Maria Bello (Actor)

Actress Maria Bello poses during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo: Frank Micelotta / Getty Images)

About Maria Bello

After a decade of commitment to exploring smart, tough, interesting characters, actress Maria Bello gained widespread acclaim with Golden Globe-nominated roles in “The Cooler” (2003) and “A History of Violence” (2005). Never looking to be the next one-dimensional blonde, her reputation for intense drama made Bello a favorite among artful directors like John Sayles, David Cronenberg, and Alan Ball, but she also snared the occasional complex female role in multiplex fare like “Payback” (2000) and “The Jane Austen Book Club” (2007).

Maria Bello was born on April 18, 1967 and raised in a Polish/Italian household in working class Norristown, PA, where she attended a Catholic school which did not have a theater department. In fact, acting was not even on Bello’s radar until she took a drama class at Villanova University as an elective in a schedule otherwise filled with political science and pre-law courses. After graduating with a political science degree in 1989, she threw her intended plans for law school aside, moving instead to New York, where she crashed on a friend’s floor, got a bartending gig, and started gaining invaluable experience in off-Broadway plays. Bello struggled for years, making little or no money in independent theatrical productions and the occasional commercial, yet remained unwaveringly committed to her craft.

In 1992, she combined her dedication to the arts with a passion for social causes that had previously informed her law career, by co-founding Harlem's Dreamyard Drama Project. The Dreamyard was a nonprofit arts and education program that paired working artists with at-risk kids, eventually giving a voice and a better chance at academic achievement to thousands of kids across the city.

Maybe it was all her hard work; maybe it was a bit of good karma coming back her way – but by 1995, Bello began getting some professional breaks, landing small screen roles in the TV-movie "The Commish: In the Shadow of the Gallows" (ABC, 1995). Her tough, smart exterior was the perfect choice to play a spy opposite Scott Bakula on the CBS action series "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1996). With this offer, Bello relocated to Los Angeles and, although the series was ultimately short-lived, it led the actress to regular appearances on the respected medical drama "ER" (NBC, 1994- ), playing pediatrician Anna Del Amico. Bello showed Hollywood what she was made of with her stunning performance as a tough-loving, recovering junkie opposite Ben Stiller in the film adaptation of Jerry Stahl’s harrowing Hollywood heroin memoir, "Permanent Midnight" (1998). Later in the year, Bello expanded on her earlier work with Dreamyard by accompanying a team of artists and teachers on a Save the Children-sponsored trip to Nicaragua, where they shared arts activities with survivors of Hurricane Mitch. In 1999, she embarked on a similar trip to Kosovo and eventually visited India and China, where she similarly documented the world’s children through interviews and photographs.

With her reputation as a dependable leading lady beginning to build, Bello subsequently began getting better offers, playing complicated women who were typically hard-as-nails on the outside but warm and vulnerable on the inside. She went mainstream with two memorable roles in quick succession: starring as a hooker with ties to Mel Gibson in "Payback" (1999) and bringing her real-life experience to the role of a leather-clad bar-owner and den mother to a pack of midriff-baring barmaids in "Coyote Ugly" (2000). She also appeared as a vulnerable sexpot in director Bruce Paltrow's final film, "Duets" (2000), before abruptly switching gears for the IMAX film "China: The Panda Adventure," a film about a 1930s Chinese panda study excursion. Bello’s next role was that of a real-life mother — having given birth to her first child Jackson Blue McDermott in 2001. Jack’s father was Bello’s longtime boyfriend Dan McDermott, the former head of Dreamworks Production-turned-screenwriter/producer.

Bello returned to the screen in 2002 when Paul Schrader tapped her for “Auto Focus” (2002), his gritty film about the kinky secret sex life and eventual murder of "Hogan’s Heroes" (CBS, 1965-1971) star Bob Crane, in which she played his sexy co-star-turned-girlfriend. That small but effective role was just a prelude, however, to her fine leading work in "The Cooler" (2003). Playing opposite William H. Macy — a loser so unlucky he is employed by a Las Vegas casino to spread his infectious misfortune whenever gamblers hit a hot streak – Bello's cocktail waitress Natalie emerged as his apparent salvation when their passionate love affair seemed to lift Macy's terminal bad luck. After earning raves on the festival circuit, "The Cooler" was at the center of controversy due to one of Bello's nude scenes; the scene was eventually trimmed to secure an R rating. But it was Bello's sensitive and bold performance that really raised eyebrows, and among other accolades, the actress received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

It was truly a breakout role, and Bello quickly had several projects in the pipeline. She snared a small role in the unsettling Johnny Depp thriller "Secret Window" (2004), followed by a smart turn as a political reporter in John Sayles' sharply drawn political satire/mystery, "Silver City" (2004). Bello was also featured in the 2005 remake of the police thriller "Assault on Precinct 13" as a psychiatrist trapped inside a police precinct house during a violent invasion. The following year, she earned a New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress award for her raw, emotional performance as a wife whose husband’s (Viggo Mortensen) unknown past catches up with him in David Cronenberg's tautly crafted "A History of Violence" (2005). Bello’s great performance in “Silver City” informed Jason Reitman’s decision to cast her in the satirical 2006 release, “Thank You for Smoking” (2006), in which she played an alcohol spokesperson plotting to subvert cultural do-gooders. Her next film, Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” (2006), was ultimately more controversial, but for all the wrong reasons. Bello was outstanding as Donna McLoughlin, wife of a Port Authority sergeant (Nicolas Cage) trapped beneath the 9/11 rubble, but the film drew criticism for its debatable depiction of the “facts” of September 11th and for concerns raised by some of the film’s real life counterparts.

Having made a name for herself as no-nonsense women hellbent on independent survival, Bello began to explore softer territories with the family film “Flicka” (2006) and the well-received literary dramedy “The Jane Austen Book Club” (2007). She had a supporting role in “Towelhead” (2007), the Alan Ball directed suburban drama that screened at the Toronto Film Festival, and like the well-rounded actress she was, bounced from festival to multiplex with her role in the summer 2008 hit, “Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” in the franchise “Mummy” role originated by Rachel Weisz.

Notes

"I'm the same exact person I was when I worked at Tartine, but a lot less bitchy, probably. Did you know I got pegged the worst waitress in the city? Some magazine wrote that in a review of the restaurant. Her recommendation? 'The beef au poivre.'" - Bello to Time Out New York Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1997

"The whole idea of monogamy is nonsensical to me. I suppose I understand the idea of a lifelong helpmate and friend. But when you have to stay sexually monogamous to this one person, I think it's usually a big fat lie." - Bello to Esquire Magazine, August 2006

"When I was pregnant I gained 70 pounds, and I made 'The Cooler' (2003) when Jack [Bello's son] was only a year old, so my body was quite different than it usually is. And for woman to come up to me and say things like 'Thank you for putting a real ass on the screen' meant so much to me. As much as we don't like to admit it sometimes, I think we have a responsibility in Hollywood to young woman. They see us as role models, and I'm happy that my butt was a role model for some." - Bello to Interview Magazine, April 2004

A lover of the outdoors, Bello has hiked and camped all over the world.

Bello has written and directed several plays and has visited Tanzania and Botswana gathering material for a book she plans to write about children around the world.