, April 2009|257x257px Director
Jane Campion was looking for a little girl to play a main role in
The Piano, set to film in New Zealand, and a newspaper advertisement was run announcing an open audition. Paquin's sister read the ad and went to try out with a friend; this inspired Paquin to audition. When Campion met Paquin—whose only acting experience had been as a
skunk in a school play—she was very impressed with the nine-year-old's performance of the monologue about Flora's father, and she was chosen from among the 5000 candidates. She later made a series of television commercials for
Manitoba Telecom Systems in her birth city of Winnipeg. She also appeared as a voice in an audiobook entitled
The Magnificent Nose in 1994. In 1996, she appeared in two films. The first role was as young Jane in
Jane Eyre. The other was a lead part in
Fly Away Home playing a young girl who, after her mother dies, moves in with her father and finds solace in taking care of orphaned goslings. As a teenager, she had roles in other films, including
A Walk on the Moon,
Finding Forrester,
Amistad,
Hurlyburly, ''
She's All That and Almost Famous. In the 2003 English dub of the Studio Ghibli film Castle in the Sky'', she voiced the main female protagonist, Sheeta. Paquin played the
mutant superhero Rogue in the
Marvel Comics movie
X-Men in 2000, In November 2006, she completed the film
Margaret, which was released in 2011. She played
Elaine Goodale in
HBO's made-for-TV film
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, based on
Dee Brown's best-seller, garnering a
Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 2007, she played the role of Laurie in the horror film ''
Trick 'r Treat'', which was released in 2009. Paquin was cast as waitress
Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series
True Blood in 2008, her first role in a TV series. The show is based on
The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by
Charlaine Harris, set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The series saw Paquin doing nude scenes for the first time. While working on
True Blood, she started dating co-star
Stephen Moyer and later married him in 2010. In 2009, Paquin played
Irena Sendler, a Polish woman hailed as a heroine of
the Holocaust, in
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a
CBS TV film biographical film based on the book
Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story, by Anna Mieszkowska. The film was made in Latvia, and was a
Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for the network. In 2010, Paquin's film
The Romantics, a romantic comedy with
Josh Duhamel and
Katie Holmes, was released in the US at selected cinemas in September. She played a cameo role in
Scream 4, alongside
Kristen Bell in 2011. She also played the voice of Kristin on an episode of
Phineas and Ferb. Paquin reprised her role as Rogue in the 2014 film
X-Men: Days of Future Past, but most of her scenes were cut out for the theatrical release. An alternative version of the film with all of Paquin's scenes reinstated was released as
The Rogue Cut on 14 July 2015. Paquin voiced Ramsey in
Disney•Pixar's film
The Good Dinosaur. She also played Nancy Holt, the wife of a
Confederate soldier, in the 2016 miniseries
Roots. In June 2016, the
Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the
Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Paquin and others told the stories of the people killed there. Later in 2017 Paquin starred in television series
Bellevue, also being the executive producer, and acted as Nancy Montgomery in the television miniseries
Alias Grace. In 2018, she acted in husband
Stephen Moyer's directorial debut,
The Parting Glass, and in
Laurie Collyer's comedy-drama film
Furlough. In 2019, Paquin appeared in
Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed drama,
The Irishman. That year, she also produced and starred as Robyn in television series
Flack and appeared in the television series
The Affair. In 2021, she portrayed the wife of
Kurt Warner in the biographical Christian sports film,
American Underdog. In 2022, Paquin starred in
A Friend of the Family for
Peacock. In 2023, Paquin starred in Netflix Original
True Spirit alongside
Teagan Croft and
Cliff Curtis. The movie is based on the journey of
Jessica Watson, an Australian sailor who attempted solo global
circumnavigation at 16 years old, with Paquin playing her mother. == Personal life ==