Liv Tyler

Interview by Sydney Nash

Your acting career began when you were quite young, still in high school. What initially drew you to the world of acting?

It was a sort of natural process really. I believe my mother saw something in me as a child, possibly an ability to connect emotionally with people. I was always very drawn to people and their stories and story-telling, in general, and I was deeply empathetic.

When we moved from Maine to NYC when I was in my early teens, she encouraged me to go on a few auditions. This was painful for me as I am quite shy. At the time, I could think of nothing worse, but just on the other side of that shyness and discomfort was something I had never known before. It was a kind of awakening and connection to something that just felt right and incredibly exciting. This was what drew me there, and something bigger than myself lead me further. I was very lucky at a young age to start working and get jobs, so my natural curiosity to learn more lead to an amazing career. I’ve always been very grateful to my mother for leading me to that place that I may possibly not have discovered had she not given me that loving nudge to go further.

Since the early 90s, you’ve enjoyed box office success with many of your projects, including Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Strangers. Has your definition of success changed over the years?

My definition of success has always been sort of the same I think. It has to do with the experience of the working process, not the outcome of the project. Being the daughter of musicians, I learned by watching their creative process. They would spend months, sometimes years, engaged in the writing process, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends and fellow musicians. I could see that the true magic laid in that place, in the creation. I don’t always enjoy the part that most people view as success. Having the world view your work feels great, don’t get me wrong, but the true joy for me comes from getting totally lost in the work. Working with amazing filmmakers is the biggest thrill for me. 

Your breakout role came as in Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty, a sensual and poignant coming-of-age story that you filmed at 18. What was it like to dive into such an intense role straight out of high school? Tell me how your experience with this role shaped your approach to acting moving forward in your career. 

This was just amazing, I must say!!! I literally graduated from high school in NYC and left a couple days later to go to Rome. It was summertime, I was 17-years-old and would later that summer have the greatest eighteenth birthday ever. It was an incredible opportunity and one I had worked hard to get (auditioning and screen testing, as well as doing my last two years of high school in one year and a summer), so I felt so excited and ready for it. I was pinching myself because everything was truly amazing. Bernardo is an outstanding filmmaker and the team of people around him was the best of the best. Every person working on that film had something amazing to offer. I learned so much in that time I was on the film. It really shaped my taste and aesthetic for life. I truly think it was the greatest summer of my life, and I knew it at the time, too. I know it may never be better than that! (Laughs) I was deeply grateful and savored every second of it.