The Stunning Transformation Of Lizzy Caplan

It's safe to say that life has never been boring for Lizzy Caplan. The Los Angeles native, whose acting career spans decades, has been known to take on just about any genre and flourish in it. By now, it's become apparent that Caplan is a standout performer, which might explain the two Emmy acting nods (for two incredibly different performances, of course) that she has received so far. The actress has also made it clear that she's just getting started.

With fans eagerly awaiting what Caplan will do next, it's the perfect time to look back at the actor's meteoric rise to fame, from a young teen star playing supporting and minor characters to an onscreen lead who has delivered several critically acclaimed performances over the years. And as Caplan grew up onscreen, those around her got to witness the Hollywood star fall in love, settle down, and start a family.

Around this time, tragedy also struck the Caplan family when her mother died from cancer. As she grieved, Lizzy Caplan also realized that she seriously wanted to pursue acting. "Strangely, from that age on I thought the only reason why I could even attempt to be an actress was because this horrible thing happened to me," she once told Rolling Stone. "Like something dark and terrible had to happen in order to earn your stripes as a human being and be able to be an actress. I don't know where I got that from."

In the years that followed, Caplan would also come to realize how challenging acting could be as a profession. While speaking to Backstage, she opened up about the constant rejections and uncertainty that actors and actresses who are just starting out often deal with. That being said, Caplan also admitted that the experience can help one develop better resilience.

After her stint on "Freaks and Geeks," Caplan soon booked a guest role in the superhero drama "Smallville." On the show, the actress played Tina Greer, the metahuman who develops an obsession with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). Though the character only appears in a couple of episodes (once in Seasons 1 and 2), that was enough time for Tina to wreak havoc in Smallville. In her final appearance, Tina ends up in a physical confrontation with Clark (Tom Welling) after trying to trick Lana into thinking that she was Clark. As they fight, Tina ends up impaling herself, putting an end to Caplan's time on the show.

As brief as her time on "Smallville" was, Caplan revealed that the experience came with several firsts. "That was my first job I ever did that was not in Los Angeles. So it was the first time I flew business class, the first time I stayed in a hotel suite, the first time I ordered room service, and it just felt like a really huge moment of arrival," the actress told The A.V. Club.

While things didn't immediately go well for Lizzy Caplan in the television world, the actress found her way back to the big screen with the 2008 film "Cloverfield," produced and directed by Hollywood heavyweights J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, respectively. As Caplan would later admit, she was initially drawn to this project because of these big names, Abrams' in particular. 

Even as Abrams and Reeves kept everyone in the dark about what was going to happen in the film, Caplan went ahead and auditioned. The script they gave out even appeared to be misleading, so much so that Caplan assumed they were doing a romantic comedy. While speaking with Movie Web, the actress recalled being given a party scene during her audition for the movie. More importantly, there was no indication that the characters would eventually be trying to escape a monster.

By the time Caplan went in for her second audition, however, she realized that something else was going on, as her character had to stab T.J. Miller's character in the heart with adrenaline. And while neither Caplan nor Miller knew what was happening at the time, the film's director was already impressed with their chemistry. "Having T.J. and Lizzy play off each other was what sold us on that relationship. So, it was critical that we cast them and develop that relationship," he told Cinema.com.

After several years in Hollywood, it was time for Lizzy Caplan to head to the Sundance Film Festival. Since finding some commercial success, Caplan found herself more drawn to independent projects where she could have more creative independence. "I'd much rather do a film with a $5 million budget than one with a $200 million budget. You don't have all these suits to answer to and all these numbers to live up to," the actress even told the Sundance Institute. In 2012, she made her way to Sundance, where the actress showcased not one, but two starkly different romantic comedies: "Save the Date" and "Bachelorette." 

In "Save the Date," Caplan plays Sarah, a woman who finds herself having a rebound lover after turning down her boyfriend's marriage proposal. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the actor spoke about how refreshing it was to work on a romance film that deals with what happens after a breakup instead of typical relationship issues. Meanwhile, "Bachelorette" is a raunchy ensemble rom-com where Caplan, Kirsten Dunst, and Isla Fisher play longtime friends who suddenly become bridesmaids to a woman (Rebel Wilson) that they used to ridicule during their school days. The film later became a hit on iTunes before getting a theatrical release.

It seems that Lizzy Caplan has made a habit of going back and forth between TV and film ever since she got started in Hollywood. Following her success on "Masters of Sex," the actress made her way back to the big screen once again. This time, she joined the cast of Robert Zemeckis' romantic thriller "Allied," which was headlined by Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Set during World War II, the film centers around a Canadian intelligence officer named Max (Pitt) and a French resistance fighter named Marianne (Cotillard) who fall in love while carrying out a mission behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, Caplan played Pitt's sister, Bridget. While the storyline may or may not be based on a real-life story, all that mattered to Caplan was that she could work on a Zemeckis movie, having been a longtime fan of his film "Back to the Future."

While working on the Zemeckis' movie, Caplan also unexpectedly found love. Actor Tom Riley wasn't actually in "Allied," but he happened to be in London while Caplan was shooting. The two hit it off right away and just a year later, Riley and Caplan got engaged. In 2017, the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in Italy.

The last thing fans might have expected is Lizzy Caplan becoming a stay-at-home mom. Interestingly, that's exactly the role she ended up playing in the Hulu series "Fleishman Is in Trouble," which also starred Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Adam Brody, and Josh Radnor. The series follows Toby Fleishman (Eisenberg) as he faces the bitter realities of his new life after separating from his wife (Danes). Caplan plays Libby Epstein, a housewife (married to Radnor's Adam) who used to be a magazine writer. She is also the narrator of the show.

Having played supporting roles in the past, Caplan was happy to play a secondary role once more for this series. Still, show creator Taffy Brodesser-Akner had something special planned for her character from the start. "In early conversations, Taffy wanted to reassure me that there was a payoff for Libby," Caplan told Vanity Fair. As the show went on, it became clear that Libby was anything but a secondary character. In the end, it was revealed that the show was essentially about her, as the character who ends up writing the book that the show is based on. "I was very lucky that Lizzy, especially, was able to kind of bide her time in scenes where she didn't talk that much," Brodesser-Akner told The Hollywood Reporter. Caplan's performance also led to another Emmy nod.