A product of the values instilled into her by the good folks of Worthington, Ohio, Maggie Grace found herself amid the grime of L.A. in the late 1990s – a high school dropout yearning for fame and fortune on the silver screen. But it wasn’t until 2004 when she struck paydirt: as Shannon Rutherford on “Lost” and thus a steady paycheck from ABC. While her character was killed off early in the show’s run, the exposure was enough for Maggie to truly begin her ascent.
Opposite Tom Welling in 2005’s “The Fog” helped garner Maggie further attention. She also appeared that year in “Suburban Girl.” In “Taken,” starring Liam Neeson, the then 24-year-old Maggie convincingly portrayed a troubled teen caught amid the international human trafficking crowd. As the decade gave way to the new one, Maggie finds herself in an interesting position. While the work is steady – “Malice in Wonderland,” “Knight and Day” – she has yet to fully step into leading lady status. Part of that might be the quality of heroines in today’s studio fare (how many female superheroes are there?), but also part of it might be the tendency to pigeonhole Maggie into stereotypical roles. In interviews she is clearly intelligent and articulate, and as she grows further into maturity it will be up to her to leverage herself while dovetailing her talents to fit with modern studio work.
Maggie on Video
“Lost” Audition Tape
Maggie’s audition.
“Taken” Interview
Liam Neeson and Maggie chat “Taken.”
Maggie on the Screen
Thanks to “Lost,” Maggie was able to land roles in films like “The Fog,” “The Jane Austen Book Club” and “Taken.” More recently, she appeared alongside The Rock in “Faster” and had a small cameo in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I.”
Maggie Says
On her favorite superhero:
“I prefer Batman, because he wasn’t born with superpowers. He’s left to his own devices.”