Oddly underwhelming career, considering all the advantages she had. From the
Redgrave acting dynasty ( mother was
Vanessa). Inherited her mother's bIeauty, and while not as brilliant an actress as her mother, had more than enough talent to be a major star.
I dunno. I think she lacked the ambition to really go for
greatness. It all came to her so easily. She didn't have to struggle for any breaks. She was satisfied being reliable and good, when she should have been trying to be
Nicole Kidman or
Cate Blanchett while she had the most juice in her career after
Lady Chatterly. Though looking back at her filmography, her script selection was awful and she didn't seem to understand that you needed to work with directors higher than journeyman level.
She had her best moments as an actress on the TV show
Nip/Tuck. She's never out of work, often on TV/streaming shows or in smaller roles in film. But yeah, she never seemed to really have that ambition to be great and couldn't pick scripts for shit as a young actress.
Her sister
Natasha ( who unfortunately passed away 15 years ago now) had the greater ambition and probably talent as an actress, winning a Tony on Broadway for playing Sally Bowles in
Cabaret and having more notable film performances (
The Handmaid's Tale, The Parent Trap etc). I think Joley was expected to be the bigger star because she had a greater resemblance to their mother as a young woman. And she had more of a "model" look than Natasha. At her peak, Joely was as good looking as any actress you could find in Hollywood. It was a huge advantage, and she should have been more major than she ended up being.
