Biography

Margo Stilley was born on November 20, 1982 in Bear Creek, North Carolina, USA. She is an actress, known for 9 Songs (2004), How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) and The Trip (2010).

She wanted director Winterbottom to refer to her simply by her character's name Lisa in interviews about the movie 'Nine Songs'.

The film 'Hippie. Hippie Shake' which she made wasn't abandoned, it was completed but never released.

Prior to her acting career, she worked as a model with the agency known as Elite Model Management.

Her first acting job was to star as Lisa, the lead actress in the controversial 2004 British film 9 Songs, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

She was planning to convert to Judaism in 2006, and wrote an article about it for the Times (UK): "It's a strange time to become a Jew...", published August 13th 2006.

People ask me if I felt that Michael Winterbottom took advantage of me because I hadn't acted before, but they forget that I developed the character. I am not at all like Lisa, and I was genuinely shocked by the reaction to the film and, particularly, to my role in it.

People were really angry with me. When I did press conferences people would shout abuse at me. You'd think I invented sex! I got told I was a whore and a slut and how could I do it. And what kind of role model did I think I was giving young women?

When you have been brought up as a religious person, when it has been part of your everyday life, you feel lost without it. It's as though I couldn't continue without religion in my life.

[on fox hunting] Hunting with guns back home seemed wrong to me, but seeing a pack of hounds follow their natural urge is so majestic. Why would anyone ban such a thing? It's ridiculous.

The film shows sex in a good light. It is a monogamous relationship between two people who are in love. Michael was a perfect candidate for making this film - he makes it beautiful, lovely, sweet, kind, sensitive. I think he's done a very good job of it.