Ten Wonderful Actresses of the 2000s Quiz

Answer: Ellen Page

If I'd mentioned Jason Reitman's "Juno", I bet no one would get this one wrong. 5'1" Canadian actor Ellen Philpotts-Page (hence the nickname The Tiny Canadian) is certainly one of the most promissing acting talents of the new century, achieving remarkable performances as Juno MacGuff in "Juno" (which gained a Best Actress Oscar nomination) and as Hayley Stark in the hunter-becomes-prey thriller "Hard Candy". "Love That Boy" is a Canadian movie where Ellen played the role of Suzanna, whereas in the "X-Men" third installment she played Shadow Cat, alongside all the other possible answers. Paige now identifies as Elliot.

Answer: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Drew Barrymore starred in "Riding in Cars With Boys", and all the other three starred in "Mona Lisa Smile" (with Julia Roberts). Maggie, of course, worked in both and also in the surprisingly nasty romantic comedy "Secretary", alongside James Spader, as Lee Holloway (one of my personal favorite roles). Other movies featuring this beautiful blue-eyed actress worth mentioning are "Donnie Darko" (where she played the sister of the title character... portrayed by her real brother Jake!), Marc Forster's "Stranger Than Fiction" and the widely acclaimed (from both audiences and critics) "Dark Knight" (where she replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes).

Answer: Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert is one of France's greatest actresses in a long time, as proven in movies like Haneke's "The Piano Teacher" ("La Pianiste", in the original) or in François Ozon's "Huit Femmes". She played Ella Watson in the biggest-flop-ever, entitled "Heaven's Gate", Caterine Vauban in "I Heart Huckabees" and the title character in "Gabrielle". Lily Tomlin had a part in "I Heart Huckabees", while the other two are... just classy.

Answer: Julianne Moore

Julianne, alright. Cate Blanchett was wonderful in the pseudo-biographical "I'm Not There" (based on Bob Dylan's career) and also had a rather short role in "The Shipping News", playing in both opposite Julianne Moore. Renée and Nicole have also kept themselves very busy these years, but didn't work in any of these movies. Julianne played Marlene, the main couple's friend, in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", Wavey Prowse, Kevin Spacey's love interest, in "The Shipping News", and Alice Fabian in 2007's "I'm Not There". Julianne got two simultaneous Oscar nominations in 2003 for her roles in "Far From Heaven" (Best Actress) and "The Hours" (Best Actress in a Supporting Role), but didn't get any of them.

Answer: Maria de Medeiros

Many of you might have answered this one wrong, as Uma Thurman starred in two of these movies ("Pulp Fiction" and "Henry and June"), and Amanda Plummer played one of the honeybunnies in "Pulp Fiction". What about Maria? She was writer Anais Nin in "Henry and June", the Hairdresser in "My Life Without Me" and (last but not the least) Fabienne (Bruce Willis' French girfriend) in "Pulp Fiction". Maria de Medeiros comes from a rather multi-talented family: her father, António Vitorino D'Almeida, is a renowned composer, pianist and maestro, her half-sister, Ana, is also a composer and a violinist and her sister, Inês, is a very respected stage director and actress.

Answer: Emily Watson

Emily Watson was Elsie in "Gosford Park", Angela McCourt in "Angela's Ashes" and the voice of Victoria Everglot in "The Corpse Bride". Kristin and Helena had roles in "Gosford Park" and "Corpse Bride", respectively. By the way, the remarkable breakthrough performance by Emily was of course the one as Bess McNeill in Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves".

She also starred in one of my favorite movies: "Punch Drunk Love", by Paul Thomas Anderson, coupling with the surprising Adam Sandler.

Answer: Chiaki Kuriyama

Before starting her acting career, Chiaki was a very popular child model in Japan. In 1997, a best-selling book featuring pictures of her was discontinued, as some of them contained nudity. As an actress, she played the role of a schoolgirl in many of her movies, like in "Battle Royale" or - I guess you can say that! - in "Kill Bill".
The other three possible answers all portrayed Chiaki's fellow students in "Battle Royale".

Answer: Chloe Sevigny

Hilary Swank was, of course, the main star of "Boys Don't Cry" - and got an Oscar for it, whereas Dallas Howard was the leading lady in von Trier's "Manderlay" and Rhada Mitchell was in "Melinda and Melinda". They all played opposite Chloe in those movies: she was Lana (Swank's girlfriend) in the first, Philomena in the second and Laurel in the last one. Chloe also played Patrick Bateman's secretary in Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel "American Psycho" and got her share of controversy due to her explicit sex scene with her then-boyfriend Vincent Gallo in his movie "Brown Bunny".

Answer: Cate Blanchett

Cate was Meredith Logue in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (alonside Gwyneth Paltrow), Philippa Packard in "Heaven" and the title character Lucinda in "Oscar and Lucinda". By the end of 2008, she had achieved almost everything an actress could wish for: an Oscar (for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator"), worldwide recognition for her talent, a role in the most successful saga of the decade ("The Lord of Rings" trilogy) and, last but not the least, got to play a wonderful villain in the last installment of Indiana Jones' aventures. The four possible answers are all Academy Award winners.

Answer: Kate Winslet

Kate played one of the troubled teenagers (Juliet) in "Heavenly Creatures", the younger title character, Iris Murdoch, in "Iris" and Sarah Pierce in "Little Children". Of the other possible answers, only Jennifer Connelly had a role in one of these movies: "Little Children".
Kate reached the peak of stardom with her role in "Titanic", but that didn't kept her from showing her immense acting skills in a handful of movies like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or "Finding Neverland". She is much more than that girl from "Titanic".

That's about it. Hope you had a good time!