The making of Joely Richardson: How star, 59, from Britain's acting dynasty overcame the 'violent grief' of losing her sister, fertility woes and Hollywood ageism for a career renaissance
Born into one of Britain's most famous acting dynasties Joely Richardson is no stranger to the Hollywood scene.
In fact, her first acting role came at the tender age of three, an appearance in 1968 film The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father, with much of her youth spent hanging around film sets and theatres.
Such is the sort of childhood you can expect when your parents are legendary director Tony Richardson and legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave.
The thespian family ties run even deeper for Joely, who is the granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson and sister to the late Natasha Richardson, with actor Liam Neeson her brother-in-law.
She is the aunt of Micheál and Daniel Neeson, niece of actors Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave and cousin of actress Jemma Redgrave.
How Joely Richardson, 59, from Britain's acting dynasty overcame the 'violent grief' of losing her sister, fertility woes and Hollywood ageism for a career renaissance (pictured this month)
Despite her deep roots in the Hollywood world, Joely initially pursued a career as a professional tennis player (pictured with late sister Natasha, left, and mother Vanessa in 2000)
This year alone, Joely features in three hit TV shows, including Netflix’s The Gentlemen, where she plays Lady Sabrina the mother of Theo James' character Eddie Horniman
Yet ironically, despite her deep roots in the Hollywood world, it was another type of spotlight that Joely yearned for, pursuing a career as a professional tennis player.
After two years spent at an academy in Tampa, Florida, Joely decided to hang up her racquet, noting: 'I was very enthusiastic, but I was never very good'.
She then leant into her family business, earning a place at the prestigious Rada academy before her first major film role in 1988's Drowning by Numbers.
What followed were a series of career highs peppered with personal lows, yet an unwavering determination to muddle through.
She earned critical acclaim playing Lady Chatterley opposite Sean Bean in the 1993 BBC adaptation of D H Lawrence’s novel, and woman-on-the-verge Julia, who flushes her daughter’s gerbil down the loo in the first episode of Nip/Tuck (in its day, the most watched cable TV show in the US).
Joely also welcomed a daughter, actress Daisy Bevan in 1992 with then-husband, producer Tim Bevan, yet behind-the-scenes suffered with multiple miscarriages as the couple tried to expand their family. They divorced in 2001.
In 2009, Joely lost her beloved sister Natasha in a skiing accident, which prompted her to cut down on her acting to spend time supporting her nephews Micheál and Daniel (Natasha’s children by her husband Liam Neeson) in New York.
This prompted a shift to theatre work over television, with Joely admitting: ‘It wasn’t a wise choice career-wise to go from mainstream television to doing sort of off-off-Broadway theatre, but that was the stuff I most wanted to do then.’
Joely's first acting role came at the tender age of three, such is the sort of childhood you can expect when your parents are director Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave (pictured in 1966)
Joely, centre, decided to switch from tennis to acting and what followed was a series of career highs and personal lows (pictured with sister Natasha, left, and mother Vanessa in 1967)
She earned critical acclaim playing Lady Chatterley opposite Sean Bean in the 1993 BBC adaptation of D H Lawrence’s novel
She starred as woman-on-the-verge Julia, who flushes her daughter’s gerbil down the loo in the first episode of Nip/Tuck (pictured with Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon)
Reflecting on her fertility struggles and the loss of her sibling, she previously told The Daily Mail: 'Weirdly, about ten years before Natasha died I had my own personal collapse and then ten years later I was so much stronger.
'It is ironic, in the age of “me me me”, that the best way out of our own problems is to help someone else with theirs. It just gets you out of bed, it gets you doing the next thing.
'People say to me, “Do you act for your sister?” Of course I don’t do things like that. No. But have I tried to be there for my mother and for Natasha’s boys? Yes, I have.'
While on the outside she showed strength for her nephews, Joely spoke candidly about her grief in a later chat with Red magazine.
She shared: 'I felt my DNA had split. I felt as if someone had put a bomb inside me and exploded it.
'This idea that grief is gentle - those images of Scottish Widow adverts or a dove - it's not like that, it's really violent.
'It's this brutal, aggressive, terrifying emotion - you're lucky if you can walk through it - it's like a dinosaur has got your head in its mouth, and is shaking your body, you're flailing around.'
Joely later said in all, it took her 'about five years to get over the shock and trauma and horror' of losing Natasha in an 'unimaginable' way.
At this point she had just reached her 50s and while she was ready to throw herself into new roles, she found work opportunities were quickly drying up.
Joely also welcomed a daughter, actress Daisy Bevan in 1992 with then-husband, producer Tim Bevan. The couple divorced in 2001 (pictured in 1994)
Joely suffered several 'pregnancy losses' in a bid to expand her family (pictured with daughter Daisy, an actress, in 2015)
In 2009, Joely lost her beloved sister Natasha in a skiing accident, which prompted her to cut down on acting to spend time supporting her nephews (Natasha and Liam pictured in 2005)
Natasha's sons Micheál (left) and Daniel were just 13 and 12 years old respectively when their mother died after a skiing accident in Quebec, Canada (pictured in 2008)
Speaking on This Morning of her career struggles in later life, Joely shared this week: 'My agent retired quite young to be with her mum.
'I went to get another agent and no one wanted me. Zero people wanted a woman over 50.
'So we just started with little ins where we could to just get through the door so people would consider me for roles. Then they started coming in.'
In recent years she's landed roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Red Sparrow and in a nod to her famous BBC role, a part in the 2022 Netflix remake of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Now on the cusp of turning 60, she has capitalised on a series of TV roles, playing complicated and mostly unlikeable middle-aged women.
She told The Times it is a path she is relishing, quipping: 'I’ve obviously entered the pantomime dame stage of my career and I should be so lucky!
'Turns out that was my destiny — getting to play comedy and these really hyper roles. It feels so rewarding to be playing a grand assortment of people, rather than [being asked], "Does she look right in this dress?"'
This year alone, Joely features in three hit TV shows.
She appears in Netflix’s adaptation of the novel One Day, a critically acclaimed drama and the most-watched series globally during the week of February 12.
In a story about love, Joely played the character viewers loved to hate, Helen - the mother of Dex's girlfriend Sylvie who cajoles him into playing a violent game of Are You There, Moriarty? with disastrous results.
A softer yet still complex role came in Netflix's The Gentlemen which follows an aristocratic family becoming involved in the dark gangster world after discovering a secret weed farm on their estate.
Joely plays Lady Sabrina the mother of Theo James' character Eddie Horniman in the series, with the layers to her complicated character unravelling as the series progress.
In Netflix’s smash adaptation of One Day, she plays Helen - the mother of Dex's girlfriend Sylvie who cajoles him into playing a violent game of Are You There, Moriarty?
A softer yet still complex role came in Netflix's The Gentlemen which follows an aristocratic family becoming involved in the dark gangster world after discovering a secret weed farm
She will next be seen in Disney+ series Renegade Nell, set for release on Friday, March 29. Joely stars in the eight-part series as Lady Eularia Moggerhange, a newspaper magnate
She will next be seen in Disney+ series Renegade Nell, set for release on Friday, March 29.
The show follows the tale of Nell Jackson, a quick-witted young woman who after being framed for murder unexpectedly becomes the most notorious outlaw in 18th-century England.
Joely stars in the eight-part series as Lady Eularia Moggerhange, a newspaper magnate and the ‘intended’ of a feckless highwayman/aristocrat played by Frank Dillane.
She'll next be seen in season two of Apple TV+ thriller Surface, which she is shooting now and mused: 'I think it’s funny that I perhaps have got to a stage where playing characters is more interesting to me… Maybe I was always a character actor that didn’t know it.'
