Juliet Rylance

Biography

Juliet Rylance is a British actress & producer. She is known for playing Elizabeth in A Dog's Purpose(2017), Rebecca in Love After Love(2017), Rebecca Harper in TV series McMafia(2018-), Alison Hawthorne-Price in American Gothic(2016), Lisa in Amok(2015), Cornelia Robertson in The Knick(2014-2015), Tracy in Sinister(2012), Janelle in Frances Ha(2012).

Juliet has recently appeared in Perry Mason as Della street, in The Artist's Wife(2019) as Angela Smythson.

Family - Childhood

Juliet van Kampen was born on 26th July 1979 in London, England to Chris van Kampen(father)-an architect and Claire van Kampen(mother)- a director, composer, and writer.

Parents

Mother: Claire van Kampen (Claire Louise van Kampen) was born in Marylebone, London on 9th November 1953. She is a director, composer, and playwright. She won the Sam Wanamaker Award in 2007 with Mark Rylance. She has composed music for popular plays such as Days and Nights, Boeing-Boeing.

She originally trained as a pianist at the 'Royal College of Music', she got interested in 'Renaissance music' because of influences like record player David Munrow. She became the first female music director of both "Royal Shakespeare Company", and "the Royal National Theatre" in 1986.

Stepfather: Mark Rylance, the Oscar award-winning actor, writer, and theater director is her stepfather. Juliet was adopted by her stepfather.

Mark & Juliet's mother Claire met in 1987, they got married in Oxfordshire on 21 December 1989.

[ Juliet Rylance's parents- Mother Claire van Kampen & stepfather Mark Rylance ]

Sister- Nataasha van Kampen

She had a younger sister named Nataasha van Kampen (born on 25th February 1984) who was also an actress and filmmaker, she has acted in Nocturne (2009).

Unfortunately, she died young at the age of 28 from a suspected brain hemorrhage on 1st July 2012.  Nataasha was on a flight from New York when she had the hemorrhage. The doctors among the passengers tried to save her but in vain.

Mark Rylance pulled out of the 2012 London Olympics ceremony, he was supposed to recite a passage from Shakespeares' play 'The Tempest'.

[Juliet Rylance(right) with sister Natasha van Kampen and Mark Rylance]

Education

• Primary school: She attended a state school for her primaries. [4]
• High school: She attended Steiner school for higher studies. She took a gap year while in high school and worked at a café on Bankside, as a tour guide as the Globe (theatre) as a volunteer at hospice. [4]
• The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA): She studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a drama school in London, England. Where she got trained in film, TV, and theatre. She graduated from the RADA with a B.A degree in acting (H Level) in 2002.
  • She was inspired her mother snd stepfather to become an actress but was a bit afraid to take to the stage, her then-boyfriend encouraged her to join RADA(The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), she gave it a try, she was selected for the program, she eventually became an actress and a filmmaker.
•  

Marriage

Juliet Rylance & Christian Camargo

Juliet met American actor, producer, writer Christian Camargo while working at the Shakespeare's Globe (a global theatre in London) for a play directed by her stepfather Mark Rylance. The two had known each other since 1997, had been friends for a long time, the couple got married at the New York City Hall in November 2008. They live in London Burroughs and at his home in Joshua Tree in California’s Mojave Desert.

Christian Camargo was born in 1971 in New York City to Victoria Wyndham & Wendell Minnick. He studied acting at the Juilliard School. He is known for playing- Colonel John Cambridge in The Hurt Locker(2008), Eleazar Denali in "The Twilight Saga" film series, Daniel Luxembourg in Europa Report (2013) among others.

Christian is the grandson of actor Ralph Camargo. Ralph had asked his daughters to change their surnames from "Camargo" to something anglicized so that they won't be denied any chances because of their Latino heritage, Christian changed his surname to Camargo, he loves to be associated with his heritage rather than denying it. 

Image: Juliet Rylance with husband Christian Camargo

Juliet and Christian have appeared together in "The Tempest" (as Orlando & Miranda) and "As You Like It" (as Ariel & Rosalind)

Juliet and husband Christian share their time between their residences in London and New York.

Facts & Trivia

• Juliet Rylance: Juliet changed her surname to Rylance after 2003, she was given the name Juliet van Kampen at birth. Her birth parents divorced when Juliet was just 7 years old. She took her stepfather's surname when she started acting. Her first short movie "The Burl" credits her as Juliet Van Kampen, for later projects her name became "Rylance".
• Becoming an actress: She was 7 when she first got interested in acting, she saw her stepfather and mother take the stage for years.
• Parents' divorce: Her parents divorced when Juliet was 7 and Nataasha was 3.5 years old. The children would spend a week at their mother's place and another at her father's place, they resided on the opposite sides of London. Juliet's mother was married to Mark Rylance by the time, for the sake of their children, 3 parents would meet once a week. All three remained very friendly through the childhood of the children, so friendly that Juliet's two fathers (father and stepfather) go on trips together sometimes.
• Producer: She produced the comedy-drama Days and Nights (2014).
• Theater of Memory: Juliet started a production company with her friends David Sturzaker and  Tamara Harvey. The company has produced theaters such as- Romeo and Juliet, Bash: Latter-Day Plays.
• Theater: Other than her works in London theaters (Bash: Latter-Day Plays, Troilus and Cressida, I Am Shakespeare, Romeo, and Juliet) She has played in Othello at the Desdemona theaters in New York City. As You Like It, The Tempest, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, Ivanov, Twelfth Night are among her other works in theatre.
• An artist: She is an A-level artist, she paints occasionally. She taught painting at the hospice immediately after her education at the academy. 
• Before career as an actress: She worked at the coffee shop "Cafe Storm" near Shakespeare's Globe in London right after college, She worked as a manager at a Sicilian restaurant
• Activism:
  • #MeToo: She supported women who were victims of sexual harassment (particularly in Hollywood) and had stood in support of the #MeToo movement.
  • Women's March: She had been an active supporter of the women's March of 2016.
  • Climate change: She is passionate about climate change issues, she is often seen posting content on social media to raise awareness about climate change
  • Amazon rainforest saving: She requested her fans on social media (in August 2019) to help stop the burning of the Amazon forest by signing the petition on Change.org
  • Voting: She urges her fans to VOTE as it is their responsibility to be a part of the democratic process.
  • #Timesup movement: She supported the TimesUp movement of 2018
• Diet: Green juice is a part of her daily diet.
• Animal Lover: She has a pet dog named Garth.
• Philanthropy:
  • Peace One Day: She is peace ambassador for the NGO 'Peace One Day', it was responsible for UB announcing an 'International Day of peace' on 21st September
• Dream car: She dreams of owning a first-generation Porsche 911 car someday.
• London Love: She likes riding through the London city in a cab, hearing about the places from another person's (driver's) perspective.
• Live Life, Love Life. Laugh: This is the Motto of Juliet's life, it was the motto of Nataasha, her sister.
• Political inclination: she is a supporter of the Democratic party, a fan of Barack Obama and a critic of Donald Trump.
• She is an avid book reader, especially poems, some of the books she has read are:
  • Never Mind (Edward St Aubyn)
  • Howard Zinn Speaks - Collected speeches
• Her friends apparently call her Dutch. [from her Instagram bio]
• Photography: She loves photography, she owns a Leica M
•  

Questions & Answers

• What was her childhood ambition?
  • To become a storyteller & an ambassador of peace.
• How important is fitness for an actor?
  • Juliet considers fitness to be very important for an actor like a violin is for a musician
• Where does she feel most happy?
  • she feels happier in the wilderness, in open spaces
• What drives her?
  • Time, the finiteness of life. She likes her father's two quotes on the topic- "Time is our servant, not our master" & "Time waits for no man".
• What irritates her the most in others?
  
  • "Judgment of others"

Note: Many from Financial Times Q & A of Juliet Rylance, Reference 4.

Filmography

Movies List

TV Series List

Short movies List

Stage/ Theater

Reference: [3]

Awards

Quotes

• I've always wanted to act. I come from a family rooted in the arts so I think I naturally gravitated towards performing from an early age.
• We are not God. We are tiny, tiny part of Nature. [Nov 2016]
• Don't Mourn - Organize [Nov 2016]
• Experience is everything. [June 2016]
• You don't need to justify your love, you don't need to explain your love, you just need to practice your love. Practice creates the master. [Juliet on Love]
• Not all those who wander are lost.
• The indispensable first step to getting what you want is this: decide what you want. [Juliet on success and indecision]
• Life is easy when Love is your way of life. [on Love]
• Focus your Intention: it is the starting point of every journey. [on focus & intention]
• The stage has always been my comfort zone, I feed off that relationship between actor and audience
• Having three parents- three role models- has, in hindsight, been the greatest blessing
• My sister’s death has made me more focused on being in the moment
• The key is to be ever-evolving and responding, not to make too many decisions or hold opinions that box you in. Far better to be soft and moldable like the wax from a lit candle
• Wisdom in this profession is knowing when the real gifts land in your lap and having the courage to seize the real opportunities.
• [Going into family business] It is both wonderful and challenging at the same time, more wonderful than challenging.
• (As a child, I wanted) To be a storyteller and a peace ambassador. Not much has changed. 
• Sometimes we think of peace as a huge idea that's way away from us and impossible to reach, but actually it is about the microcosm within the macrocosm, a tiny human family within the larger family, we take care of disagreements and that is how we achieve peace.
• I only wish I’d spent more time absorbing all my education had to offer and less time rebelling. [4]
• Compassion and empathy are the two things that evade me the most and I strive for the most.
• [About fitness] Like a musician with a violin, as an actor the instrument is the body. So I try to keep it in tune. [4]
• [About her greatest achievement] Learning that I don’t always need to be right. Saying sorry, owning my part. [4]
• [About her opinion of afterlife] I believe in the soul. Which makes the idea of an afterlife a possibility. [4]
• [Rating herself out of 10] 7 to 8, Regrettably, I'm a perfectionist.  [4]
• I think the American people are just sick and tired of seeing both Republicans and Democrats using any and every opportunity to fight like unruly children [Juliet Rylance on American democracy]

Sources

1. Juliet Rylance: Wikipedia
2. You magazine
3. Juliet Rylance: Imdb- other works
4. Financial Times- Q & A
5.