Dominique Swain

Astarte · April 19, 2005

Biography from askmen.com:

Born in her father's Datsun on the Santa Monica freeway, Dominique Adrian Swain was born on August 12, 1980. She grew up in Malibu with her parents and four siblings, living a modest lifestyle and enduring the usual teenage humiliations of crooked teeth and catty classmates at Malibu High School. Swain excelled at learning, earning straight A's and becoming Valedictorian like her sister before her. Then, in her sophomore year, Swain's life took a famous turn.

from stunt double to double take

Dominique Swain had already officially launched her Hollywood career as a stunt double; she appeared under the ice as Macaulay Culkin's younger sister in Joseph Ruben's The Good Son (1993), then almost nabbed the role of "Claudia" in Interview with the Vampire (1994). But it was in 1997, when Swain was just fourteen, that she was chosen out of 2,500 girls to play the title role in Adrian Lyne's controversial remake of Lolita (the film couldn't pin down an American distributor and was only released in Europe). Snapping her gum and flouncing around Jeremy Irons' besotted Humbert Humbert, Swain was critically praised for adding a contemporary feel to the sensual, bratty Dolores "Lolita" Haze, and for delivering a remarkable performance opposite seasoned actors Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith.

Following Lolita, Swain played John Travolta's rebellious daughter in Face/Off (1997), then appeared with long blonde hair and a lost look in Shawn Mullins' "Lullaby" video (1998). Dominique's role in Lolita brought her significant notoriety, which she cemented by plunging into a party lifestyle that verged on excessive. It was Swain herself who eventually put a stop to her inner wild child -- she's given up drinking altogether.

dominique and diversity

Since Face/Off, most of Swain's projects have been more critically than commercially acclaimed; from the soul-searching, unlikely groupie Andrea Marr in Girl (1999) to the vengeful Jefferson Roth in The Smokers (2000), Dominique has played a wide variety of characters in often lesser-known films.

Taking on several projects in the same year, Dominique's growing list of film credits include Intern (2000), Tart (2001), Happy Campers (2001), Pumpkin (2002), New Best Friend (2002), Dead in the Water (2002), and Briar Patch (2002). Adding another music video to her resume, Swain also recently appeared in the celeb-saturated video for Moby's "We Are All Made of Stars" (2002).

As she explained in an interview with UniverCity.com, Swain is eager to take on parts that let her "experience a lot of different walks of life." Although many of her roles have involved sex, the rising star is also open to playing tamer characters, believing that "the more you can relate to people's problems