Rinko Kikuchi

Few actors go to the lengths that Kikuchi did to win her breakout Babel role. And her powerful performance as an angry, sexually charged deaf-mute in the film thrust her into the Hollywood spotlight. Kikuchi began modeling as a teen and soon graduated to commercials and then feature films, appearing in a dozen movies in her homeland before Babel gained her international acclaim. Yet while the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, had been impressed with her talents from the outset, he was determined to cast a hearing-impaired performer. Undeterred, Kikuchi enrolled in a school for the deaf and learned sign language, and after a grueling, yearlong audition process, Iñárritu was finally convinced she was the actress for the job. Kikuchi proved her worth, earning rave reviews and myriad accolades, including Golden Globe, SAG and Oscar nominations. ~ Rovi