Elizabeth Debicki
Quick Facts
Biography
Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990) is an Australian actress. After making her feature film debut in Australian wedding comedy A Few Best Men (2011), she appeared in The Great Gatsby (2013), for which she won an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and starred in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Maids with Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert, for which she received a nomination for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play at the 14th Helpmann Awards. After this she went on to play supporting roles in Macbeth (2015), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Everest (2015), The Night Manager (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Peter Rabbit (2018), Widows (2018), and Tenet (2020). Additionally, she played the lead in the Australian television series The Kettering Incident (2016).
Early life
Debicki was born in Paris to a Polish father and an Australian mother of Irish descent. Her parents were both ballet dancers. When she was five, the family moved to Glen Waverley in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The eldest of three children, she has a younger sister and a brother.
Debicki became interested in ballet at an early age and trained as a dancer until deciding to switch to theatre. A student at Huntingtower School in eastern Melbourne, she achieved two perfect study scores in Drama and English and was the school's dux when she graduated in 2007. In 2010, she completed a degree in drama at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts. In August 2009, she was the recipient of a Richard Pratt Bursary for outstanding acting students in their second year of training.
Career
Debicki made her film debut with a brief appearance in the 2011 film A Few Best Men. After seeing Debicki's audition reel, director Baz Luhrmann flew her to auditions in Los Angeles. In May 2011, Luhrmann announced that she had been cast as Jordan Baker in his 2013 film The Great Gatsby. In December 2012, Debicki was the subject of a photo shoot for Vogue Australia.
From June to July 2013, Debicki played Madame in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Jean Genet's play The Maids with Cate Blanchett as Claire and Isabelle Huppert as Solange. She won the best newcomer award at the Sydney Theatre Awards. In 2014, the play transferred Off-Broadway at the New York City Center.
Debicki appears in a 13-minute short film, "Gödel, Incomplete", and appeared as a guest star in the third season of the Australian TV series Rake. She played the villain in the Guy Ritchie-directed film adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015). She learned to drive on the set. In 2015, Debicki had supporting roles in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of Macbeth and Everest.
In 2016, Debicki starred as Mona Sanders alongside Mark Strong and Hope Davis in the stage adaptation of Georges Simenon's novel The Man on the Bench in the Barn titled, The Red Barn by David Hare at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre.
Debicki played the lead in an eight-hour television series, The Kettering Incident, and a supporting role, Jed, in the miniseries The Night Manager. She was then cast in the film The Tale. In May 2017 she portrayed Ayesha, the leader of the Sovereign people in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She will return for its sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Debicki also appeared in the film The Cloverfield Paradox, released on Netflix in February 2018, as Mina Jensen. In 2019 it was announced that Debicki had been cast in Christopher Nolan's spy film Tenet.
She voiced the role of Mopsy in Peter Rabbit.
In August 2020, it was announced that she will play Diana, Princess of Wales in the final two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown.
Stage
Year | Production | Role | Playwright | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | The Gift | Chloë | Joanna Murray-Smith | Melbourne Theatre Company | |
2013–2014 | The Maids | Madame | Jean Genet | Sydney Theatre Company New York City Center | |
2016 | The Red Barn | Mona Sanders | David Hare | Lyttelton Theatre, London |
Awards and nominations
Year | Work | Association | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | The Great Gatsby | Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Won |
Empire Awards, UK | Best Female Newcomer | Nominated | ||
Australian Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
Film Critics Circle of Australia | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Nominated | ||
The Maids | Helpmann Awards | Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play | Nominated | |
Sydney Theatre Awards | Best Newcomer | Won | ||
2016 | The Night Manager | Broadcast Television Journalists Association | Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries | Nominated |
The Kettering Incident | Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts | Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama | Won | |
2017 | Logie Awards | Most Outstanding Actress | Nominated | |
2018 | N/A | Cannes Film Festival | Trophée Chopard | Won |
Breath | Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Nominated | |
The Tale | Online Film & Television Association | Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture or Limited Series | Nominated | |
Widows | Chicago Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | |
Columbus Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
Hawaii Film Critics Society | Best Supporting Actress | Won | ||
IndieWire Critics Poll | Best Supporting Actress | 4th place | ||
The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics | Supporting Film Performance of the Year – Actress | Nominated | ||
London Film Critics' Circle | Supporting Actress of the Year | Nominated | ||
Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | runner-up | ||
Los Angeles Online Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
National Society of Film Critics | Best Supporting Actress | runner-up | ||
North Carolina Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
Online Film Critics Society | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
North Texas Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | runner-up | ||
Utah Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actress | runner-up | ||
Seattle Film Critics Society | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
2019 | Talk Film Society | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | |
Chicago Indie Critics | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
Best Ensemble Cast | Nominated |