Emily Mortimer is most persuasive as an intelligent woman keeping her anxiety under control. We value her unforced acting, though Jay Kelly suggests that, as a writer, she could afford to be harder on her characters.
Fi1m perspective
In Paddington in Peru (2024), Emily Mortimer's Mary Brown worries that one child is about to leave home and the other has stopped talking to her. It is the sort of concern that ought to suit Mortimer, who is often cast as intelligent, guarded women. But Dougal Wilson's film gives each Brown a small problem to announce and resolve, leaving little room for anything less predictable. We were frustrated by Mary's thread: the fear of losing touch with her children ought to matter, and the script makes it feel like another item to be ticked off.
Elizabeth (1998), in which she plays Kat Ashley, sits among the early supporting roles; Lovely & Amazing (2001) brought her wider notice. The latter remains a useful starting point for her naturalistic, committed acting. Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) continued the ensemble work, before Mackenzie McHale in The Newsroom (2012–2014) gave her a television lead. We value an actor who can make a supporting character worth watching without insisting on being the centre of attention.
The turn towards writing and directing makes the supporting-player description inadequate. She co-created and starred in Doll & Em (2014–2015) with Dolly Wells, exploring female friendship and Hollywood. With The Pursuit of Love (2021), she took on writing and directing a Mitford adaptation, as well as playing the Bolter. These credits deserve attention alongside the more familiar acting work.
Jay Kelly (2025), which she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, is a more qualified pleasure. George Clooney's film star begins to notice how much strangers love him and how little his family knows him. The memory sequences are its strongest idea, and the writing is warm and often funny. But the script likes its subject too much, leaving his regrets less searching than they ought to be. Start with Lovely & Amazing for the actor; approach Jay Kelly with some patience for the man at its centre.
Biography
Emily Mortimer is a British actress and filmmaker. Born in London on 6 October 1971, she is the daughter of barrister and author Sir John Mortimer. She was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School and Lincoln College, Oxford, where she studied English and Russian, and spent time at the Moscow Arts Theatre Drama School studying acting.
Mortimer began acting in stage productions and made her screen debut in the mid-1990s. She is known for roles in films including Notting Hill (1999), Match Point (2005), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Shutter Island (2010), Hugo (2011) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018), and for voicing Sophie in the English version of Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). On television she played Mackenzie McHale in The Newsroom (2012–2014).
She co-created and co-wrote the series Doll & Em (2014–2015) and wrote and directed the miniseries The Pursuit of Love (2021). In 2003 she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Lovely & Amazing. She co-wrote the screenplay for Jay Kelly (2025) and appears in the film, and played Mary Brown in Paddington in Peru (2024).
