Cinema Experts

"The point of acting is to share, to connect. That's why I act. Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found."

Danes was born in Manhattan to Christopher Danes, a computer consultant and former architectural photographer, and Carla, a day care provider, painter, and textile designer who would later serve as Claire's manager. Danes has described her background as being "as WASPy as you can get". Danes attended the Dalton School in New York City, the Professional Performing Arts School in New York City, and the exclusive private high school Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University. After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career.
Danes is perhaps most famous for bringing Angela Chase to life in the 1994 television drama series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination. She played Elizabeth ("Beth") March in the 1994 movie adaption of Little Women. She also appeared as Holly Hunter's daughter in Home For The Holidays, which was directed by Jodie Foster. This was followed by her role as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The same year she turned down the part of Rose in Titanic due to exhaustion from Romeo and Juliet. Her first role in an animated feature came in 1999 with the English version of Princess Mononoke. During the same year, she took the lead role in Brokedown Palace, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman.
In 2002, Danes starred opposite Susan Sarandon and Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down. She later co-starred as Meryl Streep's daughter in the Oscar-nominated The Hours, with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The following year, she was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines; and Stage Beauty, in 2004. She earned critical acclaim in 2005 when she starred in Steve Martin's Shopgirl alongside Martin and Jason Schwartzman, and in The Family Stone opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton. In 2007, Danes appeared in the fantasy epic Stardust, which she described as a "classic model of romantic comedy", opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Sienna Miller, and will appear in The Flock, opposite Richard Gere.
Danes appeared in Off-Broadway plays including Happiness, Punk Ballet, and Kids On Stage, in which she choreographed her own solo dance. She also wrote the introduction to Neil Gaiman's Death: The Time of Your Life. Danes also auditioned for the role of Lois Lane in Superman Returns before the role went to Kate Bosworth.Starting in September, Danes will make her Broadway debut in the revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion starring as Eliza Doolittle.