Nominated again for an Olivier Award for her Yelena in a 1992 production of "Uncle Vanya", McTeer made a spirited Beatrice in the next year's "Much Ado About Nothing" prior to portraying Nora in a 1995 BBC radio version of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House". Although initially considering herself too tall to play Nora (a character so often referred to as "petite" in the script) on stage, she flew in the face of convention and attacked the role with a vengeance, making sure that her Torvald (Owen Teale) was sufficiently "Viking" to tower over her. Refusing to reduce her heroine to a proto-feminist, she brought out all Nora's confusion and pain, as well as a prodigious sexuality, in a highly animated performance that earned her 1997 Olivier and Tony Awards, among other honors. Since then, she has been busy making movies, providing the opening narration for Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine" (1998) and headlining "Tumbleweeds" (1999), a drama screened at the Sundance Film Festival in which she was cast a Southern woman coping with bad relationships and an unruly daughter. Her stellar work in that film brought her much acclaim including a richly deserved Best Actress Oscar nomination. McTeer also headlined the 2000 Sundance entry "Songcatcher", again portraying an American woman, this time a 19th-century musicologist who travels to the Appalachian Mountains and uncovers a unique blend of music. She also was cast as Billy Crudup's sister in the romantic thriller "Waking the Dead" (2000).