Golden Globe for Kiwi actress Anna Paquin
14 Jan 2009
Sixteen years on from her Oscar-winning performance in The Piano, Kiwi actress Anna Paquin has added a Golden Globe to her collection of awards.
Paquin, 26, won the Globe - best actress in a television drama - for her role in the HBO vampire series True Blood. Other nominees included A-listers Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters), Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), and January Jones (Mad Men).
Winning role
Accepting her award at a Hollywood gala awards evening on Monday (12 January 2009), Paquin described the Globe as "awesome", and spoke about her fight to land the winning role.
"I was the pale brunette from New Zealand, and I'm playing the Southern tanned blonde, essentially a Hooters waitress," she told Variety magazine.
"It wasn't the most obvious casting choice, but I just really wanted it and I didn't stop until they said 'yes'."
As Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood, Paquin plays a character who has the ability to hear people's thoughts, and is open-minded about the integration of vampires with other humans.
The 12-part series is set in a small town in a world where, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, vampires no longer have to feast on humans.
The Piano
Paquin said she could not compare the Globe to her Oscar win as an 11-year-old.
"I don't even remember that, it was very blurry and crazy," she said. "This is quite blurry and crazy, too, but at least I'm old enough to drink and stay out past 10pm."
Di Rowan, the agent who discovered Paquin and cast her as Flora in Jane Campion’s 1993 film, said she was "thrilled to bits" for her.
She said Paquin's win reinforced what she had always said: "New Zealand actors and actresses are as good as any in the world".
The actress missed out on her first Globe in 1993 when she was nominated for best supporting actress for The Piano, but within a few weeks she had carried off an Oscar.
In 2008, Paquin was nominated for an Emmy for the mini series Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Youngest Oscar winner
Anna Paquin was the first New Zealander to receive the Academy’s best supporting actress award, and is one of the youngest Oscar winners ever.
Now living in Los Angeles, Paquin is Canadian-born but grew up in New Zealand in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington.
After making her stage debut as a skunk in a school production, she followed her older sister along to audition for The Piano, winning the role from 5000 hopefuls. The film’s success and her Oscar win propelled Paquin into international fame.
Anna Paquin has appeared in a variety of productions ranging from television ads to television, film and stage roles. Credits include:
- Fly Away Home
- Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre
- Steven Spielberg's Amistad
- Hurlyburly
- A Walk on the Moon
- X-Men
- X2: X-Men United
- X-Men: The Last Stand
The Golden Globes, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are an indicator of possible Oscar contenders, often singling out deserving newcomers who might have been overlooked among bigger-name stars.
More information:
Anna Paquin - Oscar winner
Jane Campion - award-winning film-maker
Star Kiwi actors
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