Why You Don't Hear From Liv Tyler Anymore
Liv Tyler has graced the big screen for more than two decades. Over the course of her career, she's established herself as a pop culture staple with memorable roles in an eclectic range of movies, including That Thing You Do!, Stealing Beauty, Armageddon, and The Incredible Hulk. For her iconic performance as Arwen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, she received a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2004 for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.
While these films put Tyler on a trajectory to take over Hollywood, we have to admit she's been pretty quiet lately. From personal woes and activist work to a busy family life and surprising endeavors in other industries, there's a lot about Tyler's life and career that people may have missed since she last ruled the world of cinema. What's the real reason we don't hear from Liv Tyler anymore? We've got your answers.
Her love life is a roller coaster
Tyler's love life has had its ups and downs, at times taking focus away from her plans in showbiz. Her 2008 divorce from Spacehog rocker Royston Langdon after five years of marriage brought her on-screen endeavors to a temporary halt. While navigating their difficult split, the actress took a two-year hiatus to adjust to life as a single mother.
"I just had a rough couple of years, having [my son] Milo [in 2004] and then getting divorced and trying to rebuild my life again," she told Bust in 2011 (via the Daily Mail). "Milo and I have been in such transition — I've been rebuilding and trying to be patient. And I've just put all of my focus on that."
Tyler eventually found love again with sports agent Dave Gardner. "I've always been quite lucky in love," she told Porter magazine in 2017 (via the Daily Mail). "But you don't just meet someone and fall in love and live happily ever after. That doesn't exist. You meet someone and you fall in love, and then you begin an adventure."
Does she have a bad rap?
Don't let Tyler's soft-spoken voice fool you. This film star is a strong-minded, outspoken feminist, but this has sometimes led to a perception within the entertainment industry that she's difficult to work with. "I am a feminist and proud to be one," Tyler told Porter in 2017 (via the Daily Mail). "In my life, I have had people call me controlling for being detail-oriented, ballsy for following my heart and taking risks, outspoken or even crazy for speaking my mind and not taking bulls**t from people."
"It amazes me when this happens," the actress added. "And motivates me to work harder to speak up for what I believe in for myself and all women."
Tyler added her voice to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements in 2018. "There's a lot of people being discriminated against, not just women," she told CNN. "I think it's really important right now that we're talking about women, but there's a lot of people that need our support in the world. It is about fighting for all of those people and creating equality as much as we can in every aspect of workplace and life."
She became a lingerie model
Tyler reinvented her career as a lingerie model in a stunning global campaign for Triumph Essence in 2017. Tyler said she's "admired" the UK-based brand for years. "It has such history! The Triumph Essence collection is really special and has both a playful, feminine and chic style, which I love."
Tyler is no newbie when it comes to modeling. In fact, she got her start in the limelight as a model at age 14, and her mother, Bebe Buell, was a famous model in her own right. In 2014, Tyler talked to The Telegraph about those teenage days, admitting that she used to hate modeling. "I just didn't like being told what to do," she said. "It was silly and rebellious of me – I should have enjoyed it more ... But when I was 14, I had so many ideas, and I just had to stand there, and look pretty, and not talk a lot. I didn't like that very much."
She wanted to quit acting due to ageism
Before Liv Tyler returned to acting with her 2014 television debut on HBO's The Leftovers, she considered quitting due to ageism in the entertainment industry. "It's not fun when you see things start to change," the actress told More magazine in 2015 (via The Wrap). "When you're in your teens or '20s, there is an abundance of ingénue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you're usually the wife or the girlfriend, a sort of second-class citizen..."
While auditioning for The Leftovers, Tyler made a deal with herself. "I did have a kind of weird conversation with myself where I kind of made a prayer to the universe of, 'If this doesn't happen it means that I am allowed to kind of pursue my other interests,'" she told the Irish Examiner in 2017. "'And then if it does happen then I'm not supposed to give up on acting,' and then it happened."
Well, thank goodness for that!
She made her mark in the fashion world
Liv Tyler was the face of Givenchy's Very Irrésistible fragrance for an entire decade. Landing the coveted gig in 2003, the actress made her mark in the fashion world, starring in a number of ads and campaigns until Amanda Seyfried took over in 2013.
In her penultimate year as the company's exclusive spokesperson, the film star took this longtime collaboration to the next — albeit unexpected — level. Following in the footsteps of her Aerosmith rocker dad Steven Tyler, she recorded a cover of INXS' 80s hit, "Need You Tonight," to launch the brand's Electric Rose perfume. Givenchy called the musical campaign "an electrifying meeting between the world of rock and the universe of perfume," but not everyone was impressed. According to Stereogum, the song itself was "one of the all-time great karaoke jams," but in Givenchy's "weird new ad," Tyler "still finds a way to f**k it all up, though the quasi-industrial arrangement is as much to blame as her pained vocals." Ouch.
She's a busy mom
Liv Tyler has always made sure that her growing family comes first. After she and Dave Gardner got engaged in 2014, the actress slowed her workload in the entertainment industry once again and moved London to settle down. Over the next two years, the pair welcomed two children, son Sailor and daughter Lula.
While finding a balance between her home life and work has sometimes affected her career choices, being a mom has ultimately had a positive impacted Tyler's professional life. "Pregnancy and childbirth and being a mother has helped me to know myself more and know my strengths and my weaknesses," she told the Irish Examiner in 2017. "It has definitely changed the way I look at my job, because when I am leaving my house and leaving my children to go to work there is a new kind of purpose to it."
Tyler added, "And I feel really grateful for it and for the time that I have, but I've got kind of a more 'f**k it' attitude, particularly with acting."
She turned to writing
Tyler further distanced herself from Hollywood when she picked up a pen. In 2013, she teamed up with her grandmother, etiquette expert Dorothea Johnson, to pen Modern Manners: Tools to Take You to the Top. Part etiquette protocol, part personable commentary, the book served as a dos and don't's guide tailor-made for 21st-century professionals, with advice covering both business and social life.
"The book was brought about simply because I saw a tremendous need with young professionals, and unfortunately they would lose their advantage in their job because they were rude," Johnson told The Rachael Ray Show. "And I decided they didn't know what they didn't know."
While discussing what she hopes people take away from the book's many lessons, Tyler added, "It's a good foundation, you know? It has those basic values." The actress recalled an important piece of advice she received from her grandmother while growing up. "She always said to me, in any situation to just stop and look and listen — when you're nervous, when you're excited, when you're overwhelmed — and really take everything in," Tyler said. "And just remember that basic kindness."
She's an outspoken activist
Tyler is a longtime activist devoted to using her celebrity to foster real change in the world.
In 2003, she became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. "I was really blown away and inspired by everything that [Audrey Hepburn] had done for children via and through UNICEF and I guess it really, really floored me in a way that I hadn't ever felt toward a public figure before," the actress said at the time (via Look to the Stars). "To see her kindness was inspiring and spoke to me as a person. She was so real and so elegant. I am also inspired by what Angelina Jolie is doing by traveling to places like Cambodia to help children by actually being there and being more involved."
In addition to being a supporter of the Women's Cancer Research Fund, Tyler also teamed up with her mom, Bebe Buell, and grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, to launch the Emergen-C Pink energy drink in 2007 to support the fight against breast cancer.
She's turning it around
Liv Tyler may have spent much of her time out of the spotlight over the last decade, but it looks like her on-screen prospects are finally turning heads again. After reprising her role of Meg Abbott in the final season of The Leftovers in 2017, she starred opposite Kit Harington on the BBC mini-series Gunpowder and landed a series regular gig on Hulu's Harlots. The following year, Tyler found her way back to film, producing and starring in the fantasy drama Wilding.
During an appearance at the Oxford Union in 2018, the film star said producing and directing is also "in the back of my mind," noting that her eldest has encouraged her to search for a balance between motherhood and work. "Ever since then, I was like, 'Okay!' And I kind of made a little prayer to the universe, and then suddenly all of these crazy things have been coming along," she said. "I've actually probably been working more now than I ever have in my whole life."
We're happy to report that it looks like Tyler's career in the entertainment industry is back on track!