Margaret Qualley
Birthdate: October 23, 1994
Birthplace: Kalispell, Montana, USA
While Margaret Qualley (birthname: Sarah Margaret Qualley) has gained most visibility in lead or co-lead roles in a handful of impactful cable and streaming series, including HBO’s The Leftovers (2014-2017), Fosse/Verdon (2019), and Netflix’s Maid (2021), she has spent most of her acting energy during her nine-year career on feature films, collaborating with such world-class directors as Claire Denis (Stars at Noon) and Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things).
Qualley’s screen debut was accidental, as she was cast by director Gia Coppola on the spur of the moment when she was visiting a friend on the set of Coppola’s Palo Alto (2013), with James Franco and Emma Roberts. Her first intentional screen role supported in Shane Black’s crime comedy, The Nice Guys (2016), with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, and then her first co-starring role happened with Maggie Betts’ impressive nun drama, Novitiate (2017), with Melissa Leo and Julianne Nicholson. Qualley’s first feature to go straight to Netflix was in 2017, with the supernatural Death Note, with Lakeith Stanfield and Nat Wolff, proceeded by IFC’s release of Tim Hutton’s Donnybrook, with Frank Grillo, Jamie Bell, and James Badge Dale.
Displaying her genre breadth, Qualley starred in a busy 2019 in the post-Apocalyptic sci-fi drama, Io, with Anthony Mackie and Danny Huston; Rashid Johnson’s and Suzan Lori-Parks’ adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son, with Ashton Sanders; as a member of the Manson family in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; the thriller Strange but True, with Amy Ryan, Brian Cox, and Blythe Danner; and the biopic Seberg, opposite Kristen Stewart and Jack O’Connell. Qualley portrayed author Joanna Rakoff in Phillippe Falardeau’s Canadian production, My Salinger Year (2020), with Sigourney Weaver and Colm Feore, and received a Best Actress Canadian Film (Iris) award nomination.
With writer-director Claire Denis, Margaret Qualley co-starred in the Nicaraguan revolution drama, Stars at Noon (2022) with John C. Reilly and Joe Alwyn, premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. She followed with director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things (based on Tony McNamara’s adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel), with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Abbott—with whom Qualley co-starred in the erotic drama, Sanctuary (2022).
Qualley joined the cast of Ray Liotta and Demi Moore for Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (date to be announced), followed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s follow-up to her acclaimed Mustangs (2015) and Kings (2017), The End of Getting Lost (date to be announced) with Paul Mescal. Qualley’s biggest role yet is slated for 2023, when she portrays Ginger Rogers opposite Jamie Bell’s Fred Astaire in Fred & Ginger, directed by Jonathan Entwistle and written by Arash Amel.
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Personal Details
Montana-born Margaret Qualley is the daughter of actor Andie MacDowell and rancher and ex-model Paul Qualley. Her siblings are singer-actor Rainey Qualley and Justin Qualley. Her parents separated when Qualley was five. She grew up in Asheville, N.C., and trained early in ballet, studying at the North Carolina Dance Theater. Qualley moved to New York to study at the Professional Children’s School, with an apprenticeship at the American Ballet Theatre.
At the same time, she modeled for various major labels at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week, as well as major photo campaigns. Qualley switched her focus to acting, taking summer sessions at Britain’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then one semester at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, dropping out when she started getting acting jobs. Qualley has been in relationships with comic actor Pete Davidson, Shia LaBeouf, and singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff. Her height is 5’ 8”.
Filmography
Actor
- 2021 | My Salinger YearAsJoanna
My Salinger Year
A college grad takes a clerical job working for the literary agent of the renowned, reclusive writer J.D. Salinger.
Some Facts About Margaret Qualley
Early Show: Before she appeared as an actor on film or TV, Margaret Qualley showed up as a model in season two of the fashion contest show, The Fashion Found.
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