By Chris Azzopardi
9:43 AM PDT, October 4, 2017
‘License to Drive’ (1988)
"I was a teenage kid in suburbia and I got to drive to work on the Fox lot. I just thought I’d really made it,” Graham says of her first major film role. “Occasionally, I'll get someone who remembers License to Drive: 'I was a teenager then and I remember watching it!'"
‘Drugstore Cowboy’ (1989)
Her second major film role, the Gus Van Sant movie earned Graham an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female. “It helped me feel like a legitimate actress," she says.
‘Boogie Nights’ (1997)
"Boogie Nights was amazing and really helped me a lot,” says Graham, who won the MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance for the part of Rollergirl. “I'm really grateful to have been in Boogie Nights. That felt like a special moment. I wasn't getting offered jobs, so that made a big difference in helping me get more work, which was a really great thing. I felt inspired [and] creatively fulfilled."
‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ (1999)
“It was fun to play Felicity Shagwell and be this bigger-than-life person and a secret agent -- and also dress fabulously,” Graham says of joining the franchise for its second installment. “To play a woman who is sex-positive and who's also really smart and successful at the same time was cool.”
‘Bobby’ (2006)
The 2006 film is largely known for its A-list ensemble cast, including Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Lindsay Lohan and Sharon Stone. “When you grow up and you look at these actors and you think you want to be like them and suddenly you're just hanging out with them, you think, 'Oh, my God, Helen Hunt just talked to me [on set]? That's so cool!'" Graham says.
‘The Hangover’ (2009)
"It was great to do Hangover because that was such a big hit,” Graham recalls playing Jade. “With Hangover 3, they just kind of stuck me in. I had a much better part in Hangover. I also just like that movie better, personally. It was fun to be in. That scene where they said something about the Holocaust ring and Zach [Galifianakis] was like, ‘I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust’ -- that line was just so funny to me. It was more fun on Hangover, too, because nobody was really famous, so everybody was just relaxed and chill."