The Craft, The Waterboy, American History X
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"People don't talk to me the way they would other people. They kind of look at me, but they never come over. It makes me feel like there's something wrong with me." Fairuza Balk is an actress from Point Reyes, California. As one of the most famous faces of the late 90s, many people may have wondered what the former star of The Craft and Valmont has been up to. Despite having her career peak during the late 90s, Balk has gone on to become a consistently working actor with over fifty credits to her name.
Balk has most recently appeared in the new television series, Paradise City slated for release in late 2019. She has also appeared in several notable projects over the last decade. We'll explore more of her career later on, but first, let's learn about how Balk became the performer that she is today.
Raised Around the World
Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse was born on May 21, 1974, in Point Reyes, California. Balk's parents were Cathryn Balk and Solomon Feldthouse. Solomon was the founding member of the band, Kaleidoscope, a prominent psychedelic group from the 60s. Solomon would go on to establish his own folk band in order to tour the world on his own. Cathryn Balk spent a large portion of her life traveling throughout the world to learn how to dance professionally. Catherine spent time in Egypt, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, and London during her travels. As you'll soon find out, Fairuza would spend much of her life traveling, too.
Balk would live in California until she was two years old when she and her mother would move north and across the border. From 2-years-old to 6-years-old, Balk spent time living in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was about when she began to start taking her acting career seriously. After spending several years in Vancouver, Balk would end up heading overseas to live in London and then on to Paris. While Balk didn't make her acting debut professionally until 1983, she was performing in all of these different cities in a variety of different projects.
Eventually, Balk and her mother would move back to Vancouver. Back home in British Columbia, Balk's mother would begin to help her nurture her career.
Star of the Late 90s
As a child in Vancouver, Balk would make her acting career in the TV-movie, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (183). Balk was only nine-years-old when the project hit the small screen. From there, Balk would go on to appear in several more films as a child, including Deceptions (1985), Return to Oz (1986), and The Outside Chance of Maximillian Glick (1988). With that being said, Balk wouldn't hit that next level until almost a decade later when she starred in The Craft (1996), but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
When Balk was fourteen years old, she and her mother would move to Paris to film Valmont (1989) with Milos Forman. This project was followed by an award-winning turn in the film, Gas Food Lodging in 1992. For her work in the film, which also starred Brooke Adams and Ione Skye, Balk would be handed the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. Following that performance, Balk would have a string of solid roles in projects like Shame (1992), Imaginary Crimes (1994), and Shadow of a Doubt (1995).
In 1996, Balk would move to Hollywood in order to play the lead role in the cult-classic horror film, The Craft (1996). The film was centered on a teenage coven which also included performers Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and finally Robin Tuney. The film would give Balk a huge boost as it received mostly positive reviews with many critics noting Balk's strong character-work. Following The Craft, Balk would co-star with Val Kilmer in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). The film was a historic flop, though largely due to production issues revolving around Kilmer and Marlon Brando as the titular, Dr. Moreau.
Despite Dr. Moreau facing atrocious reviews, Balk wasn't hurt at all by the project. Instead, her image as a dark and potent actress stayed intact. Balk would then co-star with Edward Norton in the critically acclaimed film, American History X (1998). American History X would go on to become one of the most important films of the era with Balk gaining significant positive acclaim for her work. Even though she nailed the drama, Balk would reverse course in order to play the love interest to Adam Sandler in the film, The Waterboy (1998). In The Waterboy, Balk played Vicki Vallencourt, the dark and edgy girlfriend of Sandler's uptight and uber 'momma's boy' to Kathy Bates.
After finding commercial and critical success in several bigger films in the 90s, Balk would begin to be more selective with her work. She would appear in another cultural hit, Almost Famous, in 2000. While her role was significantly smaller in that film when compared to her earlier work, she was still a big part of the project. Other notable roles during the 00s include Humboldt County (2008), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) with Nicolas Cage, and Battle Scars (2015).
Most recently, Balk has been busy with recurring television work on two separate series. First, Balk starred in Ray Donovan (2015) for seven episodes as the character, Ginger. The series focused on Liev Schreiber as the titular character with Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, and Jon Voight also appearing as members of the Donovan clan. The show would win a Golden Globe before going off of the air. Now, Balk is slated to star in Paradise City long with Perrey Reeves and Rhys Coiro. The series is about the tragic backstory behind a number of famous young (and fictional) musicians.
When Balk isn't working on film or television, she is passionate about artwork. Starting in 2011, Balk began to exhibit her pieces throughout Los Angeles and New York. In 2012, she would participate with a troupe known as MiXTAPE in order to showcase her work. In 2017, Balk was immortalized by the band Fragile Rock when they named one of their songs, 'Fairuza Balk'. Balk would tweet about the track saying that it was both 'wonderful' and 'hilarious'.
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