Rebecca Maria Hall (born 3 May 1982) is an English actress and director. She made her first onscreen appearance at the age of 10 in the 1992 television adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, directed by her father, Peter Hall. Her professional stage debut came in her father's 2002 production of Mrs. Warren's Profession, which earned her the Ian Charleson Award. In 2006, following her film debut in Starter for 10, Hall got her breakthrough role in Christopher Nolan's thriller film The Prestige. In 2008, she starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Hall has appeared in a wide array of films, including Ron Howard's historical drama Frost/Nixon (2008), Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town (2010), the horror thriller The Awakening (2011), the superhero film Iron Man 3 (2013), the thriller The Gift (2015), and the fantasy film The BFG (2016). In 2016, Hall was praised by critics for her portrayal of news reporter Christine Chubbuck in the biographical drama Christine. She has since starred in the MonsterVerse films Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), and made her directorial debut with the period drama Passing (2021). Hall has also had several notable performances on British television. She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 2009 Channel 4 miniseries Red Riding: 1974. In 2013, she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her performance in BBC Two's Parade's End.

Early life and background

Hall was born on 3 May 1982 in London, the daughter of the American opera singer Maria Ewing and Sir Peter Hall, an English stage director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. (He was knighted for his service to theatre.) Her mother was born in Detroit, the daughter of an African-American mixed-race father and a white Dutch mother. She is a descendant of the American Revolutionary War veteran Bazabeel Norman, a free black man. Years later as a guest on Finding Your Roots, Hall discovered that, while her maternal grandfather, Norman Isaac Ewing, had performed as a Native American figure and was reported as a Sioux chief in newspapers, he was the son of mixed-race African-American parents, and had no Native American ancestry. His father, Hall's great-grandfather John William Ewing, had been born into slavery. After the American Civil War, he became a prominent figure in the black community of Washington, DC. Hall has 91% European DNA and 9% sub-Saharan African DNA, according to an Ancestry.com DNA test. Hall's parents separated when she was still young, eventually divorcing in 1990. Hall has five paternal half-siblings: the stage director Edward Hall, the producer Christopher Hall, the actresses Jennifer Caron Hall and Emma Hall, and the set designer Lucy Hall. Hall attended Roedean School, where she became head girl. She studied English literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, before dropping out in 2002, just before her final year. During her time at Cambridge, she was active in the student theatre scene and also set up her own theatre company. She was a member of the Marlowe Society and performed in several productions alongside her housemate Dan Stevens, an English literature student at Emmanuel College.

Career

Film and television

Hall's first professional role came in 1992, when at the age of nine she appeared as young Sophy in her father's television adaptation of Mary Wesley's The Camomile Lawn. Her feature film debut came in 2006 as Rebecca Epstein in the film adaptation of David Nicholls's Starter for Ten. She got her breakthrough with the role of Sarah Borden in Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige (2006). She appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace in 2007, in addition to appearing in several other television films, including Wide Sargasso Sea and Rubberheart. Hall's Hollywood fame was sparked when she starred in the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) as one of the title characters, Vicky. Her performance was well-received, and she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2008, she appeared in Ron Howard's historical drama Frost/Nixon as the girlfriend of David Frost, played by Michael Sheen. The following year she was cast in the British fantasy-horror film Dorian Gray, based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Following a small role in the indie film Please Give, Hall starred in Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town (2010) opposite Affleck and Jon Hamm. In June 2010, she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Paula Garland in the 2009 Channel 4 production Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974. The following year she played the female lead in the British ghost film The Awakening, released in September 2011. In 2012, she took on the role of Beth Raymer in the comedy-drama film Lay the Favorite, based on Raymer's memoir of the same title. One review commented that she "plays Raymer as an endearing force of nature who somehow manages to survive in a dangerous world through sheer force of character." She starred in the BBC/HBO/VRT production of Parade's End (2012) opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, which earned her a BAFTA Television Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2013, Hall replaced Jessica Chastain as Maya Hansen in the superhero film Iron Man 3. The same year she appeared in the political thriller Closed Circuit (2013). She starred opposite Johnny Depp in Wally Pfister's directorial debut Transcendence (2014). In 2015, Hall starred in the romantic comedy Tumbledown and Joel Edgerton's directorial debut The Gift. In the 2016 biographical drama Christine, Hall played Christine Chubbuck, a real-life TV news reporter. Variety described her as "discomfitingly electric in the best role she's yet been offered". In 2017, she portrayed Elizabeth Holloway Marston, a psychologist who inspired the character of Wonder Woman, in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. The same year, Hall joined the cast of A Rainy Day in New York, directed by Woody Allen. After re-reading accounts related to allegations of sexual abuse against Woody Allen, Hall in January 2018 donated her salary to Time's Up. She said, "I see not only how complicated this matter is, but that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed. I regret this decision and wouldn't make the same one today." In 2018 Hall provided English dubbing for the character Mother in Mirai. In 2021 Hall starred in and co-executive produced the well-reviewed horror-thriller The Night House. The same year, she appeared in the monster film Godzilla vs. Kong. In 2021 she also made her directorial debut with the drama Passing, based on the 1929 American novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. Hall wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film. Passing premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and received critical acclaim. Its distribution rights were acquired by Netflix for approximately $16 million.

Stage

Hall made her professional stage debut in 2002 when she starred as Vivie in her father's production of Mrs. Warren's Profession at the Strand Theatre in London. Her performance, described as "admirable" and "accomplished", earned her the Ian Charleson Award in 2003. In 2003, Hall's father celebrated 50 years as a theatre director by staging a season of five plays at the Theatre Royal in Bath, Somerset. Hall starred in two of these plays; she appeared as Rosalind in her father's production of As You Like It, which gained her a second Charleson nomination and starred in the title role of Thea Sharrock's revival of D. H. Lawrence's The Fight for Barbara. In 2004, Hall appeared in three plays for the Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal Bath, two of which her father directed: Man and Superman in which she played Ann, and Galileo's Daughter in which she played Sister Maria Celeste. The third, Molière's Don Juan, in which she played the part of Elvira, was directed by Sharrock. In 2005, Hall reprised the role of Rosalind in a touring production of As You Like It, again under the direction of her father. This tour played the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the Curran Theatre in San Francisco and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. This was a second leg of the US tour that began in 2003 with venues at the Shubert Theater New Haven, Connecticut, Columbus, Ohio, and the Wilbur Theater in Boston. In 2008–2009, Hall appeared in Sam Mendes's first instalment of the Bridge Project as Hermione in The Winter's Tale and as Varya in The Cherry Orchard. The project gave performances with the same cast in Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2010–2011, she played Viola in a production of Twelfth Night at London's National Theatre, directed by her father. Hall made her Broadway debut in 2013 in Sophie Treadwell's expressionist play Machinal. The Roundabout Theater production, directed by Lyndsey Turner, began previews on 20 December 2013, with the official opening on 16 January 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre.

Personal life

In 2010, there was intense media speculation of an affair between Hall and director Sam Mendes, who was married to Kate Winslet at the time. Hall and Mendes were in a relationship from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, Hall met the actor Morgan Spector while co-starring in a Broadway production. They married in 2015. Their daughter Ida was born in 2018.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations