Mandy Moore

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film revolved around the developing romance between a Protestant minister's daughter Jamie Sullivan (Moore) and an unruly teenager Landon Carter (West). The film was moderately successful, bringing in $41 million in the United States, and establishing Moore's status as a lead actress. Although the film received mainly negative reviews, Moore received several positive notices for her performance, with critic Roger Ebert calling her "quietly convincing". At that summer's MTV Movie Awards, Moore won an award for "Breakthrough Female Performance" for the role. The same year, she voiced the Final Fantasy VII character Aerith Gainsborough in the Square-Disney crossover video game Kingdom Hearts, was featured in the music video for Elton John's "Original Sin", and was ranked number sixty-seven in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World".

In 2006, Moore commented on her early albums, noting that although she believed that her first album was appropriate for her age at the time when she released it, she felt it "sucked" and that her first albums were "just awful." Moore also said that she "would give a refund to everyone who bought my first two albums" if she could; during a radio interview in April 2006, the show's co-host—who had seen her comments—asked her for a refund on the first album, a request that Moore fulfilled. Read Less

In the film, she played a deranged contestant on a television series modeled after American Idol. Director Paul Weitz stated that he had Moore in mind for the role before she was cast, explaining that "there's something inherently sweet about Mandy; it makes it all the more interesting to see her in a villainess role". Moore has said that she enjoys playing mean-spirited characters but fears being typecast as a villain. American Dreamz opened at number nine at the U.S. box office, eventually totaling barely $7 million, and received mixed reviews; critic Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, however, wrote that Moore and co-star Hugh Grant have a "wicked barbed chemistry" in their roles, while Varietys Robert Koehler said Moore's role was a "pitch-perfect study of a woman for whom a reality show is reality".

Later that year, in what ComingSoon.net's review described as a "surprisingly good performance", Moore voiced Nita, the heroine of the Disney animated sequel Brother Bear 2, which was released directly-to-DVD on August 29. She was also originally cast to appear in that year's ensemble film Bobby, but was replaced by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Read Less