degrees of success at the box office, but The Rage in Placid Lake earned Byrne an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress. In the epic drama Troy (2004), she took on the role of Briseis, the captured priestess presented to "amuse" Brad Pitt's Achilles. Variety'''s review of the film stated: "Byrne's spoils-of-war chattel plays more as a convenient invention than as a woman who could possibly turn Achilles’ head and heart around". In her other 2004 film release, the thriller Wicker Park, Byrne appeared, opposite Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger, as the girlfriend of a young advertising executive's old friend. Wicker Park director Paul McGuigan described her as the best actress he has worked with, and her Troy co-star Peter O'Toole described her as "beautiful, uncomplicated, simple, pure actress and a very nice girl". Byrne reunited with Peter O'Toole, playing a young servant, in the BBC TV drama Casanova (2005), a three-episode production about 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova. In 2005, she also starred with Snoop Dogg in The Tenants, based on Bernard Malamud's novel. In 2006, Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst; and appeared as a medical examiner who thinks the dead woman she is prepping is her missing sister in the critically acclaimed thriller The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff. 2007–2011: Breakthrough In 2007, Byrne had significant parts in two studio sci-fi thriller films. She played a space vessel's pilot in Danny Boyle's Sunshine, alongside Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans, and also an army medical officer in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Boyle's 28 Days Later. While Sunshine flopped, 28 Weeks Later was a critical success and grossed over US$64.2 million globally. In 2007, Byrne would begin playing Ellen Parsons, a bright, young attorney, in the FX legal thriller television series Damages, alongside Glenn Close. Her performance was widely praised, with Byrne being nominated twice for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2009 and 2010, and twice for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film in 2008 and 2010. She played her role in all fifty nine episodes of the series and until its finale in September 2012. Following starring roles in the 2008 independent films Just Buried, directed by