A native of Glasgow, Scottish actress Laura Fraser first came to the attention of international audiences with her work in Gillies MacKinnon's 1995 Small Faces. A coming-of-age drama set in a rough Glasgow neighborhood in the 1960s, it featured Fraser as the girlfriend of a local gangster, and the acclaim the film received contained praise for Fraser's tough, vivacious performance. She went on to do starring work in a series of British films, most of which failed to do justice to her talent. In 1999 Fraser was chosen as part of a high-profile cast to star as Lavinia in Titus, Julie Taymor's iconoclastic screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. The film received mixed reviews on both sides of the ocean, but a number of reviewers did note that Fraser more than held her own alongside such established stars as Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. After a brief turn in the British post-Beavis and Butthead brain cell ripper Kevin & Perry Go Large, Fraser traveled back in time for the popular joustfest A Knight's Tale.
Laura Fraser
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- Started acting when her father wrote a play for her youth club, starring her.
- Was cast as Jessica Brody in the original pilot for Homeland, but was replaced by Morena Baccarin when the show was picked up.
- Told Breaking Bad producers that she spoke German to get the role, then taught herself to speak it before shooting began.
- Has a portrait featured in an art gallery installation of famous Scottish actors at Glasgow Caledonian University's New York campus.