Colleen Sturtevant · CC BY-SA 4.0

Broke through playing a secretary in a consensual S&M relationship with her boss in Secretary (2002), a performance that set the pattern for a career built on roles other actresses turned down. She earned an Oscar nomination for Crazy Heart, played Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight, and won a Golden Globe for the BBC miniseries The Honourable Woman before moving into writing and directing.