witnessed her work were not likely to discount her formidable talent and ease on camera.With a promising turn as Libbets Casey, Tobey Maguire's love interest in Ang Lee's swinging 1970s set "The Ice Storm," Holmes made the most of her supporting role, proving a compelling screen performer. While this big screen debut won the actress acclaim, television would soon make Katie Holmes a household name. Interestingly, the young actress' refreshing grounding in homespun values almost caused her to miss her auspicious small screen debut. Asked to audition for Kevin Williamson's smart teen drama "Dawson's Creek" on the same day she was to debut as Lola in her high school production of "Damn Yankees," Holmes politely declined, citing that her commitment to fellow castmates and friends was more important. Casting agents wisely rescheduled, and Holmes won the role on the new series.
As Joey Potter, Dawson's proverbial girl-next-door, she played the injured innocent, sweet, but with an edge, the product of a background far removed from the Holmes' own traditional and happy home. Faced with an imprisoned father, dead mother, and an overworked sister who is not only Joey's guardian, but has a new baby of her own, the character's everyday traumas were handled with grace by the actress. Holmes weekly gave a standout performance on the popular series, even among a cast of palpably gifted and more experienced young actors.
Her skillful performance in the disappointing thriller "Disturbing Behavior" (1998) could not elevate that film above its uninspired predictability, and while Williamson's "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" (1999) showcased Holmes' glowing presence and unmatched watch-ability, it became apparent that it was high time she moved past the tired teen scream genre. A move in that direction came with her turn as a supermarket checkout girl caught up in a drug-related hostage situation in Doug Lyman’s indeed ensemble film "Go" (1999). She was reunited with Tobey Maguire in "Wonder Boys" (2000), the Curtis Hanson-directed adaptation of Michael Chabot’s novel which chronicled a middle-aged author (Michael Douglas) plagued by writer's block.
With "Go" and "Wonder Boys," in which she played a student pursuing her much-older professor, Holmes smartly chose feature film roles that played against her well-established "Dawson's Creek" girl-next-door persona, a challenge she continued to meet as more films came her way. In Sam Ramie’s thriller "The Gift" (2000) she played a bitchy, man-eating Southern beauty who is brutally murdered, essaying a grown-up nude scene designed more to put the character of sweet-faced Joey behind her than to titillate. She took the lead in screenwriter-turned-director Stephen Gagman’s woman-in-jeopardy outing "Abandon" (2002), her first turn at carrying a picture in a mature leading role, and also joined the cast of director Joel Schumacher's 2003 action fest "The Phone Booth."
Further honing her post-TV craft as her series entered its last season, Holmes took the lead in the indeed gem, "Pieces of April" (2003) playing a headstrong young woman trying to reconcile with her dying mother – a role than earned her much critical acclaim – and appeared in a supporting role in "The Singing Detective" (2003), an adaptation of the Dennis Potter book starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey, Jr. After that it was on to a role she had probably outgrown but sparkled in nonetheless, "First Daughter" (2004), in which she was cast as an independent-minded Presidential offspring off to college who falls for the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her by posing as a dorm advisor.
Holmes got her introductory shot at a big-screen action blockbuster when she was cast opposite Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne's childhood friend and love interest, Rachel Dawes, an incorruptible Gotham City district attorney – and a character created especially for the screen – in "Batman Begins" (2005). This effective re-launch of the popular film franchise focused on the character's shadowy origins, but minus the over-the-top gothic camp of the original Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher films. Just weeks before the film's debut, Holmes' private life was catapulted into the public eye when she and actor Tom Cruise announced that they were dating, an announcement met with some skepticism from the media and the public, given that word came prior to both having major summer movies poised to debut. Speculation that the relationship was a publicity stunt ran rampant, especially after some ill-advised public appearances – including their bizarre, love-professing visit to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (Syndicated, 1986- ), in which Cruise jumped unashamedly on the couch with fist-pumping exuberance. Holmes also adopted Cruise's management team and began taking courses in Scientology, which the superstar had long championed and began touting much more vocally during his many press interviews while promoting his blockbuster, "War of the Worlds" (2005).
After only three months, Cruise announced his intention to marry his new girlfriend while doing a press junket in Paris in June, 2005. By October, she announced that she was pregnant with their first child, prompting her to drop out of her co-starring role in the drama "Shame on You" (lensed, 2005). The paparazzi kept a close eye on her ever-bulging belly until Holmes finally gave birth – presumably, a "silent birth" sanctioned by Scientology rules – to daughter, Suri, in April, 2006. Because the couple had been so forthcoming with all other details of their life together, the press and public were surprised when no photos were released of their baby daughter for months. This only served to fuel the media's fire, all of whom – be it bloggers or tabloid writers – imagined a variety of humorous, sometimes far-fetched scenarios as to why this was. Finally, Cruise, Holmes and their 4-month-old daughter posed for photographer Annie Leibovitz for a 22-page spread in Vanity Fair, receiving much publicity for that first peek in September, 2006.
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