Jennifer Ehle, daughter of
Rosemary Harris, in The Real Thing [photo by Sara Krulwich]April 21, 2000
Jennifer Ehle, daughter of
Rosemary Harris, in The Real Thing [photo by Sara Krulwich]
For scientists puzzling over whether acting talent is a genetic trait, it's time to turn off the geneto-electro microscope, or whatever they call it.
Jennifer Ehle is all the proof you need.
Ms. Ehle, 29, made one of Broadway's sweeter debuts on Monday night in the ballyhooed revival of The Real Thing, at the Barrymore. Reviewing the Tom Stoppard play in The New York Times, Ben Brantley called Ms. Ehle "delectable" and a "rising star."
She has a reliable orbit to trace. Her mother, after all, is Rosemary Harris, the longtime Broadway star, who has alighted on the stage in Waiting in the Wings, at the Eugene O'Neill. (Her father is the novelist John Ehle.)
Ms. Ehle grew up traveling, following her parents' professional peregrinations. After studying acting at the North Carolina School of the Arts and in London, she performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and on film, and perhaps most prominently in a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
She was between jobs last year when the director David Leveaux called her about the role of Annie, a character she had seen Glenn Close create on Broadway in 1984.
Ms. Ehle spent her first night in New York watching her mother's show. The critical acclaim for their performances has set up the intriguing possibility that a mother and a daughter might compete (lovingly, of course) for a Tony Award. Ms. Ehle's reaction to such speculation? "I'm not going to examine those chickens," she said with a laugh.