Force For Change

In the face of adversity, KATE BOSWORTH never stopped bringing her A game—and it’s paying off.

- Alison Boleyn

There’s a softness about Kate Bosworth, a spun-glass quality that’s elevated by the clothes she’s chosen today—a blush-pink confection of satin and sequins by Sally LaPointe. But make no mistake, from her earliest moments on Earth, baby Bosworth had a core of steel.

“My name Katherine means ‘strong-willed and determined’,” says the actor, who’s been making movies for close to a quarter-century. “It’s just how I entered the world—like this.” And she leans forward into Superman’s classic flying stance, fist raised. “The doctor saw this baby’s aggressive, testosterone-fuelled position and said to my mother, ‘It’s a boy.’”

It was not, of course. Thirty-six years later, she is in Sydney to speak at the announcement of the Australian winner of the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Awards and is introduced at the event as “a force for change” and “never one to take the standard path”. Bosworth, who famously weight-trained and learned to surf “seven hours a day, seven days a week, for four months” for her breakout role in 2002’s Blue Crush, urged listeners at the awards to “celebrate the fearless women, the bold women, the audacious change-makers”. What strikes her most about the finalists, who include Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris, artificial intelligence entrepreneur Dr Catriona Wallace and winner Kim Jackson, whose venture capital firm Skip Capital has invested half its pool in female-led start-ups, is what she often notes in successful people: “their immense sense of optimism and support for one another”.