"...the most important thing - apart from telling a good, believable story, and being a true character - is to be someone the audience will care about, even if you're playing a murderer or rapist."
Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976 in Rochdale, England) is an English actress. While a known actress in her home country, she's probably best known internationally for her work as Charlotte "Chuck" Charles in the ABC comedy series Pushing Daisies for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
She appeared in:
- G.B.H.
- Emmerdale
- Tales from the Crypt
- Cadfael
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Timeline
- Pushing Daisies
- Land of the Lost
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
- Neverland
- Come Fly With Me
- Limitless
- Uncle Vanya
- American Odyssey
- Marcella
- Brookside
Tropes
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Her non-comedic characters tend to be detached.
- Fake Nationality: She's a Brit, but commonly plays Fake Americans.
- Method Acting: When playing a Fake American (specifically during Pushing Daisies's run), she uses her American accent even at breaks so she'd get used to it.
- Ms. Fanservice: She has no qualms showing a lot of skin (sometimes outright disrobing) in her works.
- Romance on the Set: She met her then-partner David Thewlis on the set of Timeline.
- Star-Making Role: While already a familiar face at the time, Pushing Daisies is what really got her recognized.
- What Could Have Been:
- She was the runner up for Helena Bonham Carter's role in Fight Club.
- She lobbied for the role of "Nymphadora Tonks" in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, after the sixth book of the same name revealed that "Tonks" was romantically involved with "Remus Lupin", who is played by her then real-life boyfriend, David Thewlis.
- Bryan Fuller wanted to cast her as Margot Verger in Hannibal but she was committed to American Odyssey at the time.
