Career Beginnings and Hollywood Fame
Saffron Domini Burrows was born on October 22, 1972 in London, England to socialists parents. Her father is an architect and teacher while her mother is a teacher and feminist. Her career began as a model when she was discovered by fashion photographer Beth Boldt in Covent Garden.
Her acting career started in 1993 when she made her film debut with a small role in Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father at age 15. Prior to her film debut, she appeared in the short film The Body Beautiful in 1991 and made her first television appearance in an episode of the French series Les Cinq Dernières Minutes.
Her first substantial acting role came in 1995 when she played the role of Nan Mahon in Circle of Friends, which gained positive reviews from critics. She later appeared in such movies as The Big One and Welcome II the Terrordome, which were also released in 1995.
In 1996, she starred as Sandra Sollars in the British television drama Karaoke and Cold Lazarus. That same year, she appeared as Melissa Morrison in the Australian movie Hotel de Love, followed by Lovelife, Nevada, One Night Stand, and The MatchMaker, all released in 1997.
She next appeared alongside Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Matthew Lillard in the 1999 science fiction film Wing Commander, which received negative reviews from critics and was also a commercial flop, failing to bring back its $30 million budget with its worldwide gross of only $11,578,059.
Also in 1999, she starred in The Loss of Sexual Innocence, followed by the science fiction horror movie Deep Blue Sea, co-starring Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. Deep Blue Sea garnered mixed reviews from critics but proved to be a box office success, grossing over $165 million on a $60 million budget.
Her last film in 1999 was Miss Julie, based on the play of the same name where she played the titular character. In the early 2000s, she appeared in such feature films as Timecode, Gangster No. 1, Enigma, Tempted, The Seventh Stream and Hotel. In 2002, she played the role of Grace in the biopic Frida, starring Salma Hayek.
She went on to appear in the movies Flashpoint, The Galíndez File, in the short film Hideous Man and provided voice work for the fantasy film Peter Pan. Reception for Peter Pan was generally positive but it barely exceeded its $100 million budget, only earning over $121 million.
Subsequent Projects and Plastic Surgery
In 2004, she gained wider recognition when she played Andromache, Hector’s wife, in Wolfgang Petersen’s epic war film Troy, based on Homer’s Iliad. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger and Sean Bean. Troy’s reception was mixed but it was a commercial success, earning more than $497 million on a $175 million budget.
Her next movie came in 2006 with the New Zealand-made film Perfect Creature, followed with the drama film Fay Grim and the art-house biographical film Klimt. In 2007, she starred alongside Liv Tyler, Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Donald Sutherland in the comedy drama Reign Over Me.
It was also in 2007 that she became known on television as Lorraine Weller in the series Boston Legal, a spin-off of the long-running Kelley series The Practice. In the late 2000s, she starred in the movies Marple: Towards Zero, Dangerous Parking, The Guitar, The Bank Job and Shrink and became known for her role as Det. Serena Stevens in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Burrows is one of those actresses who’s being considered as having a disastrous plastic surgery. Starting off as a model, Burrows used to be uniquely beautiful and fresh-looking, attracting attention since stepping into the limelight. However, it can be noticed that the British actress has gone off the radar, rarely appearing in major films.
It can be said that her plastic surgery blunder helped her accomplish mediocrity in the show business, to which her new lips are said to be the culprit. Instead of attaining seductive lips, Burrows instead managed to make it to various celebrity plastic surgery disaster lists on the internet as a trout pout victim.