It’s a part that many young actresses have built their entire careers upon: the privileged teen; beautiful, popular, and capable of some real cruelty. Probably because almost every movie or TV show depicting ‘ high school life’ contains at least some version of this archetypal character… But fans of indie wunderkind, Drake Doremus know that while his films certainly explore what it means to be young, the skilled writer director behind the 2011 festival favorite, Like Crazy, doesn’t do tropes.
Thus when Doremus was looking to cast the deceptively simple role of suburban princess, Lauren Reynolds, in his dreamy follow up to Like Crazy (2013’s Breathe In) he approached actress, Mackenzie Davis. Her resume at the time may have featured little more than a bit part in the deeply affecting 2012 film, Smashed, but the filmmaker instantly recognized her potential; and boy was he right to do so! Portraying a character who – in the hands of a lesser actor – could appear self-indulgent, or whiny, the theater-trained beauty from Vancouver is subtly mesmerizing, bringing Lauren to life with a complicated grace that is both sympathetic and undeniably real. Oh yeah… and she more than holds her own opposite Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan, and Felicity Jones.
No surprisingly, talent like hers hasn’t gone unnoticed, and in the years since she worked with Doremus, the actress has seen her profile skyrocket with meaty parts in the Zoe Kazan-Daniel Radcliffe hipster rom com, What if (where her chemistry with fellow rising star, Adam Driver, practically steals the film) and the Zac Efron boys will be boys comedy That Awkward Moment. In both movies, Davis again imbues what could be throwaway characters with such a refreshing vitality that these women practically leap off the screen.
And now she’s doing this weekly on the AMC hit, Halt and Catch Fire (recently picked up for a season 2), playing a brilliant if socially-impaired computer geek in 1983 Texas, at the start of the PC revolution. While this might be the most complex part of her already enviable career, it too could come off as little more than a watered down Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, had the actress not instantly made the role her own. Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering, this time she’s stealing scenes from the talented likes of Scoot McNairy and Lee Pace.
Yes folks, it seems that in this crazy world of ours, there now exist three inevitabilities: taxes, death, and Mackenzie Davis’s talent taking center stage.
Hollywood Trivia: recently on Conan, Mackenzie said her prerequisite for dating guys is based on the ones who love The Simpsons!?
