Emily VanCampstarted out as an aspiring dancer, but her best movies and TV shows have demonstrated that she is gifted at a different type of performance as well. VanCamp actually started dance classes at just three years old and grew up studying tap, jazz, and ballet. If she had not also become interested in acting as a child, her career path could have been a very different one.
Though VanCamp had a few roles on television as a child, like guest spots in the children’s programsAre You Afraid of the DarkandRadio Active, she did not get her big break until she began playing teenagers for shows on the WB. There, she landed the plum role of Amy Abbot onEverwood, which is likely responsible for opening a lot of acting doors for her. Since then, she has become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appeared in a medical procedural, and continues to act in independent films. Her best movies and TV shows are a mix of those teen roles and more modern projects.
Created by Kevin Williamson, the same mind behindDawson’s CreekandScream,Glory Dayswas intended to be the successor to the teen drama on the WB. While it still had the soapy storylines and relationships of something likeDawson’s Creek, it had the element of a mystery every week.
The series followed Eddie Cahill’s character as he returned to the small town where he grew up. Now a writer who has written an expose on his hometown, he finds himself not exactly fitting in with the locals, and he ends up investigating strange occurrences and mysteries.
Emily VanCamp plays the teenage younger sister of Cahill. While her storylines were meant to be more evocative of the high school stories inDawson’s Creek, Sam also ends up kidnapped at one point in the show.The series allowed VanCamp to get a taste of action and thriller work early in her career, and it showed the promise she had as an actor.
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2023’s Miranda’s Victim is inspired by true events and depicts the court case that caused the Miranda Warning to be read to anyone being arrested in the United States. It centers onAbigail Breslinas Trish Weir, a young woman who is kidnapped and assaulted. Though her abductor is found guilty, the case is retried after it is found that he was not sufficiently aware of the consequences of speaking with the police.
Powerhouse performances are turned out all around in this little-seen movie. The movie truly belongs to Luke Wilson and Ryan Phillippe as attorneys on opposite sides of the courtroom as well as Breslin for her emotionally heavy performances. Grounding the movie are Mireille Enos and VanCamp as the other Weir women though.Everyone provides the audience with a heartfelt performance, and VanCamp is able to provide equal weight to a stacked ensemble.
For the first half of her career,Everwoodis likely the TV show VanCamp is best known for. The series followed a surgeon (Treat Williams) as he moved his family to the small titular town and opened his own practice following the death of his wife. While it was mostly a family drama, the teenage storylines of the series offered the soapier aspects that the CW would eventually become known for.
VanCamp’s Amy is the daughter of the local doctor. Her initial storylines see her befriending the new kids in town and getting their father to consider a risky surgery for her boyfriend who has been in a coma for months.VanCamp’s Amy does not always get the most emotional story arcs of the show, but the series certainly starts that way as she has to learn to deal with the fact that her boyfriend is not the same once he emerges from the coma.
Though VanCamp already had plenty of experience as a child actor,Everwoodreally cemented that she could carry dramatic character arcs.
Beyond The Blackboardunited VanCamp with her formerEverwoodcostar Treat Williams. The Hallmark movie is inspired by Stacey Bess’ memoir about teaching. It follows VanCamp as Bess as she begins teaching at a school that is technically unnamed because it is for unhoused youth. She has to overcome her own prejudices concerning the unhoused to help provide the kids with the education they should be receiving. Williams plays one of her colleagues.
At this point in her career, VanCamp had mostly played children and teen roles, even a few college students.Beyond The Blackboardhelped to show that she was ready to transition to more mature projects.She plays a mom, bringing a more nurturing attitude to the role than she had to her previous work.This is the role that could be credited with finally allowing VanCamp to really grow up.
VanCamp went straight from the family drama ofEverwoodto the family drama ofBrothers and Sisters. The series centers on the Walker family following the death of their patriarch. As three siblings run Ojai Foods, the company started by their father, they also learn about his infidelities and the possibility of them having more siblings.
Initially, VanCamp’s Rebecca is thought to be one of those siblings, and she is ultimately welcomed by the Walker family. As it turns out, however, they do not share a father, and her life becomes more entwined with them as she begins dating one of the Walker brothers.
Before this series, VanCamp was often typecast as the girl next door, despite playing a bully in a few childhood roles.Here, however, she gets to be a little more layeredthan simply being the girl next door. Her character is not afraid to shake things up or get herself in trouble, and it’s certainly fun to see VanCamp play up a more rebellious side.
Captain America: Civil Waris inspired by the Marvel Comic book event series of the same name, but it does not follow the exact story. It does see the Avengers split down the middle over whether they agree with how much oversight there should be for a team of superheroes. As they squabble over that idea, the fight becomes a much larger one as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) also disagree about how to handle the potential threat of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
Captain America: Civil Warmarks VanCamp’s second appearance in the MCU, and it’s not a favorite for a lot of people because it positions her character to be the love interest of the man who previously dated her Aunt Peggy (Hayley Atwell) in the 1940s. It’s here that Steve finds out her last name for the first time.
So much of the story is devoted to the huge chases or fight scenes. VanCamp might be overshadowed by some of that (and the introduction of Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther), but she gives hints at how capable Sharon Carter is as a SHIELD field agent.She gets a few funny one-liners, brief fight scenes, and even gets to be involved in a bit of espionage. The movie underutilizes her, but VanCamp does her best with what she is given, and her performance is great.
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After five years without Sharon Carter appearing in the MCU, she resurfaces in the Disney+ seriesThe Falcon And The Winter Soldier. The series sees Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) struggling with their lives after Sam is named the new Captain America. The series is really about their journey to accepting their heroic roles in the world.
VanCamp’s Sharon is revealed to have been on the run for years, never having received a pardon for her actions that went directly against the government inCivil War. In turn, Sharon has become the “Power Broker,” someone making money off of selling government secrets.
It’s a great turn for VanCamp as it allows her to play in a morally gray area that not many of her roles have visited. The audience wants to believe she is a hero because of her MCU history, but they also see that she has become jaded and even cynical, selfish in her actions.The show leaves her story open-ended as well, giving the impression that she will return to the MCU again.
VanCamp has also voiced the animated version of Sharon Carter in Marvel’sWhat Ifseries on Disney+.
It can be difficult to make a medical drama stand out in a sea of medical dramas.The Residentdid just that. The series ran for six seasons before ultimately being canceled.VanCamp appears as a series regular in the first four.
The series, like many other medical dramas out there, follows residents at a very busy hospital. Here, the titular character is played by Matt Czuchry, a former member of the military who has brought his medical skills and unconventional methods to the hospital where he now works. VanCamp plays a nurse in the same hospital and his ex at the start of the series.
During her time on the show, VanCamp is given a lot of emotional storylines to work with, from caring for her younger sister (who suffers from drug addiction) to reconnecting with her estranged father to giving her romantic relationship with the title character another chance.She also gets to be both caring and confident here, knowing that she is good at what she does and being able to put people at ease.
The Residentis nearly VanCamp’s best television show. It certainly shows how greatly her skills as an actor have developed since she began working as a child.
2Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Emily VanCamp As Sharon Carter
VanCamp’s Marvel Cinematic Universe debut is still her best entry in the franchise.
InCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) finds himself and his allies on the run as it is revealed that Hydra has been infiltrating the secret government organization SHIELD for decades. He only has a handful of people he can trust, and that ends up including VanCamp’s Sharon Carter.
It’s almost as though VanCamp plays two completely different characters in this movie, which is why she is so good.Her initial appearances are as Steve’s neighbor whom he has no idea is actually a SHIELD agent who has been assigned to keep an eye on him in case he is threatened. She is one of the only people trusted by the secretive Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). The full extent of who she is, however, is not revealed until her second appearance in the MCU.
VanCamp gets a handful of truly great reveals in the movie. There is, of course, the moment she is revealed to Steve as an agent. There is also the moment in SHIELD’s control room in which she and the handful of SHIELD loyalists there stand off with Hydra members.It’s a great introduction to her character and provides a glimpse at how great of a character Sharon Carter could be in the MCU.
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It might not technically be VanCamp’s breakout role, but it certainly feels like it.
Revengeis one of the most critically lauded shows in VanCamp’s acting history.Despite her years of working as an actor before the show premiered, it was the first time she was the lead of the ensemble. It might not technically be VanCamp’s breakout role, but it certainly feels like it.
The series is a modern take on the same ideas presented inThe Count of Monte Cristo. Instead of a man presumed dead returning for revenge, however, it is his daughter. VanCamp stars as a young woman determined to get her revenge against everyone responsible for taking her father from her as a child. She amasses great wealth, learns a particular set of skills, and essentially acts like a vigilante while infiltrating the circles of the rich and pampered in The Hamptons.
VanCamp gives her best performance inRevenge.She is at turns vulnerable and a little girl lost as well as cold and calculating.Revengeis the kind of series that demands its lead only show one or two cards at a time instead of laying them all on the table, and VanCamp is able to do that, teasing what’s to come for her character with a simple look or menacing line.
WhileEmily VanCampstill has a bright career, 2011’sRevengeis her best TV show.
