I became aware of True Blood prior to it’s premiere and based on Alan Ball’s involvement as True Blood’s showrunner and Anna Paquin’s lead as Sookie Stackhouse–and to a lesser extent the subject matter, I tuned in from the beginning.
If I’d worn socks they’d have been knocked off.
Anna Paquin recently chatted with Telegraph.co.uk about True Blood which, it seems, is just making it’s debut in the UK.
The interviewer took the opportunity to ask many personal questions that Anna has been asked probably a thousand times before though there are some interesting tidbits like the fact that she owns a Louisiana Catahoula leopard puppy.
What I found really interesting is that though I only recalled her from the X-Men movies and The Piano, for which she won an Academy award at the age of 11, she’s been in a number of really great films that I count among my favourites.
Why didn’t I realize before that it was Anna?
The obvious answer would be because she was a child growing up and her appearance was literally changing. But it goes deeper than that, I think. Anna has a rare quality in that she seems to become her characters so completely that you completely forget she’s Anna Paquin. I have to surmise that it is a natural talent as she earned the Oscar after having acted on film for the first time. Regardless, I’m glad I read the article* because while True Blood is on hiatus, I can go back and enjoy the many performances that Anna has already given in her young life. Though her talent may come naturally, she continues to grow as an actor, already amassing an impressive body of work.
I’ve heard over the years of a select few actors compared with the sublime Meryl Streep. I think that Anna Pacquin is of the caliber of Ms. Streep and I look forward to not only more True Blood but to following her career in the coming years. This time though, I’ll be sure to pay closer attention so when Anna morphs into her next role I’ll know to follow along.
*The article linked above does touch on a few of her standout performances but it misses a number, too. I’ve included a handful of film clips and trailers to fill out the list as Anna has 25 feature films thus far. Also, don’t forget to watch her MCI commercial (video). Anna as a little girl was just the cutest, most engaging little girl evar.
orion1024 No More There (Anna Paquin Commercial from 1994)
12 year old Anna Paquin talks about “the Information Superhighway” in these 1994 adverts for Network MCI.
MCI 1
Anna Paquin won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1993 film “The Piano.” At the time, Paquin was just 11 years old.
(Getty Images)
Anna was nine years old when she first became famous for her role as Flora in The Piano, and 11 as she stood smiling and gasping in silence for a full 20 seconds at the podium to receive her Oscar for it. Be sure to watch the video. She is adorable.
In the HBO hit True Blood, Anna at 27, has morphed into the telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse. She runs around in tiny, tight outfits and has bleached blonde hair and a lot of steamy sex with a vampire named Bill.
For her work on True Blood Anna earned a Golden Globe (2009) for best actress in a television drama. It is now HBO’s third most popular series, after The Sopranos and Sex and the City. With the expected reactions from the tabloids and the paparatzi in August, 2009 Anna got engaged to Vampire Bill Compton, Stephen Moyer. He is 40, she is 27 and they divide their time between his house near Hampstead and hers in Venice Beach, CA.
About all the nudity, sex and blood on True Blood:
‘Oh, it’s a really full-on sexy show,’ Paquin agrees easily, taking a sip of latte and fixing me with brown boot-button eyes. We are at Café Rouge in Highgate, north London. ‘Lots of weird, kinky vampire sex and weird, kinky mortal sex! It never put me off. I guess either you read something and go, “Oh, my God, no!” or you read something and you go, “That’s sort of cool!” I mean, the sex is very romantic, and at first it’s very loving.’
A Walk on the Moon
About her feelings about her acting on True Blood with fiance Stephen Moyer playing her paramour, Vampire Bill Compton:
‘It is kind of disturbing, but so is putting yourself out there as far as relationships or friendships goes. It is scary and sometimes you are taking a risk. If you aren’t prepared to do that you’re going to have very safe options in your life, but they won’t be the most exciting ones.’
Almost Famous – “Acts”
About her True Blood character, Sookie Stackhouse:
“…she’s supposed to have blue eyes, but contact lenses would be a nightmare. She was meant to be tanned so they spray-tanned me, gave me a really good bra, some little tiny outfits, and away we go! The blonde just feels normal now. And the spray tan I still kind of really love, having been one of the palest pale girls on the planet.’
She once remarked that she wanted to stop being ‘a transient figure in my own life’, and with the engagement to Moyer she seems to have broken out of the work spiral that has dominated her existence since she tagged along after her sister to the open audition Jane Campion was holding in New Zealand for The Piano.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Paquin in “25th Hour”. The first few beats are from “Cavern” (which was sampled by Grandmaster Flash in “White Lines”), then it is “Bra” By Cymande
25th Hour (2002)
Director: Spike Lee
The Squid And The Whale Trailer
Fly Away Home
Song – 10,000 Miles
About how her sudden stardom has effected her everyday routines:
She has attended Columbia University (she only stayed a year, because she kept going off to make films), lived in New York and bought her own house in Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Today she is the proud owner of two rescue dogs, a border collie/springer spaniel cross called Splash and a Louisiana Catahoula leopard puppy – ‘I swear to God that’s a real breed’ – called Banjo.
But having resolutely steered clear of film-industry parties and the red carpet she was horrified to find herself pounced on by paparazzi when she set off to walk her dogs the day after her engagement was announced. ‘I’d barely changed out of my pyjamas and it was eight in the morning and about 40 photographers jumped out of the hedge,’ she says in her faint New Zealand accent. ‘It was sort of creepy.’ She shakes her blonde ponytail in wonder. ‘I was like, “You guys are going to get so bored. I ride my bike to my pilates class. I walk my dogs. I ride my bike to meet friends for coffee. I walk my dogs. I’d neither showered nor brushed my hair the morning they leaped out of the bushes, not that I’m massively into hair-brushing, anyway. Neither of us are used to it, so it’s a bit odd.’
About Stephen Moyer, her co-star on True Blood as Vampire Bill Compton and to whom she’s engaged:
He’s lovely. He’s very funny. I’m definitely not on any level attracted to people who don’t have a good sense of humour. That’s how you get through the ups and the downs.’ She doesn’t seem to want to talk about Moyer, but says they clicked at once. ‘The dynamic between Bill and Sookie being what it is, the fascination and attraction made it kind of hard to pinpoint where it ceased to be fiction, because that’s how we’ve always been around each other. But there was no massive revelation moment of, “Wow I fancy you.”’
About her engagement:
…Is she planning the wedding? ‘No!’ she cries. But she holds out her hand to show me a lovely antique-looking ring with a round central stone. ‘No, I’m not really that girl; we’re not really that couple. We’re happy and things are good and we’re not on any particular schedule and it’ll happen when we have time. The scheduling factor – my family’s all in New Zealand, his family’s all here…I don’t even know. Not right now.’It’s more about being family than becoming Bridezilla overnight and wearing some big meringue wedding dress. That would scare the shit out of me.’ She gives a shrug. ‘I wasn’t the girl who spent hours dreaming of my wedding.’
