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“I can't do Los Angeles. I've always been the anti-Barbie.”
Birthname:
Vera Ann Farmiga
Hometown:
Passaic County, New Jersey
Assets:
smarts, quirky appeal
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Vices:
Ukrainian Folk Dancing
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Introduction
Vera Ann Farmiga (born August 6, 1973) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 2006 films Running Scared and The Departed, in which she engaged in "relations" with Leonardo Dicaprio's character, who was her character's psychiatric patient. This was totally unbelievable. Nope. Didn't buy it. Dicaprio may be irresistable to women, but when he's playing a skeezy undercover cop, I don't care. No psychologist is going to put her job on the line for one wild night with Leo.
Life Story
Vera Farmiga (pronounced far-MEE-guh), the second oldest of seven children, was born in Essex County, New Jersey and grew up in Irvington, New Jersey, the daughter of Michael (a computer-systems analyst) and Luba Farmiga (a schoolteacher), Ukrainian immigrants. She was raised in an insular Ukrainian American community, not speaking English until the age of six. She attended a Ukrainian Catholic school in Newark and toured with a Ukrainian folk-dancing ensemble. Oh gosh. Call the Department of Homeland Security. Ukrainian spy uses acting career to gain national secrets. This has Tom Clancy written all over it.
Although she originally intended to become an optometrist, Farmiga attended Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts. She made her Broadway debut in 1996 as an understudy in the play "Taking Sides". The same year, she starred as Miranda in the American Conservatory Theater production of "The Tempest". Throughout the late 1990s, she continued appearing in stage, television and film roles, including a part in the 1998 film Return to Paradise.
Farmiga appeared in several high profile films in the early 2000s, including Autumn in New York and 15 Minutes, which was actually about 120 minutes. She also appeared in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Her lead performance in the 2005 film Down to the Bone received a "Best Actress" award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 2006 she appeared in Running Scared, and as a police psychiatrist in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which was a far cry from the Award-winning filmmaking she was used to with films like Running Scared.
Farmiga was formerly married to actor Sebastian Roché, who co-starred with her in the television series "Roar". The two eloped to the Bahamas after the series' end in 1997. The marriage ended in divorce in 2005. This reeks of Dicaprio.
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