Catherine Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones won a national tap dancing championship before she even knew what an exclusive contract in Hollywood was. She was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1969, into a working-class family that was lucky enough to win a local lottery. That money paid for the young Catherine's dance lessons and her first trips to London, where she hoped to break into the West End.

Her first big break came with the series The Darling Buds of May in 1991. In the United Kingdom she was a major television star, but she wanted more. So she packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles with no real job guarantees, because she knew her look and musical training fit the American entertainment industry.

The leap to the global market

Steven Spielberg first saw her in a miniseries about the Titanic filmed in 1996, and decided she was the Elena Montero they were looking for in The Mask of Zorro. That 1998 movie put her on the map alongside Antonio Banderas. The chemistry between them was so obvious that audiences forgot she was a Welsh actress playing a Spaniard in colonial Mexico.

Hollywood had just found its new obsession.

In 2000, she filmed Traffic while pregnant with her first child. Director Steven Soderbergh adapted the script so that her physical condition became part of the film’s plot (a decision that gave the character of Helena Ayala an unusual sense of realism). It was a smart move that avoided close-ups and body doubles.

Two years later came Chicago. In 2002 she played Velma Kelly and proved that her childhood dance training had not been a whim. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, competing against her own castmate Queen Latifah. But after reaching the top with Rob Marshall's musical, roles of that caliber gradually became scarce.

Managing her public image

During the 2010s her workload dropped considerably, by her own choice and due to a lack of strong scripts. In 2011 she made public that she had bipolar II disorder. She did it to help normalize mental health in an industry that tends to punish vulnerability. She wasn't seeking sympathy, but clarity in the face of sensationalist tabloid rumors.

Discretion became her best strategy.

In 2017 she played Olivia de Havilland in the series Feud. The role ended up in court because the real De Havilland sued the production company over how her image was used. The court ultimately sided with the show's creators in 2018, citing freedom of expression. It was a lengthy case that kept Zeta-Jones off film sets for months.

In 2022 she returned to the spotlight playing Morticia Addams in the series Wednesday. Tim Burton chose her to bring a cool, elegant air to the character. That same year she also appeared in the Disney+ series National Treasure: Edge of History, playing a villain with platinum blonde hair. Her salary per episode on these productions exceeded $300,000.

Off screen, she runs her own lifestyle brand called Casa Zeta-Jones. In 2017, she launched a home decor and bedding line sold mainly through TV shopping channels and digital platforms. Production on the second season of Wednesday moved its set from Romania to Ireland in 2024 for logistical and tax reasons.