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Katherine Dee "KaDee" Strickland (born December 14 1977)Altamura, Mike. "Enchanting Southerner with Passion to Burn". EZ Entertainment. October 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005. is an American actress. She began acting during high school and worked in mostly small film, television and theater roles while studying the profession. Strickland rose to prominence between 2003 and 2005 through her participation in several high-profile Hollywood films, including the horror pictures Anacondas and The Grudge (both 2004). Some media sources named Strickland one of the industry's rising stars during this period, but her projects have received mixed critical reviews and her experience in leading roles has been limited. She has cited Jessica Lange,Evans, Jen. "Sweet Peach". Brentwood Magazine. March/April 2005. Retrieved August 20 2005. Holly Hunter, Diane KeatonSoergel, Matt. "Climbing to stardom". The Florida Times-Union. September 1 2004. Retrieved June 28 2005. and Jane FondaLayne Wilson, Staci. "KaDee Strickland: "The Grudge" Interview". Horror. October 5 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005. as her influences.

Early life and education

Strickland was born in Blackshear, Georgia, and is the third and youngest child of Susan Strickland, a nurse and nursing instructor, and Dee Strickland, a former high school football coach and superintendent. She was raised in Patterson, Georgia and had a job picking tobacco on a local farm for eight years. As a child, Strickland watched the Woody Allen film Annie Hall (1977) and recalled "wanting to be in that place, and being completely taken with the energy of those people. I wanted to be in it". However, she had never seriously considered a career in the performing arts until her participation in a one-act play performed by students of her high school: "... the minute I set foot on stage, that was it. Destiny took over. There were no other options. I felt like I fit my skin, I knew what I was here to do", Strickland said.

After graduating from high school, Strickland successfully applied to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. During her studies there, she took a part-time waitressing job at a local restaurant. She also interned at a casting agency, and one of the tasks she was given was to read lines at auditions for people looking for small roles in local film and television projects (a job that landed Strickland her first film role). After graduating from university with a Fine Arts degree,"Movie: The Grudge". 101.5 The Point. Retrieved August 20 2005. she was schooled in New York City under the tutelage of Maggie Flanagan, an acting teacher who instructed her students to watch films with the sound turned off to gauge the quality and comprehensibility of a performance.Head, Steve. "Interview: KaDee Strickland". IGN FilmForce. September 20 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005. In late 2003 Strickland moved to Los Angeles, California, where she was residing as of 2005.

Career

Early work

Strickland's career began with a brief appearance as a ghost in The Sixth Sense in 1999, a two-line part that she had received after impressing writer-director M. Night Shyamalan whilst reading lines for those auditioning for the film. Strickland said of Shyamalan, "He is a lovely man, and one of the most focused I've been around ... I still can't get over how tightly he ran his ship".Davies Brown, Phil. "KaDee Strickland Interview". Horror Asylum. November 12 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005. The same year, she served as an extra in the independent film The Sterling Chase. Strickland was cast in a slightly larger role opposite Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie in James Mangold's drama Girl, Interrupted.

While staying in Philadelphia, Strickland was given opportunities to take part in other films in production in and around the city. Those included Rel Dowdell's Train Ride, a date rape thriller filmed in 1998 but not commercially released until 2005 because of financing problems.Secours, Molly. "Take a searing look at the realities of date rape". The Tennessean. April 5 2005. Retrieved June 13 2005; Colbert, Ray. "In the Spotlight — Rel Dowdell". Video2Edit. 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005. She also appeared in the crime drama Diamond Men with Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg; it opened to sparkling reviews, with Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times declaring it "a fantastic film, with a good cast"."Diamond Men". Metacritic. Retrieved June 13 2005; Roeper, Richard. "Diamond Men". Chicago Sun-Times. October 19 2001. Retrieved August 22 2005. After she moved to New York City, Strickland was cast in Adam Bhala Lough's filmmaking debut Bomb the System, which received unenthusiastic notices from critics and was not shown outside film festivals until 2005."Bomb the System". Metacritic. Retrieved June 13 2005; "Release dates for Bomb the System (2002)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 13 2005.

Strickland acquired stage experience in theatre productions such as A Requiem for Things Past in the summer of 1999,"A Requiem for Things Past". Theater Mania. Retrieved June 24 2005. and John Patrick Shanley's Women of Manhattan. She also acted in an episode of the television show Law & Order: Criminal Intent in December 2002 and made nine guest appearances on All My Children. In 2003 Strickland was cast opposite Eddie Cibrian in the pilot episode for an uncommissioned small screen serial adaptation of John Grisham's novel The Street Lawyer."Street Lawyer, The (ABC)". The Futon Critic. Retrieved June 12 2005.

Strickland appeared in two romantic comedy films in 2003. Anything Else was written and directed by Woody Allen, and featured Strickland as the girlfriend of Jason Biggs (whom he snubs for Christina Ricci); the film was greeted with lukewarm reviews and dismal ticket sales.Pandya, Gitesh. "Weekend Box Office (September 19 — 21, 2003)". Box Office Guru. Retrieved June 12 2005; "Anything Else". Metacritic. Retrieved June 12 2005. (Strickland nevertheless referred to the film as her "big break" in a 2005 interview."10 Questions with KaDee Strickland". Wine X Magazine. February 2005. pg. 50—53.) The second, Something's Gotta Give (starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton), was a major critical and commercial success,Pandya, Gitesh. "Weekend Box Office (January 30 — February 1, 2004)". Box Office Guru. Retrieved June 13 2005; "Something's Gotta Give". Metacritic. Retrieved June 13 2005. (Something's Gotta Give) though Strickland's part in the film was brief. She played the young love interest of Diane Keaton's character's ex-husband (played by Paul Michael Glaser), a relationship that raised the eyebrows of both Keaton and her daughter (Amanda Peet). The following year she made brief appearances in the direct-to-cable independent film Knots and the poorly-received satirical comedy The Stepford Wives with Nicole Kidman,""Knots" To Close Gen Art Fest". IndieWIRE Insider. April 5 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005; "Premiere of an edited version of Knots on Lifetime ...". All Things Annabeth. January 31 2005. Retrieved June 14 2005; Pandya, Gitesh. "Weekend Box Office (July 2 — 5, 2004)". Box Office Guru. Retrieved June 13 2005; "Stepford Wives, The". Metacritic. Retrieved June 13 2005. playing a partygoer and a game show contestant, respectively.

Major roles

Strickland's first lead role came when producer Doug Belgrad saw the dailies of her scene from Something's Gotta Give. Impressed by her work, he cast the actress opposite Johnny Messner and Morris Chestnut in the jungle-set horror film Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, the sequel to Anaconda (1997). Strickland played an accomplished research scientist who travels to Borneo as part of an expedition team searching for a species of plant that is rumoured to have life-extending properties. Though it was a financial success, Anacondas did not perform as well as its predecessor, and most reviews panned the production."Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 12 2005; "Anaconda". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 12 2005; "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid". Metacritic. Retrieved June 16 2005. Bill Clark, who called the film's cast "awful", wrote that Strickland "has officially dethroned Nicolas Cage in Con Air as the worst southern accent ever captured on film",Clark, Bill. "Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid (2004)". From The Balcony. August 27 2004. Retrieved December 15 2005. and Dustin Rowles said Strickland's "off-and-on southern accent is the equal of James Van Der Beek's turn in Varsity Blues on the unintentional comedy scale".Rowles, Dustin. "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid". Pajiba. Retrieved 21 March 2006. (Strickland is from the Southern United States.) Thomas Chau commented of Strickland and her co-star Salli Richardson, "both actresses bring a wit and sexuality to their characters which make them likable girls",Chau, Thomas. "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid". Cinema Confidential. August 27 2004. Retrieved 21 March 2006. while Julian Roman observed that Strickland "certainly has the charisma to be a movie star".Roman, Julian. "An Interview with KaDee Strickland". Latino Review. Retrieved August 21 2005. A critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune was less charitable, describing her and her co-stars' work as "garden-variety bad".David Germain. "'Anacondas' is really tough to swallow". San Diego Union-Tribune. August 26 2004. Retrieved 21 March 2006.

Strickland is also an advocate of the arts. Before the release of Anacondas, she hosted the art debut of fellow actress Heidi Jayne Netzley at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, California.Monroe, Stella. "An Evening of Art". Power Magazine. August 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.

Strickland's next project was another horror picture, The Grudge. In director Takashi Shimizu's remake of his own Japanese blockbuster Ju-on: The Grudge (2003), Strickland played (in a role originally filled by Misaki Ito) an American businesswoman in Japan whose brother (William Mapother), sister-in-law (Clea DuVall) and mother (Grace Zabriskie) emigrate from the United States. Strickland clinched the role through a casting session with producer Sam Raimi, who picked her based on her work in footage for the then-unreleased Anacondas, and her willingness to work away from home for extended periods of time. The Grudge was an instant box office hit and quickly became one of the year's most profitable films,Gray, Brandon. "'Passion of the Christ,' 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Tops in 2004". Box Office Mojo. January 30 2005. Retrieved August 23 2005. but reviews were lukewarm. The Charlotte Observer wrote the "the cast is drab and lifeless", and earned "nothing but demerits".Toppman, Lawrence. "This is one 'Grudge' you shouldn't bear". The Charlotte Observer. October 22 2004. Retrieved December 16 2005. In contrast, Douglas Evasick of The Ithacan said the cast "holds its own" in the film, and described Strickland and her co-stars as "sympathetic and relatable".Evasick, Douglas. "Haunted house story gains new life". The Ithacan. November 4 2004. Retrieved August 22 2005. Her presence in The Grudge and Anacondas led Phil Davies Brown to suggest she had become the new "scream queen", a label Strickland dismissed: "If a script is well done ... That is all it is really about for me. Good characters, scripts, and directors don't come around that often. So when they do, I like to go for it. The right thing is always welcome".Davies Brown, Phil. "KaDee Strickland Interview". Horror Asylum. November 12 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.

In the fall of 2004 Strickland embarked on what she described as "the craziest job I've ever had": a role in the Farrelly brothers film Fever Pitch, a baseball-themed romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon (Strickland's co-star from Anything Else). She received praise for her abilities as a comedic actress upon the film's 2005 release; critic Jamie Kelwick said that Strickland and her co-stars, Ione Skye and Marissa Jaret Winokur, gave "good performances""The Perfect Catch (Fever Pitch)". The-Usher.com. Retrieved August 20 2005. as the best friends of Lindsey (Barrymore). Ron Henriques described Strickland as "great support" to Barrymore,Henriques, Ron. "Pitch Perfect". Latino Review. Retrieved August 20 2005. and MSNBC said Strickland and JoBeth Williams "sometimes rescue [the picture] from its plodding moments".Hartl, John. "Farrelly Brothers go soft with 'Fever Pitch'". MSNBC. April 5 2005. Retrieved August 20 2005. The film raised Strickland's profile further, though its critical response was mixed and it was not a major hit at the box office."Fever Pitch". Metacritic. Retrieved June 13 2005; Gray, Brandon. "Weekly Chart Review: 'Batman Begins' Tops $200M". Box Office Mojo. August 13 2005. Retrieved August 23 2005.

In early 2005 Strickland was cast in the pilot episode for the fact-based television series Laws of Chance for ABC."Nicholas Brendon in Kitchen Confidential". Coming Soon!. March 17 2005. Retrieved June 12 2005. It was based on the career of Kelly Siegler, an assistant district attorney based in Houston, Texas. Strickland, whose co-stars in the pilot included Frances Fisher and Bruce McGill, said she was "really excited to have the opportunity to portray this phenomenal lady", but the series was dropped from development a few months later."laws of chance (abc)". The Futon Critic. Retrieved December 13 2005. Strickland's next film role is as laid-off stripminer Jason Patric's love interest in Walker Payne, an independently-financed drama set in the 1950s that completed filming in July 2005."Foursome Joins Patric in Walker". Coming Soon!. May 8 2005. Retrieved June 12 2005; Foster, Kristy. "Area coal mine becomes set for Hollywood film". Morning Journal. July 10 2005. Retrieved August 16 2005. In late 2005 Strickland joined the cast of The Flock, a crime drama starring Richard Gere, Claire Danes and singer Avril Lavigne about a federal agent who is assigned to track down a missing girl and a paroled sex offender.Morris, Clint. "Avril Lavigne gives a Flock". Moviehole. December 2 2005. Retrieved December 13 2005.

Filmography

Notes

References

• "Biography". KaDee Strickland Elucidated. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Davies Brown, Phil. "KaDee Strickland Interview". Horror Asylum. November 12 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Soergel, Matt. "Climbing to stardom". The Florida Times-Union. September 1 2004. Retrieved June 28 2005.
• Head, Steve. "Interview: KaDee Strickland". IGN FilmForce. September 20 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Epstein, Daniel Robert. "KaDee Strickland, Anacondas Interview". UnderGroundOnline. August 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Layne Wilson, Staci. "KaDee Strickland: "The Grudge" Interview". Horror. October 5 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Altamura, Mike. "Enchanting Southerner with Passion to Burn". EZ Entertainment. October 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Roman, Julian. "An Interview with KaDee Strickland". Latino Review. August 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Morris, Clint. "Interview : KaDee Strickland". Moviehole. June 16 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Spelling, Ian. "The cast of Anacondas have no illusions about winning Academy Awards as they go snake hunting". Science Fiction Weekly. August 2004. Retrieved June 13 2005.
• Evans, Jen. "Sweet Peach". Brentwood Magazine. March/April 2005. Retrieved August 20 2005.
• Busson, Scott. "She's more than a snake-charmer...". Empire. September 2004. Retrieved August 22 2005.
• Greaney, Keriann. "KaDee Strickland on the Hollywood Up and Up". 944 Magazine. April 20 2005. Retrieved August 22 2005.
• "10 Questions with KaDee Strickland". Wine X Magazine. February 2005. pg. 50—53.

External links

• KaDee Strickland Elucidated — fansite

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