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Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American pop singer and actress. She grew up in Florida and came to fame as a teenager in the early 2000s, after the release of her teen-oriented pop albums "So Real", "I Wanna Be with You", "Mandy Moore", and "Coverage". Moore has branched out into a film career, starring in 2002's "A Walk to Remember" and later appearing in the lead roles of other movies also aimed at teenage audiences. Two of her later films, "American Dreamz" and "Saved!", were satires in which Moore portrayed darker characters than in her previous roles. Moore's private life, including her relationships with tennis player Andy Roddick and actors Wilmer Valderrama and Zach Braff, has been much discussed in the media.
During the summer of 2000, Moore hosted a half-hour MTV talk show, The Mandy Moore Show, which resumed in the summer of 2001 under the title Mandy. Moore was also a Neutrogena spokesperson, appearing in commercials and print ads for the product. She has modeled for Penshoppe in the Philippines, Coach handbags in Japan, and was a spokesperson for the School and Youth Programs of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
In 2001, Moore appeared in a small part as the mean and popular cheerleader Lana Thomas opposite actresses Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews in the film The Princess Diaries. During the film, Moore's character performs "Stupid Cupid", a song from the film's soundtrack. In 2002, Moore had her first starring role in a major feature film in A Walk to Remember, which co-starred Shane West. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film revolved around the developing romance between a Protestant minister's daughter (Moore) and an unruly teenager (West). The film was moderately successful, bringing in $41 million in the United States, and establishing Moore's status as a lead actress. Although the film was released to negative reviews, Moore received several positive notices for her performance, with critic Roger Ebert calling her "quietly convincing". At that summer's MTV Movie Awards, Moore won an award for "Breakthrough Female Performance" for the role. The same year, she voiced the Final Fantasy VII character Aerith Gainsborough in the Square-Disney crossover video game Kingdom Hearts, was featured in the music video for Elton John's "Original Sin", and was ranked number sixty-seven in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World".
In 2003, Moore starred in the romantic comedy film How to Deal, which failed to draw in teenage crowds in the U.S. and grossed a total of $14 million domestically. Her next film was 2004's Chasing Liberty, a romantic comedy that grossed approximately $12 million. Both films received negative reviews; Ebert once again singled Moore's performances out, noting in his review of How to Deal that Moore has "an unaffected natural charm" and "almost makes the movie worth seeing", and adding in his Chasing Liberty review that she has "undeniable screen presence and inspires instant affection". Other critics described her as an "actress of limited range", though one review of Chasing Liberty noted that she is the "most painless of former pop princesses". Later in 2004, Moore appeared in a lead role in the religion satire Saved!, in which she played Hilary Faye, a proper and popular girl at a Christian school. The film was positively reviewed, though it did not receive a wide release. Moore received praise for her performance, with one critic calling her a "demented delight" and another naming it her best performance to date.
In 2005, Moore lent her voice to the film Racing Stripes and appeared on the television series Entourage; she was also originally scheduled to star in the films Cursed, Havoc, and The Upside of Anger, all of which were eventually released in 2005 without Moore's involvement.
In 2006, Moore guest-starred in two episodes of Scrubs. The same year, she lent her voice to The Simpsons, playing Tabitha Vixx in the episode Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play which aired in May. Moore also appeared in the parody American Dreamz, which was released in April 2006. In the film, she played a deranged contestant on a television series modeled after American Idol. Director Paul Weitz stated that he had Moore in mind for the role before she was cast, explaining that "there's something inherently sweet about Mandy; it makes it all the more interesting to see her in a villainess role". Moore has said that she enjoys playing mean-spirited characters but fears being typecast as a villain. American Dreamz opened at number nine at the U.S. box office, eventually totaling barely $7 million, and received mixed reviews; critic Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, however, wrote that Moore and co-star Hugh Grant have a "wicked barbed chemistry" in their roles, while Variety's Robert Koehler said Moore's role was a "pitch-perfect study of a woman for whom a reality show is reality". Later that year, in what ComingSoon.net's review described as a "surprisingly good performance", Moore voiced Nita, the heroine of the animated sequel Brother Bear 2, which was released directly-to-DVD on August 29. She was also originally cast to appear in that year's ensemble film Bobby, but was replaced by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Moore, citing her conservative upbringing, has expressed dissatisfaction with her appearance on a May 2006 cover of Cosmopolitan; the magazine's headline is "orgasms unlimited", which refers to an article unrelated to her. Ironically in her next movie, Because I Said So, co-starring Gabriel Macht, Lauren Graham and Diane Keaton, Moore's character describes in detail the feeling of an orgasm to her mother, Keaton's character. It was released on February 2, 2007 and received mixed reviews. Moore's upcoming films include Southland Tales, Dedication, and License to Wed, in which she portrays a young bride who has to complete a two-week prenup course before her wedding. Co-starring John Krasinski as her fiance and Robin Williams as a minister, the film was shot in Mexico and Los Angeles and is scheduled for release on July 3, 2007. Wikipedia |
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