Friday, March 20, 2009

Kiwi Anna Paquin Digs Teeth into Vampire Role

Kiwi Academy Award Winner Anna Paquin has hit the headlines with her character Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood. True blood is another masterpiece from Six Feet Under writer Alan Ball.

Stuff NZ describes True Blood it this way:

On the contrary, in the world of True Blood, vampires have been “normalised” into society as an underprivileged minority.

Following the invention of a viable synthetic blood, with which vampires can nourish themselves instead of predating upon humans, the vampire race decided to “come out of the coffin” and integrate openly with the Earth’s dominant species.

Anna Helene Paquin was born in Manitoba Canada to a New Zealand Mother Mary. They moved to New Zealand when she was 4 years old. It was in New Zealand in 1991 that Paquin became an actress by chance. Acclaimed Kiwi Director Jane Campion was looking for a little girl to play a key role in The Piano, set to film in New Zealand, and a newspaper advertisement was run announcing an open audition. Paquin’s sister read the ad and went to try out with a friend; Paquin herself tagged along because she had nothing better to do. When Campion met Paquin—whose only acting experience had been as a skunk in a school play—she was very impressed with the nine-year-old’s performance of the monologue about Flora’s father, and she was chosen from among the 5000 candidates that auditioned.

When The Piano was released in 1993 it was lauded by critics, won prizes at a number of film festivals, and eventually became a popular movie among a wide audience. Paquin’s debut performance in the film earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of eleven, making her the second-youngest Oscar winner in history after Tatum O’Neal.

When she was younger, she wanted to be the Prime Minister of New Zealand, or a lawyer. We of course look forward to her political career but she is probably going to have to take a paycut.

Read on http://www.kiwibloke.org/archives/857

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