Biography

Lynne Ramsay

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Lynne Ramsay was born on December 5, 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), You Were Never Really Here (2017) and Die My Love (2025). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.

Ramsay quit the indie drama Jane Got a Gun (2015) prior to the first day of shooting following a 3-day standoff with producer-financier Scott Steindorff in March 2013. Ramsey complained about alleged fraudulent behavior of the producer during pre-production, mainly trying to force upon her an impossible schedule at the last minute. She felt tricked with false promises and left the production therefore. Ramsay was supposed to receive $750,000 for directing the film plus bonuses, her best salary ever, but, she said, the producers made it impossible to direct the movie the way she had planned. Ramsey was sued for breach of contract, but the resulting lawsuit was settled privately in March 2014. The producers announced that they would no longer pursue her for any damages.
Trained as a camera operator.
Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2016.
Graduated from the UK's National Film and Television School in 1995.
Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in 2015.

Sometimes people go, "Do you improvise a lot?" Well, you maybe improvise a lot beforehand to get to that point, but once I'm sure of what I want to do, that's it.
I've found that film-making's not just a job, it becomes part of your whole life.
Morvern Callar (2002)'s a really weird film, in a sense, where I was trying to experiment with taking things in a different direction, and it kind of half works and it half doesn't. And I kind of felt with that film that perhaps I should have pushed it more into the realms of black comedy, slightly.
Well, there was a lot of that kind of stuff from American agents, yeah. And through the years I've been sent scripts as well. But it's always all packaged and ready to go, and that just isn't me. Do you know what I mean?
...I get questions about what it's like to be a woman film-maker, and you don't get that question a lot if you're a man. I don't really go there because I can't really define what I bring to films as a woman.

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