (2002)) in the film Around the Bend (2004).
Took a three-year acting break, starting in 2005, to finish school in Australia. She will return in the remake of A Tale of Two Sisters (2004), with Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks and David Strathairn.
Was cast as "Babydoll" in Sucker Punch (2011), after Amanda Seyfried was forced to drop out due to scheduling problems.
Replaced Mia Wasikowska in Sleeping Beauty (2011).
Has her nose and belly button pierced.
Ranked #90 in the 2011 FHM (Australia) list of "100 Sexiest Women in the World".
In 2002, she won an AFI Young Actor's Award and in 2004 she represented them.
Per Stephenie Meyer's request, Browning was offered the part of "Bella" in Twilight (2008). She turned it down because she didn't want to be involved in a film franchise as it would distract her from her studies.
Ranked #28 in "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World" for 2010.
Ranked #4 in the 2011 Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Faces.
Even though she turned down the lead in Twilight (2008) she worked with the director and author of the film, later in her career. She worked with director on Catherine Hardwicke' on Plush (2013) and with Stephanie Meyer on The Host (2013), the adaptation of the novel that Meyer produced.
Music video: Appeared in the music video "Light Surrounding You" by Evermore. [2006]
She had been considering quitting acting but says that working with Zack Snyder on ''Sucker Punch (2011)'' made her decide to continue.
She auditioned for title role in 'Carrie (2013)' and the role of Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games (2012)'.
For her role in 'Sucker Punch (2011)', she dyed her hair platinum blonde and did months of weight, combat and weapons training. She had to cut her hair very short afterwards as the dye left it badly damaged.
She was among the actresses considered for the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) before Rooney Mara was cast.
She was considered for the role of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). The role eventually went to Emma Stone.
She was considered for the role of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016). The role eventually went to Margot Robbie.
Trademarks:
Rosy cheeks
Full, voluptuous lips
Porcelain skin
Quotes
I was lucky - the first eight productions I auditioned for, I got cast.
After Hollywood, you know if people are interested in you or in the fact that you've been in a movie. You know who your real friends are.
My family are very supportive and always have been. They weren't the kind of parents that pushed me into it. I know a lot of parents of kid actors I've worked with have pressured them into acting, but my parents are different. I'm really lucky to have them because they let me make my own decisions.
[on a scene that was cut in Sucker Punch (2011)] I had a very tame and mild love scene with Jon Hamm. It was like heavy breathing and making out. It was hardly a sex scene... I think that it's great for this young girl to actually take control of her own sexuality. Well, the MPAA doesn't like that. They don't think a girl should ever be in control of her own sexuality because they're from the Stone Age. I don't know what the fuck is going on and I will openly criticize it, happily. So essentially, they got [director Zack Snyder] to edit the scene and make it look less like she's into it. And Zack said he edited it down to the point where it looked like he was taking advantage of her. That's the only way he could get a PG-13 (rating) and he said, "I don't want to send that message". So they cut the scene!
The whole point of our job is to be able to realistically portray a human being and if you don't experience life, if all you experience is acting and being on set, how on Earth are you going to be able to connect to real people and portray these characters? I realized if I want to do this, I have to have a life.
[on what you bring as an artist] You can't judge it and you can't analyze what you do, because what you bring is original and beautiful and special.
In my everyday life I'm a little bit nervous and not particularly brave. I feel like if I can be completely brave in my work then I'm doing something right.
I went to this weird little hippie primary school and we did a lot of plays. The first one was "Alice in Wonderland" and I played Alice. It was all in Italian - it was such a bizarre school.
I'm not going to do a pop album anytime soon. I'm not going to dye my hair blonde and wear pink mini-skirts.
I'm a massive daydreamer. I'm constantly lost within my own fantasies and my own thoughts personally, and I think maybe that is sort of represented in what we do for a living, the fact that we make believe everything and we escape into these other characters for a living.
