Anna Hélène Paquin (born July 24, 1982) is a New Zealand-Canadian actress. She made her acting debut as Flora McGrath in Jane Campion’s romantic drama The Piano (1993), with Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and Sam Neill – for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 11, making her the second-youngest winner in Oscar history.
Other films in the 1990s include Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre (1996), with Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt, Joan Plowright, Geraldine Chaplin, Billie Whitelaw, and Maria Schneider; Fly Away Home (1996), with Jeff Daniels, Dana Delaney, and Terry Kinney; Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997), with Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Nigel Hawthorne, David Paymer, Pete Postlethwaite, Stellan Skarsgård, and Chiwetel Ejiofor; Hurlyburly (1998), with Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Chazz Palminteri, Garry Shandling, and Meg Ryan; A Walk on the Moon (1999), with Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, and Liev Schreiber; She’s All That (1999), with Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Kevin Pollak, Kieran Culkin, and Elden Henson; and It’s the Rage (1999), with Joan Allen, Andre Braugher, Josh Brolin, Daniels, Robert Forster, Giovanni Ribisi, David Schwimmer, Gary Sinise, and Bokeem Woodbine.
Paquin is well known for her role as Rogue in the X-Men franchise (2000-2014), collectively with Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn, Ray Park, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, Ben Foster, Eliot Page, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Peter Dinklage.
Other films in the early 2000s include Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000), with Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Fairuza Balk, Zooey Deschanel, Noah Taylor, and Philip Seymour Hoffman; Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester (2000), with Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Pitt, Glenn Fitzgerald, April Grace, Busta Rhymes, and Charles Bernstein; Gregor Jordan’s Buffalo Soldiers (2001), with Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Haluk Bilginer, Scott Glenn, Elizabeth McGovern, Gabriel Mann, Michael Peña, Dean Stockwell, and Idris Elba; Darkness (2002), with Lena Olin, Iain Glen, Giancarlo Giannini, and Fele Martínez; and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002), with Edward Norton, Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, and Cox.
Films in the mid 2000s and early 2010s include Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (2005), with Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, and William Baldwin; Blue State (2007), with Breckin Meyer; Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat (2009), with Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, and Cox; The Romantics (2010), with Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Malin Åkerman, Adam Brody, Dianna Agron, Jeremy Strong, Rebecca Lawrence, Candice Bergen, and Elijah Wood; Wes Craven’s Scream 4 (2011), with David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Alison Brie, Brody, Rory Culkin, Marielle Jaffe, Erik Knudsen, Mary McDonnell, Marley Shelton, and Nico Tortorella; and Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret (2011), with Jean Reno, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron, Jeannie Berlin, Kieran Culkin, Olivia Thirlby, and Rosemarie DeWitt.
More films in the 2010s include Straight A’s (2013), with Ryan Phillippe and Luke Wilson; Free Ride (2014), with Drea de Matteo, Cam Gigandet, and Liana Liberato; Furlough (2018), with Tessa Thompson, Melissa Leo, and Whoopi Goldberg; The Parting Glass (2018), with Ed Asner, Rhys Ifans, Leo, Cynthia Nixon, and David O’Hare; Tell It to the Bees (2019), with Holliday Grainger,
Emun Elliott, Kate Dickie, Lauren Lyle, and narration by Billy Boyd; and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019), with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Stephen Graham, and Keitel.
Paquin has also done voiceover work, including the 1998 English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky (1986), with James Van Der Beek, Cloris Leachman, Mark Hamill, Jim Cummings, Richard Dysart, Michael McShane, and Mandy Patinkin; the English dub of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Steamboy (2004), with Kari Wahlgren, Stewart, and Alfred Molina; Mosaic (2007), with Kirby Morrow, Cam Clarke, Garry Chalk, Ron Halder, and Nicole Oliver; and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur (2015), with Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Steve Zahn, Sam Elliott, A.J. Buckley, McDormand, and Jeffrey Wright.
Paquin played the lead role of Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO vampire drama television series True Blood (2008–2014), with Stephen Moyer (whom she married in 2010), Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, Michael Raymond-James, William Sanderson, Lynn Collins, Lois Smith, Adina Porter, Lizzy Caplan, Stephen Root, Mehcad Brooks, Anna Camp, Michelle Forbes, Todd Lowe, Michael McMillian, Deborah Ann Woll, Mariana Klaveno, Marshall Allman, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Kevin Alejandro, O’Hare, Lindsay Pulsipher, Lauren Bowles, Janina Gavankar, Fiona Shaw, Jessica Tuck, Joe Manganiello, Scott Foley, Lucy Griffiths, Christopher Meloni, Valentina Cervi, Rutger Hauer, Arliss Howard, Kelly Overton, Robert Patrick, Rob Kazinsky, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Amelia Rose Blaire, Aaron Christian Howles, Bailey Noble, Nathan Parsons, Karolina Wydra, and Tara Buck.
For her performance in the series, Paquin won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama in 2009, and was nominated for an additional Golden Globe Award in 2010, as well as three Saturn Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2010. Otter TV appearances include an episode of the miniseries Roots (2016), collectively with Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Regé-Jean Page, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose, T.I., Nokuthula Ledwaba, Matthew Goode, and Mekhi Phifer; and an episode of the anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (2017), with Terrence Howard, Rachelle Lefevre, Lara Pulver, Sam Witwer, Guy Burnet, and Jacob Vargas.
Paquin was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work on the television film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007). With Aidan Quinn, Adam Beach, and August Schellenberg. She received an additional Golden Globe Award nomination for her work on the television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009), with Goran Visnjic and Marcia Gay Harden. Other TV movies include The Member of the Wedding (1997), with Alfre Woodard, Corey Dunn, and Enrico Colantoni.
Eeach review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Castle in the Sky (1986)** – directed by Hayao Miyazaki – 1998 English dub
- The Piano (1993) – directed by Jane Campion
- Jane Eyre (1996) – directed by Franco Zeffirelli
- Fly Away Home (1996) – directed by Carroll Ballard
- The Member of the Wedding (1997) – directed by Fielder Cook – TV movie
- Amistad (1997) – directed by Steven Spielberg
- Hurlyburly (1998) – directed by Anthony Drazan
- She’s All That (1999) – directed by Robert Iscove
- A Walk on the Moon (1999) – directed by Tony Goldwyn
- It’s the Rage (1999) – directed by James D. Stern
- X-Men (2000)* – directed by Bryan Singer
- Almost Famous (2000) – directed by Cameron Crowe
- Finding Forrester (2000) – directed by Gus Van Sant
- Buffalo Soldiers (2001) – directed by Gregor Jordan
- Darkness (2002) – directed by Jaume Balagueró
- 25th Hour (2002) – directed by Spike Lee
- X2: X-Men United (2003)* – directed by Bryan Singer
- Steamboy (2004) – directed by Katsuhiro Otomo – English dub
- The Squid and the Whale (2005) – directed by Noah Baumbach
- Joan of Arc (2005) – directed by Pamela Mason Wagner – TV documentary
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)* – directed by Brett Ratner
- Mosaic (2007) – directed by Roy Allen Smith – straight to video
- Blue State (2007) – directed by Marshall Lewy – also executive producer
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) – directed by Yves Simoneau – TV movie
- The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009) – directed by John Kent Harrison – TV movie
- Trick ‘r Treat (2009) – directed by Michael Dougherty
- The Romantics (2010) – directed by Galt Niederhoffer
- Open House (2010) – directed by Andrew Paquin
- Scream 4 (2011) – directed by Wes Craven – cameo
- Margaret (2011) – directed by Kenneth Lonergan
- The Carrier (2012) – directed by Scott Schaeffer – short
- Straight A’s (2013) – directed by James Cox
- Free Ride (2014) – directed by Shana Betz – also producer
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)* – directed by Bryan Singer
- The Good Dinosaur (2015) – directed by Peter Sohn
- Alias Grace (2017) – directed by Mary Harron – miniseries
- Furlough (2018) – directed by Laurie Collyer
- The Parting Glass (2018) – directed by Stephen Moyer – also producer
- Tell It to the Bees (2019) – directed by Annabel Jankel
- The Irishman (2019) – directed by Martin Scorsese
- American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story (2021) – directed by Andrew & Jon Erwin
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