Why Vivian From Transformers: The Last Knight Looks So Familiar
As fans flock to theaters to see Transformers: The Last Knight—allegedly Michael Bay's final film at the helm of the series based on the popular Hasbro toys—moviegoers can expect to see more of the same senses-shattering action they've come to expect from their favorite robots in disguise. And that isn't all they can expect: when it's all over, they might be left wondering where they've seen Last Knight Oxford professor Viviane Wembley before.
Laura Haddock, who plays Wembley, has been in the acting business since 2007, but it's only recently that she's started to be seen by a wider audience, but that doesn't mean you haven't watched her work before—in fact, the odds are you have, even if you didn't realize it at the time. From British television shows to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you're bound to recognize Haddock from one of her prior roles. Here's why she looks so familiar.
Early British TV appearances (2007-2011)
After moving to London to study drama in the early 2000s, Haddock got her start on the small screen, appearing in one episode each of British sitcom My Family and one-off UK comedy special series Comedy Showcase, in 2007. She landed her true television breakthrough on the six-episode series Honest, which featured Haddock as main cast member Kacie Carter.
Following Honest, Haddock appeared on the ill-fated historical British drama series The Palace, which was canceled early due to low ratings, then played marketing assistant Natasha Wright on the UK's supermarket-management dramatic comedy series Monday Monday. If you recognize the actress from any of these early British TV roles, you've certainly got unique taste in television, and we commend you.
How Not to Live Your Life (2009-2011)
With various television appearances and a couple of starring roles to her name, Haddock landed her first big-time gig on BBC Three's sitcom How Not to Live Your Life.
The dark comedy centered around a 29-year-old pessimist with a penchant for poor decision making, and became something of a cult hit, seeing its ratings increase throughout the entirety of its three-season run. Haddock entered the show in the second season starring as Samantha Parker, a university student and new housemate to the series' main character, Don. Though she gives Don a hard time for his self-centered behavior and pessimism, and frequently outwits him with her much-sharper intellect, Haddock's character gets on well with Don, who ultimately can't hide his feelings for her.
Unfortunately for fans, it was canceled after three seasons and somewhat unspectacularly wrapped up with a one-episode Christmas special, which is definitely an example of how not to end a popular show. Fortunately for Haddock, this only the beginning of her rise to fame.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Laura Haddock's first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is something of an Easter egg—easily missable and only really discussed by the most hardcore MCU fans.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Haddock snagged a few seconds of screen time as an unnamed autograph seeker—but she'd make a much bigger impression in her second MCU appearance, as Meredith Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy (a role she reprised in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2). Some fans wondered whether her First Avenger character was secretly Meredith, but Meredith Quill appears to be roughly 30 in her death scene, which takes places in 1988. Marvel movies include sentient tree creatures, talking raccoons and whatnot, but this type of time-traveling age-manipulation is a stretch. Still, crazier things have happened.
The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
Fans of the long-running British comedy series The Inbetweeners will recognize Laura Haddock as Alison, Will's sexy love interest in what was meant to be the series-concluding film The Inbetweeners Movie.
The film was hugely popular at the U.K. box office, though American audiences weren't particularly interested. Nevertheless, the project served as Haddock's first proper role in a major motion picture, helping launch her career on the U.K.'s big screens. The Inbetweeners Movie may not have been the series' best showing, but loads and loads of people bought tickets to the slapstick, sex-joke-filled film, serving only to boost Haddock's star power in the U.K.—and in the States as well.
Da Vinci's Demons (2013-2015)
Haddock really entered the American pop culture mainstream when she landed the starring role of Lucrezia Donati in Da Vinci's Demons.
Starring alongside Tom Riley, who plays the series' title character, Haddock quickly became a fan favorite, leading to her first experience sitting for a slew of interviews, panels and appearances. Unsurprisingly, she was super-stoked to get the gig, telling Couch TV at New York Comic-Con 2014 that she kept her fingers crossed after auditioning. She initially thought she was passed over for the role, due to a slight misunderstanding of the American vernacular.
Fortunately, it all worked out, and Haddock's work as Donati marked the first time she truly hit it big on the international small screen.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Aside from The Inbetweeners Movie, Haddock's first significant gig in a legitimate blockbuster film came when she landed the role of Meredith Quill in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
As the young mother to the film's main protagonist, Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star-Lord), Haddock's role was one of major significance to the film's plot. However, the casual moviegoer might be forgiven for not recognizing the mix-tape making mother from her previous and future roles; by the time viewers first see her, she's bald and sickly—not the way most people were used to seeing Haddock.
Though not the film's largest role, Star-Lord's relationship to his mother is one of the focal points of the Guardians of the Galaxy series, and the franchise's popularity put Haddock's face in front of millions of moviegoers...even if she was virtually unrecognizable.
The Level (2016)
After breaking out with Guardians of the Galaxy, Haddock landed a prime role on the popular British crime drama The Level. Though the series only ran for six episodes, it was very well received; The Guardian called it "an antidote" to the "faddish gritty police drama" and "fast, thrilling, [and] fun." A second season remains a possibility, and it's safe to assume Haddock's British television career is far from over. Maybe we'll even start seeing the starlet on American prime time.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Haddock didn't only play Meredith Quill in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, of course. She also reprised her role as the protagonist's deceased mother in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Interestingly, Haddock actually appears younger in the series' second film than she really is. According to Empire, she was digitally de-aged in Vol. 2; as writer-director James Gunn explained, "Meredith Quill is in her late teens, very early twenties at most ... so there's a significant age difference there." Haddock wasn't the only one aged down; her onscreen love interest, Kurt Russell, was also de-aged by several decades — though apparently using less CGI than one would expect. Who would've thought an actor in his mid-60s would need less computerized de-aging than an actress born in 1985?