LOS ANGELES—Whatever happened to Julia Ormond? In 1995, Ormond was hailed as the “It Girl” by Vanity Fair, which put her on the cover. In 1994, she had been the object of desire for Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. A year later, she was fought over by Greg Kinnear and Harrison Ford in Sabrina and by Richard Gere and Sean Connery in First Knight.

No one went to see her in the title role in 1997's Smilla's Sense of Snow, and soon after she seemed to have vanished. Two years ago, Pitt recommended that she be hired to costar in his film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. (It opens on Christmas Day.) In an L.A. hotel room, Ormond says that she became tired of taking on roles that didn't allow her to grow as either a performer or a person.

“I felt that as an actor I had gotten myself into a rut in terms of how I was being cast. I consciously took time off and I have done a lot of different stuff, including focusing on raising a child and looking for work that would be more challenging for me and would bring changes. I have been given the opportunity to play characters that are different in the last two years, and that's a more fulfilling experience. It doesn't really matter to me that they are not leads, because I love the process of playing a supporting role. Everyone seems much happier about you going out on a limb. You can't do that as a lead. For instance, if you want to dye your hair rather than wear a wig, they worry your hair will fall out and the film will be ruined. I feel that producers and directors let you take more risks [in smaller roles] and so they are more fun to play.”

Ormond spends much of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in a hospital room reading the diary of Benjamin Button to her dying mother, played by Cate Blanchett. She says that for many people watching the movie, the idea of a child tending to a dying parent is relatable. She also says that she felt the room itself was helpful to the playing of the role.

“I was aware that the nature of this space actually fed into the experience of what people would be feeling in that circumstance,” she says. “It's an epic movie, but when it is your time to die, it is you and the person in the chair in your room and everything else drops away. I think that losing a parent must be one of the most painful things you can go through, even if it is at the very end of a very full life, because you can't help but think that person is being taken from you. The performance has to speak to the magnitude of this moment, so it is great to be given a role where you have a shot at conveying that message.”