MAY 30 ― We’ve all got celebrity crushes. Whether we’d like to admit it or not is another matter. Oftentimes we don’t want to because that celebrity crush is nothing more than a physical thing, maybe even sexual, as we crush on that person more for his or her looks alone.

So admitting to a celebrity crush is a sort of implied admittance to being “shallow” as well, because we’re supposed to admire a person for more than just their looks, right?

When I was a teenager I had the biggest crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt, way back when she starred in the TV soap Birds Of Paradise, which was quite a few years before she became a global star with I Know What You Did Last Summer.

I’ll be the first to admit that it was definitely a guilty pleasure at first, because it’s her looks that got me hooked watching the show in the first place, but even though she’s often typecast in teen movie roles, she’s proved her acting chops, especially in the under-rated comedy Heartbreakers. So it’s not really a shame anymore to be in love with Ms Hewitt like I did.

As the “it” girls (or hot guys) change every few years or so, so does our celebrity crush. But it was only when I first saw the supremely lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead playing the villain in Sky High that I finally moved on from my Jennifer Love Hewitt crush and got a new one.

Again, it was her impossibly beautiful face that got me all geeky and stalker-y, going to see any new movie she’s in just because it’s got her in it.

I endured the quite average Make It Happen, the nothing special Final Destination 3 and Black Christmas because of her, but I think that my instincts are proving to be very, very right as she has now gone on to choose and star in some very, very good films indeed.

Her supporting role in the new Die Hard films may well be too good a paycheck to turn down, but her roles (albeit small ones) in Bobby, Death Proof and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World point to the fact that she might just be an actress that makes much more interesting choices when it comes to film roles than her start as eye candy in teen and horror movies might imply.

Even her lead role in The Thing is an interesting and badass one, in a remake (more of a prequel cum remake actually) that’s actually quite watchable and respectful of John Carpenter’s much loved original (which was technically a remake as well!).

But more than anything, it’s her lead roles in three relatively recent independent films that give the strongest hint that she might just have more of a Julianne Moore kind of acting career as opposed to the path taken by most other teen and horror movie starlets. Remember people like Rachael Leigh Cook, Neve Campbell, Piper Perabo or even Alicia Silverstone?

Ms Winstead first gave notice of her incredible acting talents in the 2012 film Smashed, in which she plays an alcoholic woman who’s also married to an alcoholic and realizes, after a particularly bad case of hangover after a wild night out, that she needed to get sober and take control of her life before it derails completely.

Absolutely fearless, not only in physically deglamourising herself but also in conveying the scary mental state that unchecked alcoholism can induce, she was so good that there was even some faint Oscar talk for her in addition to her Best Actress nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards.

But it’s in her two recent films that she has totally confirmed, at the grand old age of 3, her chops as a serious actress. First we got a film called Faults, which was more or less a two-hander between her character Claire, who’s in a mysterious cult called Faults and a self-proclaimed expert on cults and mind control named Ansel Roth, hired by Claire’s parents to de-programme her.

Set mostly in a hotel room where the de-programming is to take place, Winstead’s portrayal of Claire’s mind games with Ansel is simply outstanding, both showy and unshowy as needed by the character and the scene.

Even better is her title role in Alex Of Venice, in which she plays a workaholic attorney suddenly facing a crucial crossroads in her life as her husband (who’s been playing the role of househusband for years now) abruptly leaves her, leaving her to not only attend to her job, but also take care of her young son and elderly father at home.

It’s a role that requires her to express her inner conflict and turmoil without many big physical gestures (unlike the more conventional “great acting” role she had in Smashed) and she pulls it all off beautifully as she carries the whole film effortlessly and we go along with her every step of the way.

Crush-worthy in every way, Ms Winstead will have a long, great and varied acting career judging from what she’s given us so far. Not familiar with her yet? Well then, it’s time for you to get started!

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.