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Although Karyn Dwyer has often been praised for her all American looks,
this gifted actress is quick to point out she was actually born and
raised in Newfoundland,
Canada.
She has worked in Canadian and American films and some Canadian
television
series but so far is best known for the hit independent film,
BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE.
The petite fiesty
redhead has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts
in
favour of more intriguing ingénues and as a result, she's
built
an eclectic
résumé; that runs the gamut from Shakespearean
tragedy to
modern day comedy and
erotica. Often compared to Julianne
Moore and Kate Winslet,
fans agree that Karyn Dwyer is truly an original.
Born in Newfoundland to an Irish Catholic family of five children,
Dwyer
came into her talent at the early age of 10 when she won the title role
in
Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador's production of Alice in Wonderland
and went on
to become
a theatre veteran, while maintaining an A+ average.
Upon graduating
high school with honours, she turned down a journalism scholarship to the
prestigious Carleton University
in Ottawa
and made the long
hike to Toronto for Theatre School. When money ran out she got an agent
and
started appearing regularly in a wide range of film and television
roles.
Meanwhile she wrote and starred in her hilarious one woman show Bad
Girls at
The Rivoli, and played Phoebe in AS
YOU LIKE IT
for the internationally acclaimed theatre festival DuMaurier World Stage
opposite
distinguished
stage veterans Seana McKenna and Albert
Schultz.
The actors had no rehearsal and were given cue scripts with only their
own
lines and three words of the line before, which was their cue to speak.
Her
first big break came when after a
cross Canada search, the Newfoundland native won the starring role in
BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE. Still a relative unknown, she had originally
been brought in to
audition for the smaller role of main character's girlfriend. She made
an
immediate impression on the film's director, Anne Wheeler, who asked
her to do
a cold read for the film's main character. Karyn beat out more than a
hundred other
hopefuls and lit up the screen in the starring role.
BETTER
THAN CHOCOLATE opened to
rave
reviews at both The Berlin Film
Festival and the Vancouver
International Film Festival.
It was hailed by Variety
as "A terrifically entertaining romantic comedy." The Los Angeles Times
declared
"[The film]
brims over with good humor and high spirits and has some moments of
stunning
yet tasteful eroticism. " Much of the praise received by the film was
for
Dwyer's performance. She was praised for her "charm",
"effervescence" and "ability to light up the screen". The Hollywood Reporter
called
Dwyer "the
film's heart and soul" raving "(Dwyer is) terrific, lending the
goings on a heated, poignant credibility." Her ability to communicate
the
joy of sex, prompted Internet voters to rate her lesbian love scenes
the
hottest ever. BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE ranked 31 on The Hollywood
Reporter's list of best independent films that year. It won numerous
awards and
earned Karyn a loyal cult following when it became one of Canada's
highest
grossing English speaking movies of all time, with a 30 million dollar
world
box office, according to The
Cannes Film Festival website.
Young
lesbians the world over both idolized and identified with Dwyer.
Internet
voters loved her performance in the stunningly memorable erotic body
painting
sequence, rating her lesbian love scenes the hottest ever. The Chicago Tribune
raved, "The
highlight
of the movie is unquestionably Dwyer's performance as Maggie. She
brings a sexy
intelligence to the role of a floating 19 year old trying to find a
place to
land that keeps us rooting for her…It may well be that
Better
Than Chocolate
will be remembered as the film that kick starts her career."
Dwyer immediately followed it up with a
big budget American comedy, Lorne
Michaels' SUPERSTAR.
In it she as a mean cheerleader opposite Molly Shannon
and Will
Ferrell.
But then tragedy struck. The oldest of five siblings, Dwyer had already
lost
her father to cancer
when she was 10. Now, after the swell of unexpected attention
surrounding BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE and SUPERSTAR, Dwyer's brother
tragically passed away. She then
spent the next three years advocating
programs to fight her brother's illness and was
eager to spend time with her family and retreat into theatre and
critically
praised but little-seen independent short films.
On stage, she played the title role in Native Earth's
ROMEO AND JULIET,
performance artist Sooze in Eric
Bogosian's SUBURBIA and
originated the role of Carrie, a
junkie prostitute in the extremely innovative and experimental
EXERCISES IN DEPRAVITY, opposite R.H.
Thompson performed in the
bathroom of Buddies in Bad
Times Theatre. Dwyer joked, "Exercises
in Depravity was big hit. We were
sold out every night... Of course, there was only room for 12 audience
members." One night, during
the monologue where Dwyer's
character burns
out her own eyes, an audience member fainted and had to be carried out.
Other
audience members assumed it was part of the show.
The little-seen but critically praised
independent short films award winning shorts PONY,
POLISHED
and DYING LIKE OPHELIA
really opened eyes to
Dwyer's ability. She delivered on her earlier promise with another
endearing
performance in PONY based on White
Biting Dog
by two time Governor General Award
winning playwright Judith Thompson
as a dead girl who tries to ease her father's grief. Dwyer is nicely
understated in POLISHED, garnering praise from critics such as Film Threat
who said "What shines best (no pun intended) is shoe shiner Karyn
Dwyer.
She has all the characteristics of the typical working class stiff with
a
likeable honesty." But it was her gritty and heart wrenching
performance
in DYING LIKE OPHELIA
based
on Lion
in the Streets
also by Thompson, that
cemented the fact that Dwyer had indeed matured into a genuinely gifted
actor.
For it she gained weight to convincingly transform herself into the
playwright's vision of this working class mother who yearns for a
beautiful
death like Millais's
famous painting of Ophelia
in stark contrast to the ugliness of her grim reality.
In the film, she tries to persuade her mortified friend to help her
carry out
her plans; in real life, Dwyer volunteers for a telephone support line
in
Toronto and has received extensive training in suicide prevention.
Although she has so far eschewed more
mainstream production she continues to gain critical acclaim and
increasing
underground popularity if the steadily growing number of fan sites
dedicated to
her is any indication, playing roles, both large and small, in
independent film
and highly innovative theatre productions. She continues to select
somewhat
dark, idiosyncratically funny roles that surprise critics and audiences
alike.
When asked about her selection, she insists that she has no agenda but
merely
tries to pick to the best scripts available and work with people she
respects.
Most
recently she teamed up with Anne
Wheeler
again to guest star in the award winning Canadian series THIS IS WONDERLAND.
Reportedly,
when Wheeler
offered her the role she told Dwyer she wanted her to look completely
unrecognizable from
Better Than
Chocolate. Dwyer eschewed
personal
vanity and bravely decided to cut her trademark red ringlets short on
half her
head and shave the other half her head for an asymmetrical effect
appropriate
for this extreme character that only the likes of Dwyer could pull off.
Although the show's style is very theatrical, her performance was so
rooted in
the truth it allowed her to believably take the character to many
extremes,
both hilarious and poignant for a bold and accomplished performance.
Although
she seems to be more focused on her craft than her stardom, Karyn's
warmth and
exceptional ability to connect with audiences will always keep her in
demand by
directors concerned with talent and originality.
Despite much curiosity about her love
life, Dwyer has managed to stay out of celebrity gossip rags. She is
quoted as
saying, "I
prefer to keep my private
life private. When an audience
watches me, I want them to be able to see the character I'm playing,
and not be
thinking about whether I'm dating Ellen
DeGeneres
or Ben
Affleck...
But I am thinking about "coming out" as a straight woman."
source:
KARYN DWYER site
photo source:
eye.net
KARYN DWYER site
Karyn
Dwyer LINKS:
Karyn Dwyer
profile on imdb
The Official
Karyn Dwyer Fansite
Home of a
Karyn Dwyer Fan Club
KARYN DWYER site
KARYN DWYER
Link Collection
Karyn Dwyer is
one of the
top ten hottest redheads in the world
"Better
Than Chocolate (...) is a 1999 Canadian film starring
Karyn Dwyer and it is quite possible that a woman has never been
hotter in a movie in the history of the world."
one of the
hottest Canadians
and one of the
top 5 Canadian actresses
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