On the 16th of December, 1967, the beautiful actress-turned-designer, Lindsay Otto, gave birth to a lovely daughter. Lindsay, and her famed actor husband, Barry Otto, decided to name their child after Shakespeare’s character “Miranda” from “The Tempest”. Being named after a theatrical character must have somehow affected the young Miranda for she, like both her parents, turned to acting after shortly pursuing a medical career. At the age of 19, Miss Otto stared in her first film “Emma’s War” where she was cast as the 14-year-old Emma Grange. This brought her some attention and soon she found herself getting roles in the movies “Initiation” and “The 13th Floor”. Realizing her gift for acting, Miranda enrolled in the prestigiously acclaimed NIDA school of acting and graduated from it in 1990 like her co-actors before her, Mel Gibson and Judy Davis. She soon began to gain recognition in the fairy tale, ‘The Girl Who Came Late’ (also known as Day Dream Believer), some critical-minded acclaim in ‘Human Nature’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’ and finally, her first big, attention-getting role in ‘What Lies Beneath’. In 2000, Miranda also filmed an Italian diamond commercial with Brad Pitt. Although the advertisement was shot in Los Angeles, the set was made to look like the two were actually in Italy.<o:p></o:p>
Sometime in 2001, Miranda Otto began a grueling six months of training in horseback riding and sword fighting on the set of Peter Jackson’s second, eagerly awaited installment to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, ‘The Two Towers’! The movie premiered in 2002 and Miranda gained dazzling media attention for her awesome role of the warrior-princess, Eowyn and began receiving amazing beauty comparisons with her co-star, Liv Tyler. Miranda is, today, one of the most beautiful actresses, but her performance as the courageous, yet trapped, Eowyn leaves absolutely no room for questions on whether or not Miranda Otto has everything necessary to give the world another amazing actress! 2001 and 2002 were turning out to be the best years of Miranda’s life, for while acting in the theatrical ‘A Doll’s House’ she met the dashing, if somewhat older, Peter O’Brien. The couple was engaged in 2001 and was married very soon after on January 1, 2002!
‘Julie Walking Home’ and ‘Doctor Sleep’ brought a nice low-key balance to the large-scale LotR trilogy in 2002, and 2003 gave her a smaller part in the comedy ‘Danny Deckchair’ right before the huge, last project in the Trilogy, ‘The Return of the King’ hit theaters (December 17th). This long awaited sequel brought in 57.6M worldwide in only it’s first day and Otto shone again with even more screen time than in ‘The Two Towers’! Miranda worked all through 2004 on her newest films ‘In My Father’ Den’ and ‘The Flight of the Phoenix’ and the later was released by the end of the year. The release date for ‘In My Father’s Den’ is not known at the present. <o:p></o:p>
Miranda Otto is working currently on the set of ‘War of the Worlds’ which is expected to be released sometime in 2005. Miranda-fans the world over look forward impatiently to the next installment to her already lengthy filmography!
