True bliss
MiNDFOOD / Cristina Greeven Cuomo

Oscar-winner Anna Paquin takes time out from her lead role in the hit TV series, True Blood, to enjoy the sun and talk to MiNDFOOD about life, love and living in the moment.

Anna Paquin is about to catapult into a rare form of superstardom, the kind in which a television actress becomes an A-list fixture (à la Sarah Jessica Parker), as her erstwhile rivals fall off the radar. Not that we didn’t see this coming: At only 11 years old, Paquin won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress opposite Holly Hunter in the film The Piano.

Since then she’s taken on fantastical high-concept adventure (the X-Men franchise), drama (The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler) and even a little history (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Joan of Arc). But today, as the bright-eyed Southerner Sookie Stackhouse on HBO’s True Blood, she has fully arrived. And her Golden Globe win earlier this year proves it.

“The Golden Globe feels pretty damn good because I’m an adult and it’s the first major recognition I’ve had for my work as an adult,” she says. “Even though I’m only 27, I’ve been working since I was nine, so it feels like I worked for it.”

The second series of True Blood – “dangerous, sexy, otherworldly; a grown-up version of a fairytale”, as Paquin describes it – is now showing in New Zealand and Australia, and is the creation of Alan Ball of Six Feet Under fame. Paquin was onboard the moment she heard he was behind the project. “He’s extraordinary, smart, funny and unpredictable in his humour, and he’s kind and approachable,” she says. “The best boss you could possibly have.”

KEEPING IT REAL

Similarly, True Blood could be one of the best things that could have happened to her. Paquin fell in love with her co-star, Stephen Moyer (who plays the vampire Bill), on set and the couple got engaged in August this year. Night after night of filming (“The sleep deprivation can be rough – our crew right now is starting to look like vampires,” she says) enabled the relationship to blossom quickly.

“Steve and I had a certain instant connection,” she says. “We read Bill and Sookie opposite each other for the very reason that there needed to be a strong connection between the two actors playing those characters. Then that’s the person you’re working with all the time. It doesn’t hurt when the relationship on screen, which you’re trying to create, is one of attraction and fascination. Somewhere the line gets a little blurred.” The chemistry is indeed evident on the show and the role of Sookie – an innocent, romance novel-type girl who reads minds and falls for the good-guy vampire
 – is Paquin’s favourite role to date.

“Sookie’s had a really rough time in her own personal life,” she explains. “Everyone think she’s a big freak. Then this dark and mysterious creature shows up, and he’s not judging her and she’s in no position to judge him. It’s the first time that she gets to be herself, and he’s fascinated by all the things that make her different. And vice versa.”

Though well aware of her effect on True Blood’s rabid fans, Paquin keeps it real. While not particularly religious or spiritual, she subscribes to the famous maxim, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” and attributes her good breeding and grounded nature to the realistic views that her family – who still live in New Zealand, where she grew up – subscribes to.

“If you’re respectful and professional and good to people, what you put out there comes back to you,” she says. “I came up through the ranks before the tabloid media became what it is currently. It wasn’t as much of a feeding frenzy. I guess that’s more good luck than good management. There was very little time to be affected, and my family didn’t value [fame] and weren’t interested in it. It was more about doing well in school, getting an education and doing something with your life. If that happens to be acting, well that’s great. But it wasn’t the be-all, end-all. I was usually at work or school, or at home doing my homework.”

Although Paquin was a child star, while growing up in Wellington, where her parents were both teachers, education was paramount. She attended Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School then Hutt Intermediate School, all the while developing extra-curricular activities such as piano, cello, ballet, swimming, gymnastics and skiing. “I’m embarrassed to say I almost never read books. That’s not something I’m proud of as my mother is an English teacher and she’s tried for years. My reading is work related, not pleasure related.”

Paquin returns to New Zealand to visit her family at least once a year. While her parents are no longer married she remains close to them both, as well as her two older siblings; her sister Katya, who “works as a lawyer for the Green Party in New Zealand”, and brother Andrew with whom she maintains a production company, Paquin Films, based in New York City. Together they produced, and she starred in, their first film, the well-received Blue State in 2007. “It was a fantastic experience and we want to do more of it,” says Paquin. Margaret, their second film production together, will be released in the coming year.

Paquin doesn’t leave her roots too far behind and takes her New Zealand accent with her wherever she goes. She finds it comes out more intensely with her British fiancé than with her American pals. “My accent is a hybrid of things. Recently, I spoke to my mother on the phone [in New Zealand] and I can hear how strong my New Zealand accent is now. If I hang out with Brits and Aussies, that triggers my New Zealand accent. I don’t really know what I sound like anymore!”

Paquin has had stellar role models professionally as well, including her favourite, Holly Hunter. “I’m still in awe of her,” Paquin says. “The Piano was my apprenticeship. I had no idea what I was doing and I absolutely adored her. So I just followed her lead. She can just walk on water talent-wise.”

Paquin’s love of and loyalty to New York City also remains strong. “The pace, the business, the energy. It’s a living, breathing being organism; I just love it. I was 18 when I moved there, I was starting college, I had just left home [in New Zealand]. There’s no place like New York. I love doing theatre, so living in a city where there’s a theatre community is amazing.”

Moving to Los Angeles from New York wasn’t as daunting as Paquin expected it to be. “I don’t drive and I’d lived in New York for almost a decade and I was really happy there – that’s where all my friends were. But I’m living in Venice Beach now and it’s incredibly nice down here. It’s really relaxing; I can ride my bike everywhere and I like being by the ocean. It’s a pretty nice set-up.”

I catch Paquin in the move-in phase (“I don’t know where the light switches are”) with her fiancé Stephen (who is a father of two from previous relationships) and her dog Splash, a border collie crossed with a springer spaniel. She’s trying to be as green as she can be in her new home. “I don’t use plastic bags if I can possibly avoid it. I recycle. And, this one doesn’t really count because I don’t have a driver’s licence, I feel that not driving a car does help a bit. I don’t drive because I haven’t gotten around to it. I always prefer to walk or ride my bike anywhere I can.”

When she’s not biking around Venice Beach, she indulges in her favorite hobby, Scrabble. “The main reason I got on Facebook is so I could play Scrabble. I love Scrabble. Exercise doesn’t count as a hobby. That’s an activity or a chore depending on who you ask.”

While living in New York, Paquin trained regularly to get into shape for her True Blood role. “I had a trainer that I was working with who was instructed to [push me] me, not just for aesthetic reasons, but so I could do everything I needed to do – be strong and have the stamina for a season of shooting television, which is really long hours, month after month after month.

“I do everything you can do in a gym. Box, Pilates, yoga – you name it, I’ve done it,” she says. And it’s paid off. Sookie’s her own little action star,” she adds. “I get blooded and vomited on, and beaten up – everything that the girl doesn’t often get to do in a show or a film because they’re usually the girlfriend. Sookie’s the centre of all the action or trauma.” Paquin also wasn’t afraid to take on multiple nude scenes. “This is what my body has always looked like. It just looks different when you actually take your clothes off so people can see it,” says Paquin.

A PASSIONATE LIFE

Paquin may have sidestepped the celebrity craze, but one thing she has fallen into is fashion. She works with a stylist for her red-carpet choices and loves Narciso Rodriguez, Dolce & Gabbana and L’Wren Scott. “I love anyone who cuts for women’s bodies not boys’ bodies – designers who actually take curves into account. I absolutely love beautiful clothes and dressing up for red-carpet stuff,” she says. “The whole Cinderella thing: The dress, the shoes, the hair, the make-up and the jewellery.”

Her fashion moments of late have been memorable including the Hervé L. Leroux dress she wore to the Golden Globes. By day, though, Paquin is casual. “I’m a shorts and T-shirt gal now that I live in California. I love my jean shorts, my summer dresses and mini tees. I love random bits and pieces that I’ve picked up along the way,” says Paquin.

“I think for every look or fashion idea there’s someone who can pull it off. I mean, come on, does anything look bad on Kate Moss? She could wear a garbage bag and still look like she was in couture,” asserts Paquin. Then humbly adds, “Myself, not so much.”

As for her true passions, she’d like to direct a film someday, start a family and travel.

“India, Thailand, Africa, Borneo,” she says. Paquin supports organisations such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, and she wants to go to “places like Brazil to support the Great Ape Project [an advocacy group for great apes]. But finding the time … that’s top of my list. I don’t have a game plan. I go one step at a time. I’ve never really thought too far ahead because then you’re never disappointed if it doesn’t happen the way you thought it would. There isn’t a lifestyle or job where there are any guarantees. I’m happy living in the right now.”