A pretty blonde actress with an all-American look and a beatific presence, Kate Bosworth began her acting career on a whim at age 14, going on make her mark as an actual teen in a teen drama, starring on The WB's "Young Americans" (2000). A champion equestrian who previously only acted in a community production of "Annie" and performed as a singer in California county fairs, Bosworth presented the casting directors for "The Horse Whisperer" with a Christmas card photo in lieu of a professional headshot and landed her first acting role in the 1998 romantic drama (credited as Catherine Bosworth), playing Judith, the ill-fated best friend of the scarred young girl (Scarlet Johansson) who brings together her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and the titular hero (Robert Redford).
Following "The Horse Whisperer,” she returned to her non-acting life, attending high school and pursuing various athletic endeavors for eighteen months in an effort to assure that work would not be the main focus of the remaining years of her childhood. In 2000 she was featured as the bratty sister of the protagonist in the independent children's film "The Newcomers" and made her TV debut with a regular role as a well-adjusted small town girl of unknown parentage working at a gas station near an elite prep school on "Young Americans". The only real high schooler on the high school-set series, Bosworth brought a fresh-faced innocence to her role and was likable if somewhat pitiable as a young girl who finds love with Scout (Mark Famiglietti), a Rawley Academy student and senator's son who just may be her half-brother. She went on to more feature film roles, including a turn in the period drama "Remember the Titans" (2000), starring Denzel Washington as a football coach leading his newly racially integrated team to victory in 1971 Virginia.
In 2002, Bosworth starred in her breakthrough film "Blue Crush", the first surfing movie of the new century, directed by John Stockwell. Although it initially appeared to be a brainless summer popcorn flick, the film impressed some critics and many audiences with its awesome MTV-style visuals of the Hawaiian surf circuit and, particularly, Bosworth's effective performance as Anne Marie Chadwick, a sweet-faced surf savant looking to overcome various obstacles holding her back. That same year, she also appeared in the ensemble cast of writer-director Roger Avary's edgy film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' potboiler "The Rules of Attraction," which center on the sexcapades of 1980s-era collegians. After both roles, Bosworth was poised to lay claim to the title of the latest Hollywood "It" girl and her face graced dozens of magazine covers seemingly overnight--especially when she embarked on a romance with rising actor Orlando Bloom (which ended in 2005). She next appeared in "Wonderland" (2003), a dizzying but ultimately unsatisfying attempt to portray the real-life events of Los Angeles' notorious drug-related Wonderland Avenue murders of 1981, in which porn legend John Holmes was a key figure. Bosworth was quite effective as Holmes' naive, wide-eyed teenage girlfriend Dawn Schiller, whom the morally repugnant porn king ultimately tried to help protect, but the character was given screen time that was disproportionate to her otherwise minor role in the actual events (the real-life Schiller was the primary consultant on the film).
Bosworth began segueing into leading lady roles of the Reese Witherspoon and Meg Ryan variety, and her fresh, sunny, innocent effervescence was a major boost to the '50s-esque vehicle "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton" (2004), playing a sweet small-town girl who wins a date with a Hollywood idol (Josh Duhamel) only to return home and find that he's followed her, attracted by her lack of guile, prompting a showdown between the actor and the friend who's long carried a torch for her (Topher Grace). Bosworth continued in a perky 50s vein but explored slightly darker corners when she played popular teen screen idol Sandra Dee, the wife of singer Bobby Darin, opposite star-director Kevin Spacey in the Darin biopic "Beyond the Sea" (2004). Although Spacey and Bosworth lacked any special chemistry and their vast age difference was occasionally creepy, the actress often held her own in scenes opposite the acting powerhouse. She next had a small role as a shiksa-ish blonde who tempts Richard Gere's Jewish religious studies professor in the drama "Bee Season" (2005).
Bosworth made headlines when she was cast as the Man of Steel's perennial love interest Lois Lane in director Bryan Singer's revival of the original comic book film franchise, "Superman Returns" (2006), which also co-starred Spacey as Lex Luthor and newcomer Brandon Routh as Superman. In Singer’s version, Superman has mysteriously disappeared for several years, only to return and find out that Lois Lane has a son and a fiancée. While battling longtime nemesis Lex Luther, who wants to diminish his power once and for all, Superman is left to wonder whether his old love has truly moved on. Bosworth claimed to not have spent a great deal of time watching the old “Superman” movies for her preparation, if only to avoid replicating someone else’s work in the role. Instead, she watched a lot of Katherine Hepburn movies and paid special attention to Julie Roberts in “Erin Brockovich” (2000) so she could infuse her character with their spunk and feistiness.