Evan Rachel Wood

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Actors, models and celebrities

Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American film, television and theatre actress; and singer. She began acting in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, including American Gothic and Once and Again. Wood made her debut as a lead film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, and became well known after her Golden Globe-nominated role in Thirteen, which garnered her critical praise. She has since starred in several independent films, including Pretty Persuasion, Down in the Valley, and Across the Universe, and has several more starring roles in films yet to be released.

Wood has been described by The Guardian newspaper as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation".

Biography

Early life

Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, the daughter of Sara Lynn Moore, an actress, director and acting coach, and Ira David Wood III, an award-winning actor, singer, theatre director and playwright. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor. Wood has another brother, Dana, from her mother's first marriage. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, is a Hollywood production designer. Evan Rachel Wood is Jewish.

From the time of her first family Christmas, Wood listened to the music of the Beatles, whom she described as always being a part of her life. Wood and her brother were actively involved in their father's theatre, Theatre In The Park, while growing up; she appeared in a production of A Christmas Carol at the theatre when she was a few months old, and later starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (who played Annie Sullivan) in a production of The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.

Career

Wood appeared in several made-for-television films from 1994 and onwards, also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic. In 1996, Wood's parents separated and later divorced, and Wood moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles County, California. After a one-season role on the television drama, Profiler, Wood was cast in the supporting role of Jessie Sammler on the television show Once and Again. Wood's first major screen role was in the low-budget 1998 film, Digging to China, which also starred Kevin Bacon and Mary Stuart Masterson. Wood remembers the role as initially being "hard", but notes that it eventually led to her decision that acting is something she "might never want to stop doing".

In 2002, Wood played a supporting role in the film S1m0ne, which starred Al Pacino. Wood's breakthrough movie role followed, with the somewhat controversial 2003 independent film Thirteen. The film garnered strong critical acclaim, and her performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Actress. During the time of Thirteen's release, Vanity Fair named Wood as one of the It Girls of Hollywood, and she appeared, along with the other actresses, on the magazine's July 2003 cover. A supporting role opposite Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones, in Ron Howard's The Missing, followed the same year.

In 2005, she appeared in The Upside of Anger, opposite Kevin Costner, and Joan Allen, a well-reviewed film in which Wood played one of several sisters dealing with their father's absence. Her next two starring roles were in the dark independent films, Pretty Persuasion (also 2005), in which she played a villainous, sexually active high-schooler, and Down in the Valley, in which her character falls in love with an older man posing as a cowboy ( Edward Norton). Although Wood and her fellow actors were praised, some critics disagreed over the films' merits. Wood has commented on her choice of sexually themed roles, saying that she is not aiming for the "shock factor" in her film choices. In 2005, Wood starred in the music videos for Bright Eyes' "At the Bottom of Everything" and Green Day's " Wake Me Up When September Ends". In September of 2006, she received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent". Later that year, Wood appeared with an all-star ensemble cast in the film, Running With Scissors.

Wood has roles in two films released in September, 2007: King of California and Across the Universe, a musical directed by Julie Taymor and set in the United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam; Wood sang musical numbers live during filming in the latter film. Starring in the Vadim Perelman directed In Bloom, Wood plays a younger version of a character played by Uma Thurman; Wood has stated that she intends the film to be the last time she plays a teenager. She also provides the voice of an alien in the animated film Terra, scheduled for 2008, will play writer Anne Brontë in the film Brontë, and will be involved in the film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll.

Wood has stated that she prefers music to movies and is planning to launch a singing career.

Wood and Across the Universe co-star, Jim Sturgess are reported to be involved in the upcoming Julie Taymor Broadway production of a Spider-Man musical adaptation. Music for the show will be composed and written by Bono and The Edge, of the band U2.

Personal life

Wood was home-schooled, and received her high school diploma at age fifteen. She has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys singing, having recorded the songs "Christmas Isn't Christmas Without You" and "Silver and Gold" for the School's Out Christmas Album, which featured various artists.

Wood has said that her character in Across the Universe, whom she describes as an "old soul, street smart and ahead of her time", is close to her real-life personality. Wood also describes herself as being "laid-back" and "not a party girl", citing her choice to stay away from what is considered a typical Hollywood lifestyle. In 2006, Wood, who was described by the Guardian as an " Anglophile", dated her " Wake Me Up When September Ends" music video co-star, English actor Jamie Bell. She is also a friend of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In 2007, Wood's relationship with Marilyn Manson became public. The two met at a party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel; Wood has stated that she was attracted to Manson's frequent use of black eye liner and has described their relationship as "healthy and loving."

Two portraits of Wood, painted by Manson, have been exhibited at the Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art. Wood is also the inspiration behind Manson's song " Heart-Shaped Glasses" and appeared with Manson in the song's music video. Manson has said that Wood's appearance in the film was the highest paid music video role ever.

In 2007 she told YRB magazine, "I'm not a lesbian, but I don't think it's weird or gross or anything. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm bisexual — I don't sleep with women. But I definitely appreciate women and there have been times where I have been attracted to a woman. I'm not afraid of sexuality. I think too many people get shit and get called skanky or a whore just because they are sexual."

Filmography

Evan Rachel Wood