Happy Birthday: Thora Birch

Thora Birch

Born: March 11, 1982 in Los Angeles, California, USA

[on her nude scene in American Beauty (1999)] It was very, very difficult for me to come to terms with it in a personal way. Creatively, I was solid. I understood the importance and significance of that scene and I had known in advance that it was going to happen. As you can imagine, I had spoken with the director, Sam Mendes, and we both agreed it was not a gratuitous scene, rather a very realistic moment in Jane and Ricky’s relationship.

I tried to walk a fine line between being alluring and somewhat glamorous but maintain a strong identity and pursue things that were a little more thoughtful, and I guess nobody really wanted women to do that at that time.

I pissed a lot of people off over a long period of time and they found a…