Katie Holmes Online (khfan.com)

Pieces of Katie

Born Katherine Noelle Holmes in Toledo Ohio on December 18, 1978, Katie was described as an “oops” by her mom according to Katie. The fifth of five siblings, Katie was easily the most headstrong of the bunch. In a family interview on the E! Channel’s Revealed her mother Kathleen said she had to go out and buy a few books that covered the “strong willed” child to help her cope with Katie. Her father Martin Holmes, a lawyer specializing in divorce, says that he believed that Katie got her determination from the fact that Katie was born two months premature and was forced to fight early on.

Always tall and lanky for her age, Katie was encouraged to participate in sports growing up. Although Katie would lead you to believe she possessed no “game” her sisters mentioned in the Revealed interview that she was indeed competitive when it was necessary. When Katie graduated from Jr. High and began High School she asked her father if he would be too disappointed if she gave up competitive basketball so that she could spend more time practicing the performing arts which included voice and dance lessons and drama. Her family was always supportive. She enrolled in Margaret O’ Brien’s Modeling School in Toledo and while there she was invited to participate in the International Modeling and Talent Association’s Convention held each year in New York City. Once there she modeled, danced, and performed a monologue from To Kill a Mockingbird and she impressed both the judges and other various talent scouts.

One talent manager in particular encouraged Katie to journey to Los Angeles for pilot season. On her second day there, she met with director Ang Lee and won her first role in the critically acclaimed feature The Ice Storm. Katie played Libbets Casey, a precocious student who captures the attention of Paul “Charles” Hood, played by Tobey Maguire. Ice Storm also featured Kevin Klein, Sigorney Weaver, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci. After filming Ice Storm, Katie returned to Toledo for her senior year of high school and a leading role in the school drama class production Damn Yankees.

During the 1997 pilot season Katie balanced her studies with acting, and, playing opposite her mom she created audition tapes to send to an assortment of casting directors. It was at this time that Katie received a script for a pilot called Dawson’s Creek. As the story is told by the series creator Kevin Williamson, the part of Joey Potter was nearly offered to an up and coming talent known as Selma Blair. At the very last moment though, the casting director spotted Katie’s audition tape and told Williamson to hold everything. After viewing the home made tape Williamson was keen to offer Katie a second audition but he was flabbergasted when he heard that Katie could not make it to the audition because it coincided with the opening of her high school play. A second date for a final audition was settled upon and a few weeks later Katie was awarded the role of Joey Potter, a sharp witted firebrand who strives to escape her humble beginnings.

In the summer of 1997 Katie graduated Notre Dame Academy, a catholic girls school in Toledo, and she was accepted for enrollment at Columbia University in New York City, but, after Dawson’s Creek was picked up by the Warner Bros Television Network Katie deferred entry to college and moved to Wilmington North Carolina, where the series was to be filmed. The early success of the series changed life considerably for Katie. Within months of the airing of the pilot Katie was chosen for the covers of Rolling Stone, Seventeen and Entertainment Weekly magazine. Offers for her to perform in film features soon followed.

Her second movie role came in the form of lead actress in the 1998 feature Disturbing Behavior, accompanied by upstarts James Marsden (X-Men) and Nick Stahl (In the Bedroom). Directed by David Nutter (X-Files, Roswell), Katie played Rachel Wagner, "Cradle Bay’s trailer trash", an outsider who discovers that all the rebellious teens in town are being lobotomized into submission. The role was a welcome change for Katie, who appreciated the retreat from the "good girl" image that she was contending with on a daily basis during the filming of Dawson's Creek.
In addition, 1999 brought the ensemble piece Go, directed by Doug Liman (Swingers). Katie played Claire Montgomery, one of a group of slightly addled twenty-something's who seek adventure in the Los Angeles underground and the strip clubs of Las Vegas. Paired with another highly touted talent, Sara Polley, both Go and Katie’s performance received positive critical reviews. Katie has said that Claire was one of the characters that she most related to – somebody trying to be cool, yet still innocent; a step behind the others while still remaining smart.
Also in 1999 was the teen drama Teaching Mrs. Tingle, directed by Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson. Katie inherited the role of Leigh Ann Watson, a straight-A student unfairly accused of cheating on an important final exam. As well as strengthening her friendship with Kevin Williamson, with whom she stayed while shooting the movie, the job gave Katie the chance to work with the legendary Helen Mirren. Other cast members included Marisa Coughlan (Freddy Got Fingered) and Barry Watson.

Katie’s next feature was in the 2000 release of Wonder Boys, featuring Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, and Robert Downey Jr., with direction provided by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential). Katie’s character Hannah Green is both a published writer and a student renting a room from her English professor, Grady Tripp (Douglas), who she tries to seduce. With a script that was eventually nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, Wonder Boys received great critical acclaim. Clips of Katie’s performance from the movie were also featured in the music video for Bob Dylan’s 'Things Have Changed', which won an Oscar for Best Song.

2000 also saw the release of The Gift. In this southern gothic thriller about extrasensory perception, Katie was able to work with one of her acting idols, Cate Blanchett, as well as Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank and Greg Kinnear. Directed by Sam Raimi, who would find huge success just a short time later with the blockbuster Spiderman.

In 2002's Abandon, Katie had her first chance to topline a major motion picture, which included the likes of Benjamin Bratt (Pinero) and Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous). Her character was named Katie Burke by Stephan Gaghan, the writer and director of Abandon, who stated that he named the character with Katie Holmes in mind as a suggestion of the "power of positive thinking," in the hope that he could acquire Katie for the role. Katie Burke is a student at an elite college working under severe pressure to complete her thesis and land a prestigious job when she has to confront the sudden reappearance of an old boyfriend who disappeared two years before under suspicious circumstances.

In October 2002, the Holmes family graciously allowed film crews into their lives to record a special one hour program: 'Revealed with Jules Asner: Katie Holmes'. This amazing opportunity allowed the fans to learn about Katie's childhood, her experiences and her reflections, with in-depth interviews from Katie and many of her family members.

Throughout her escalating television and film career, Katie has remained close with her family. As well as returning home every few weeks, family members frequently accompany her to talk show appearances and film premieres. Katie remains faithful to her hometown, and continues to attend many galas and charity events in Toledo, as well as appearing at the 2002 Reebok Human Right Awards in Salt Lake City and in a Ford Foundation Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign with her mom.

April 2003 saw the long awaited release of Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth, an action thriller in which a sleazy publicist Stu Shepard, played by wild child Colin Farrell (Minority Report), is held hostage by a sniper. Katie plays Pamela McFadden, an aspiring actress who is being pursued by Stu. The release date for Phone Booth has been pushed back repeatedly in an attempt to distance itself from the real life events that mirrored the storyline shortly before its scheduled debut. After a protracted delay Phone Booth debuted as the number one movie, a first for a movie that included Katie.

Expected to be released in the fall of 2003 is Keith Gordon’s remake of Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective. Once again Katie had the opportunity of working with some of the biggest names in show business. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Dan Dark, a writer suffering from a paralyzing skin disease who copes by hallucinating musical numbers and dreaming up paranoid plots. Katie plays Nurse Mills, attending to Dan Dark’s every need. The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2003 to mixed reviews, but had already offered Katie the chance to try out some dance steps and lip synch a musical number; "It was nice, I was allowed to pretend I was a dancer for a couple of days," Katie said. It is slated for release in the U.S. on Oct. 24, 2003.

Another film making its debut at Sundance 2003 was the Peter Hedges (About A Boy) story, Pieces of April. Katie plays the title role of April Burns, a black sheep in her family who decides to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the entire clan in her tiny Lower East Side apartment, despite not knowing how to cook, a broken oven, and group of neighbors who would prefer to be left in peace. A small, independent film with a tiny budget, it boasts an impressive cast that includes Patricia Clarkson (Far From Heaven) as April’s mother and Oliver Platt (West Wing) as April’s father. The movie moves back and forth between the dinner preparation by April and her boyfriend, Bobby (Antwone Fischer’s Derek Luke), and the family’s road trip. Added into the mix is the fact that April’s mother is dying of cancer. This movie has garnered Katie the best notices for her acting abilities thus far in her career. The movie was greeted with standing ovations at Sundance and promises to be a pivotal performance in her resume. Pieces of April opens October 17th, 2003.