Título: Catherine Zeta-Jones
Seção: 1998-2000: Hollywood breakthrough and success
Background: Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Born and raised in Swansea, Zeta-Jones aspired to be an actress from a young age. As a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals Annie and Bugsy Malone. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London, and made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street.

Conteúdo: Steven Spielberg took notice of Zeta-Jones in Titanic and recommended her to Martin Campbell, who was directing The Mask of Zorro (1998) for Spielberg's production company. Campbell cast her as the leading lady in favour of Izabella Scorupco, who was his original choice for the part. Co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas, the film tells the story of Zorro (Hopkins), a Mexican warrior who sets out to avenge the death of his wife and find his lost daughter Elena (Zeta-Jones). She found similarities between her "volatile" Celtic personality and her Latin character's temperament, and in preparation she studied dancing, riding and sword-fighting, and took diction lessons in Spanish. Filming the action and dance sequences while wearing heavy corsets in the humid Mexican desert proved to be a challenge for Zeta-Jones, but she found the experience "worth suffering for". The Mask of Zorro was positively received by the critics and earned over US$250 million worldwide. The role proved to be a breakthrough for her and she was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. Zeta-Jones' first release of 1999 was the heist film Entrapment, in which she starred opposite Sean Connery as a seductive insurance agent on the lookout for an art thief. Despite a negative critical reception, the film was a commercial success; Janet Maslin of The New York Times thought that the film provided Zeta-Jones a platform to "show off her slithery skills", and Desson Howe of T

user: What happened in 1998?

assistant: Steven Spielberg took notice of Zeta-Jones in Titanic and recommended her to Martin Campbell, who was directing The Mask of Zorro (

user: What happened after he recommended her?

assistant: Campbell cast her as the leading lady in favour of Izabella Scorupco,

user: Did she win any awards?

assistant: nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.

user: What happened after her nomination?

assistant: Zeta-Jones' first release of 1999 was the heist film Entrapment,

user: Was it a success?

assistant: The horror feature received generally poor reviews

user: What happened in 2000?

assistant: Zeta-Jones starred in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (

user: Was this one a success?

assistant: The ensemble of Traffic won the SAG Award for Outstanding Cast and Zeta-Jones was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

user: What happened after this?

assistant: Edward Guthman of the San Francisco Chronicle found Zeta-Jones to be a standout among the ensemble and labelled her "sensational" in a scene

user: Is there anything else interesting?

assistant: She found similarities between her "volatile" Celtic personality