Pernilla August

Pernilla August (born Mia Pernilla Hertzman-Ericson on February 13, 1958) played Shmi Skywalker in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. She later reprised her role in one episode of the third season of The Clone Wars TV series.

BiographyEdit

Pernilla August started acting as a child in theater and at school. She made her professional acting debut as Pernilla Wallgren in 1975 when she obtained a minor role in Roy Andersson's drama film Giliap. She was accepted at the Statens scenskola in 1979 to study acting.

August won the Best Actress Award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival for her role in Ingmar Bergman's The Best Intentions. She collaborated with this director on several other films, such as Fanny and Alexander, Private Confessions, and In the Presence of a Clown.

In 1993, August played in two episodes of George Lucas's TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. A few years later, Lucas would remember her for the role of Anakin Skywalker's mother in his new Star Wars trilogy.^[1]

Theatrically, August played in several plays, performing such stage roles as Ophelia in Hamlet (1986), which earned her the 1987 London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress, Nora in A Doll's House (1989), Hermione in The Winter's Tale (1994), the title role in Mary Stuart (2000), and Helene Alving in Ghosts (2002).

In 2010, August co-wrote and directed the Swedish film Svinalängorna, known internationally as Beyond. The film took home the International Critic's Week Award and the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Special Award at the 67th Venice International Film Festival in September of that year.^[2][3] In 2011, it also garnered August the Guldbagge Award for Best Director, an award given annually by the Swedish Film Institute, roughly analogous to an Academy Award.^[4] She had made her debut as a director with the short movie Blindgångare (Time Bomb) in 2005.

FilmographyEdit

BibliographyEdit

•  Biography: Pernilla August on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
• "Universal Mother"—Star Wars Insider 44
• "Women of the Force"—Star Wars Insider 47
• "Pernilla August: Mother of the Force"—Star Wars Insider 54
•  Pernilla August: Mother of the Force on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)

Notes and referencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Pernilla August on Wikipedia
• Pernilla August at the Internet Movie Database