Haley Bennett is a popular American actress and singer who made her foray on the silver screen with the romantic comedy film, Music and Lyrics in 2007. The actress has since then appeared in several popular films like The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008), The Hole (2009), After the Fall (2014), Hardcore Henry (2015) and The Magnificent Seven (2016).
Early Life
Born in Fort Myers, Florida, Haley Bennett is the daughter of Leilani Dorsey and Ronald Keeling. After living in Florida for a few years, she later moved to Stow, Ohio where her parents were originally from.
Movie Career
Bennett made her debut on the silver screen in 2007 with the American romantic comedy film, Music, and Lyrics directed by Marc Lawrence. The film where Bennett plays the role of a pop star named Cora Corman received mostly positive reviews from the critics and emerged to be a box office hit. The following year, director Deb Hagan cast Bennett alongside Drake Bell, Kevin Covais, Andrew Caldwell, and Ryan Pinkston in his directorial debut College. The film released in August 2008 amidst negative critic reviews and it also turned out to be a box office failure.
After the debacle of College, the actress next starred in the American supernatural horror film The Haunting of Holly Hartley, which was directed by Mickey Liddell. The film co-starring Chace Crawford, Jake Weber, and AnnaLynne McCord was panned by the critics but turned out to be an average earner at the box office. Her other film of the year was Marley & Me, a coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel. The film co-starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston and Theodore Shapiro was based on the memoir of the same name by John Grogan and opened to highly positive reviews.
In 2009, the actress had two releases, in her first film of the year she appeared in Passage, a short film directed the stalwart Indian director, Shekhar Kapur. The film, which had a run time of 16 minutes also featured Julia Stiles in the lead role. Although the film did not garner any attention, Bennett`s performance was much appreciated by the critics and the audience. She next starred in the American 3D fantasy horror film, The Hole, which was directed by Joe Dante. The film garnered mostly positive reviews from the critics but turned out to be a commercial failure.
After having a mixed year at the office, in 2010, the actress starred in Kaboom, an American science fiction mystery film. The film, which co-stars Thomas Dekker, Juno Temple, Roxane Mesquida, Brennan Mejia and James Duval premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 where it was awarded the first ever Queer Palm for addressing the social issues faced by the LGBT community. Despite its decent opening, Kaboom got mixed reviews from the critics. Haley Bennett got his next major hit in 2014 with After the Fall, an American drama film directed by Saar Klein. The film co-starring Wes Bentley and Jason Issacs premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.
The actress had three more releases in 2014, viz. Kristy, Lost in the White City and The Equalizer. Whilst the first two movies did not garner any attention at the box office, the latter, an American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and co-starring Denzel Washington, David Harbour, Marton Csokas, Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman received mixed to positive reviews and emerged to be a massive box office hit; it grossed more than 192 million US dollars. In her solitary release in 2015, Ilya Naishuller cast her in the Russian-American science fiction film, Hardcore Henry. The film, which is noted for being short from a first-person perspective got mixed reviews from the critics.
In 2016, the actress had three releases, in her first release of the year, she starred in American thriller film, A Kind of Murder directed by Andy Goddard. The film, which features an ensemble cast including Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, Vincent Kartheiser and Eddie Marsan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. In her next release of the year, the actress collaborated with director Antoine Fuqua for the second time in her career for the action film The Magnificent Seven. The film despite having a star cast including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D`Onofrio and Peter Sarsgaard received mixed reviews from the critics and grossed more than 130 million USD worldwide. Her other release of the year includes The Girl on the Train directed by Tate Taylor.