Evan Rachel Wood Biography

Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic (1995"1996) and Once and Again (1999"2002). She made her début as a leading film actress at the age of nine in Digging to China (1998) and became well known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe-nominated role in the teen drama film Thirteen (2003).

Wood continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion (2005), Down in the Valley (2006), Running with Scissors (2006), and in the big studio production Across the Universe (2007). Since 2008, Wood has appeared in more mainstream films, including The Wrestler (2008), Whatever Works (2009) and The Ides of March (2011). She has also returned to television, playing the supporting role of Queen Sophie-Anne on True Blood from 2009 to 2011 and playing Kate Winslet's daughter in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), a role for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Wood has been described by The Guardian as "one of the best actresses of her generation." Her personal life, particularly her relationship with Marilyn Manson, to whom she was engaged until August 2010, has attracted press attention. In October 2012, she married English actor Jamie Bell.

Early life and family

Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a locally prominent actor, singer, theater director, and playwright; he is the Executive Director of a local regional theatre company called Theatre in the Park. Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore (born March 6, 1958), is an actress, director, and acting coach. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; she has another brother, Dana. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, was a Hollywood production designer.

Wood and her brothers were actively involved in Theatre in the Park while growing up, including an appearance by her in the 1987 production of her father's internationally renowned musical comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol when she was just a few months old. Subsequently, she played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions at the theater, and she later starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (who played Anne Sullivan) in a production of The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction. Wood briefly attended Cary Elementary, a public school in Cary, North Carolina. She was subsequently home-schooled and received her high school diploma at age 15.

Career

Early Works: 1994"2000

Wood began her career appearing in several made-for-television films from 1994 onward, 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. The film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. 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." She also had a role in Practical Magic, a fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, that same year.

2001"2005

Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, directed by Blair Treu, where she played aspiring 14-year-old concert violinist Emily Lindstrom. For that role, she was nominated for Best Leading Young Actress at the Young Artist Awards. That same year, Wood played a supporting role in the Andrew Niccol-directed science fiction satirical drama film, S1m0ne, which starred Al Pacino. Wood's breakthrough movie role followed with the 2003 film Thirteen. She played the role of Tracy Louise Freeland, one of two young teens who sink into a downward spiral of hard drugs, sex, and petty crime. 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, in which she played the kidnapped daughter, Lilly Gilkeson, in a Searchers-style western, followed the same year. Also in 2003 she played the part of Nora Easton in the episode "Got Murder?" of TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

In 2005, Wood appeared in the Mike Binder-directed The Upside of Anger, opposite Kevin Costner and Joan Allen, a well-reviewed film in which Wood played Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer, one of four sisters dealing with their father's absence. Her character also narrated the film. Wood's next two starring roles were in dark independent films. In the 2005 Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival nominee Pretty Persuasion, a black comedy/satirical focusing on themes of sexual harassment and discrimination in schools and attitudes about females in media and society, Wood played Kimberly Joyce, a villainous, sexually active high-schooler. One critic commented, "Wood does flip cynicism with such precise, easy rhythms and with such obvious pleasure in naughtiness that she's impossible to hate."

In Down in the Valley, which was directed by David Jacobson, Wood's character, Tobe, falls in love with an older man, a cowboy who is at odds with modern society (Edward Norton). Of her performance, it was written that "Wood conveys every bit of the adamant certainty and aching vulnerability inherent in late adolescence." 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".

2006"present

In September 2006, Wood received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent." Also in 2006, she was described by The Guardian as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation." Later in 2006, Wood appeared with an all-star ensemble cast as Natalie Finch in the Golden Globe-nominated 2006 comedy-drama film Running with Scissors. Directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Annette Bening, the film was based on the memoir by Augusten Burroughs, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood in a dysfunctional family. Wood was awarded the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation for her performance.

Wood had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, a story of a bipolar jazz musician (Michael Douglas) and his long-suffering teenage daughter, Miranda (Wood), who are reunited after his two-year stay in a mental institution and who embark on a quixotic search for Spanish treasure. One review praised Wood's performance as "excellent".

Across the Universe, a Julie Taymor-directed musical that was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award and was set in Liverpool, New York City, and Vietnam, focused on the tribulations of several characters during the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s. It was set to the songs of The Beatles. Wood, who has described the music of The Beatles as a major part of her life, played Lucy, who develops a relationship with Jude (Jim Sturgess). The film featured her singing musical numbers and she describes the role as her favorite, calling director Julie Taymor "one of the most amazing directors out there." One critic wrote that "Wood brings much-needed emotional depth." Wood provided the voice of an alien named Mala, a mechanically inclined free-thinker, in Battle for Terra, a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film about a peaceful alien planet that faces destruction from colonization by the displaced remainder of the human race. The film won the 2008 Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film showed at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where she received an award at the Midnight Awards along with Elijah Wood.

Wood starred in 2008's Vadim Perelman-directed The Life Before Her Eyes, based on the Laura Kasischke novel of the same name, about the friendship of two teens of opposite character who are involved in a Columbine-like shooting incident at their school and are forced to make an impossible choice. Wood played the younger version of Uma Thurman's character, Diana. One critic cited her performance as "hands-down extraordinary". Wood stated that she intended the film to be the last one in which she played a teenager. In the same year, she also co-starred in director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about Randy "Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a professional wrestler from the 1980s who is forced to retire after a heart attack threatens to kill him the next time he wrestles. Wood played Stephanie, Randy "Ram" Robinson's estranged daughter. Of her performance, one critic wrote, "Once her character stops stonewalling her father and hears him out, Wood provides a fine foil for Rourke in their turbulent scenes together."

Wood co-starred in Woody Allen's Whatever Works, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, playing the young wife of Larry David's character. In May 2009, she played Juliet in six fundraising performances of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Theater In The Park. The production was directed by her brother, who also starred. Wood had a recurring role in the second and third seasons of the HBO supernatural drama series, True Blood, from 2009 to 2011 as Sophie-Anne Leclerq. She appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Wood had a role in the film The Conspirator, which premiered at Ford's Theatre in Washington D. C. in April, 2011, directed by Robert Redford (about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln). She also had a role in The Ides of March.

In production

Wood was confirmed to join the cast of The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman with Shia LaBeouf and Rupert Grint.

Personal life

In 2005, Wood began dating British actor Jamie Bell after they met while co-starring in the music video for Green Day's song "Wake Me Up When September Ends". They got tattoos of each other's first initial; in Wood's case, a "J" on her left ankle. After a year together, the relationship ended in 2006. Wood later commented that, "We had matching tattoos because we knew our love would last for ever. Trouble is, it didn't, things happened, we split. But I don't regret the tattoo. It reminds me of a great, great period in my life."

In January 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 once 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 she appeared with Manson in the song's music video. Manson has said that Wood's appearance was the highest-paid music video role ever. The couple split in November 2008; according to Wood, they "both decided to take some time apart so [they] could concentrate on work." They later re-united and it was reported in early January 2010 that the couple was engaged to be married. Wood and Manson ended their engagement in August 2010.

In the summer of 2011, Wood was reported to have rekindled her relationship with Jamie Bell, five years after they first broke up. The couple married in a small ceremony on October 30, 2012. They have one son, born in July 2013. Wood had a natural home birth with her son, and publicly thanked Ricki Lake, creator of the documentary The Business of Being Born, for inspiring her decision.

In August 2012, Wood identified herself as bisexual on Twitter. Wood's mother is a convert to Judaism and Wood's father is Christian. Wood has described herself as Jewish, and has also stated "I believe in God but I am not religious. I am spiritual. My definition of God isn't in any religion. It's very personal". Wood has a black belt in taekwondo.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness	Little Susie	Television film
1994	Search for Grace	Young Sarah/Robin	Television film
1995	'	Tessa	Television film
1995	Death in Small Doses	Anna	Television film
1997	Digging to China	Harriet Frankovitz
1997	Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story		Television film
1998	Practical Magic	Kylie Owens
1998	Detour	Daniella Rogers	Direct-to-video
1999	Down Will Come Baby	Robin Garr	Television film
2001	Little Secrets	Emily Lindstrom
2002	S1m0ne	Lainey Christian
2003	Thirteen	Tracy Louise Freeland
2003	'	Lily Gilkeson
2005	Pretty Persuasion	Kimberly Joyce
2005	'	Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer
2005	Down in the Valley	October "Tobe"
2006	Asterix and the Vikings	Abba (voice; English dub)
2006	Shark Bait	Cordelia (voice)
2006	Running with Scissors	Natalie Finch
2007	King of California	Miranda
2007	'	Young Diana McFee
2007	Battle for Terra	Mala (voice)
2007	Across the Universe	Lucy Carrigan
2008	'	Stephanie Ramzinski
2009	Whatever Works	Melodie St. Ann Celestine
2010	'	Anna Surratt
2011	'	Molly Stearns
2013	'	Gabi Banyai
2013	'		Post-production
2013	Barefoot	Daisy Kensington	Post-production
2013	10 Things I Hate About Life		In production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995"1996	American Gothic	Rose Russell	3 episodes
1998"1999	Profiler	Chloe Waters	6 episodes
1999"2002	Once and Again	Jessie Sammler	Main cast; 55 episodes
2000	Touched by an Angel	Sarah Radcliff	Episode: "Pandora's Box"
2002	'	Hogan Cregg	Episode: "The Black Vera Wang"
2003	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Nora Easton	Episode: "Got Murder?"
2009"2011	True Blood	Sophie-Anne Leclerq	8 episodes
2011	Mildred Pierce	Veda Pierce	Main cast; 2 episodes
2013	Robot Chicken	Minnie Mouse/mother (voice)	Episode: "Botched Jewel Heist"

Awards

Year	Result	Award	Category	Nominated Work
1999		Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film: Supporting Young Actress	Practical Magic
		YoungStar Awards	Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Mini: Series/Made for TV Film	Down Will Come Baby
2000		Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a TV Drama Series: Supporting Young Actress	Profiler
		YoungStar Awards	Best Young Actress/Performance in a Drama TV Series	Once and Again
2001		Young Artist Awards	Best Ensemble in a TV Series (Drama or Comedy)
2002		Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress	Little Secrets
2003		Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress	The Missing
		Bratislava International Film Festival	Special Mention Award	Thirteen
		Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards	Best Actress
2004		Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Youth in Film
		Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
			Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role: Female
			Breakthrough Performance: On Screen
		Prism Awards	Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film
		Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress
		Satellite Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama
		MTV Movie Awards	Breakthrough Female Performance
		Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Young Actor/Actress
		Golden Globes	Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama
		Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2008		Utah Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Performance by an Actress	The Wrestler
2011		Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie	Mildred Pierce
		Satellite Awards	Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
2012		Golden Globes	Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
		Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Acting Ensemble	The Ides of March
		Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Ensemble