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Anna
Paquin Lawrence O'Toole To land the role of holly Hunter's obstimate young daughter in The
Piano, Anna Paquin had to beat out some 5,000 girls in open auditions.
Her previous acting experience? She once played a skunk in a school
ballet. "Anna is out third child," says her father, Brian, a physical
education teacher in New Zealand, where the movie was shot. "Up until
the time she made The Piano, she hadn't shown any flair in any
particular direction. She was just chugging along as No.3." Her older
brother excellent as a cellist and a ballet dancer, while her older
sister, a top gymnast, plays the violin and piano. "Anna," says Brian
Paquin, "was just a nice, well-balanced kid."
She still is, and her farther is determined to keep her that
way--especially now that the 11-year-old is one of five actresses under
the age of 12 ever nominated for an Oscar. Anna first hear about the
auditions from a friend of her sister's. When she asked her father if
she could try out, he said, "Here's the telephone. If you're interested,
make the call." And off she went. What helped at first was
her resemblance to Hunter. Then she made a video of her character's
speech in which she tells a whopper about her father--and the filmmakers
were sold. Those whoppers in The Piano are told wit an imagination and
guile that's startling for someone her age. "We had no idea she could do
that," Brian said. She's my child, but she really was brilliant." As he
sees it, the problem now is to make the right choices. "We've urned down
things already. It's time to put up our feet and think. Meanwhile, Anna
will go back to school and become a normal kid again." A new friend of
the Paquins' recently offered a piece of advice if they decide to let
Anna continue her acting career. "Be chossy," Hunter told them."
Entertainment Weekly special issue, March 29, 1994
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