Evan Rachel Wood
Encyclopedia
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic
American Gothic (TV series)
American Gothic is an American horror series created by Shaun Cassidy and executive produced by Sam Raimi. The show first aired on CBS on September 22, 1995, and was cancelled after a single season on July 11, 1996.-Plot:...

and Once and Again
Once and Again
Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father...

. She made her debut as a leading film actress in Little Secrets
Little Secrets
Little Secrets is a 2002 independent comedy-drama film starring Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Angarano, and David Gallagher. It premiered in the Heartland Film Festival in October 2001, and made its limited theatrical release on August 23, 2002.-Plot:...

(2002) and became well known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe-nominated role in the teen drama film Thirteen
Thirteen (film)
Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...

(2003).

Wood continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion is a 2005 American black comedy/satirical film about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who makes an allegation of sexual harassment against her drama teacher. The film's tagline is: "Revenge knows no mercy." It was written by Skander Halim and directed by Marcos Siega...

(2005), Down in the Valley (2006), Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors (film)
Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy-drama film based on Augusten Burroughs' 2002 memoir of the same name, written and directed by Ryan Murphy, and starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, and Gwyneth Paltrow with...

(2006), and in the big studio production Across the Universe
Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...

(2007). Wood has been described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

as "one of the best actresses of her generation." Wood was engaged to Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...

 until August 2010.

Early life and family

Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. Her father, Ira David Wood III
Ira David Wood III
Ira Wood III is an American actor, singer, theater director and playwright. He is the Executive Director of Theatre in the Park, a community theatre company in Raleigh, North Carolina.-Early life and family:...

, is a locally prominent actor, singer, theater director, and playwright who is the Executive Director of a local regional theatre company called Theatre in the Park
Theatre In The Park
Theatre in the Park is a community theatre located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The theatre's Executive Director is Ira David Wood III, father of actress Evan Rachel Wood. Ira David Wood III is famous for his musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"...

. Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore (born March 6, 1958), is an actress, director, and acting coach. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV
Ira David Wood IV
Ira David Wood IV is an American actor. He is the older brother of actress Evan Rachel Wood.Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother is actress Sara Lynn Moore and his father is Ira David Wood III, a locally prominent actor who is the Executive Director of a theatre company in Raleigh,...

, is also an actor; she has another brother, Dana. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, is 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
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

when she was just a few months old. Subsequently, she played the Ghost of Christmas Past
Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits that haunted the miser. Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent...

 in several productions at the theater, and she later starred as Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....

 alongside her mother (who played Annie Sullivan) in a production of The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. Each of the various dramas describes the relationship between Keller—a deafblind and initially almost feral child—and Anne Sullivan, the teacher who introduced her to...

, under her father's direction.

Early Works: 1994–2000

Wood began her career appearing in several made-for-television films
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 from 1994 onward, also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic
American Gothic (TV series)
American Gothic is an American horror series created by Shaun Cassidy and executive produced by Sam Raimi. The show first aired on CBS on September 22, 1995, and was cancelled after a single season on July 11, 1996.-Plot:...

. 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
Profiler (TV series)
Profiler was an American crime drama that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series follows the exploits of a criminal profiler working with the fictional FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force based in Atlanta, Georgia....

, Wood was cast in the supporting role of Jessie Sammler on the television show Once and Again
Once and Again
Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father...

.

Wood's first major screen role was in the low-budget 1998 film Digging to China
Digging to China
Digging to China is a 1998 American drama film that marked the directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood...

, which also starred Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....

 and Mary Stuart Masterson
Mary Stuart Masterson
Mary Stuart Masterson is an American film, stage and television actress and director.-Early life:Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Masterson Jr., and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the...

. The film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Founded in 1975, Facets Multi-Media, located at 1517 W. Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, 60614 Facets Multi-Media is the largest conservator dedicated to the exhibition, distribution & education of foreign, independent & classic cinema...

. 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
Practical Magic
Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches who carry on a family legacy of witchcraft and tragedy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Alice Hoffman...

, a family
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...

 fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

 directed by Griffin Dunne
Griffin Dunne
-Personal life:Dunne was born Thomas Griffin Dunne in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...

 and starring Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...

 and Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...

, that same year.

2001–2005

Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2002's Little Secrets
Little Secrets
Little Secrets is a 2002 independent comedy-drama film starring Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Angarano, and David Gallagher. It premiered in the Heartland Film Festival in October 2001, and made its limited theatrical release on August 23, 2002.-Plot:...

, directed by Blair Treu
Blair Treu
Blair Treu is an American film director. He directed Little Secrets and Wish Upon A Star.More recently he has teamed up with Brigham Young University professor Stephan F. Duncan, KBYU-TV and BYU TV to create Real Families, Real Answers....

, 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
Andrew Niccol
Andrew M. Niccol is a New Zealand screenwriter, producer, and director. He wrote and directed Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Lord of War. He also wrote and co-produced The Truman Show, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1999 and won a BAFTA award for Best...

-directed science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 satirical drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

, S1m0ne
S1m0ne
S1m0ne is a 2002 science fiction comedy film written, produced and directed by Andrew Niccol. It stars Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Rachel Roberts, Evan Rachel Wood, Winona Ryder and Rebecca Romijn.-Plot:...

, which starred Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...

.

Wood's breakthrough movie role followed with the 2003 film Thirteen
Thirteen (film)
Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...

. 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
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 as Best Actress - Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Actress. During the time of Thirteens release, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

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
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...

 and Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....

 in Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...

's
The Missing
The Missing
The Missing is a 2003 Western thriller film directed by Ron Howard, based on Thomas Eidson's 1996 novel The Last Ride.This Western thriller set in 1885 New Mexico Territory is notable for the authentic use of the Apache language by various actors, some of whom spent long hours studying it...

, in which she played the kidnapped daughter, Lilly Gilkeson, in a Searchers
The Searchers (film)
The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars...

-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
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

.

In 2005, Wood appeared in the Mike Binder
Mike Binder
Mike Binder is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor.-Life and career:A native of Detroit, Mike Binder grew up in Birmingham, one of the city's suburbs, and attended Camp Tamakwa, which formed the basis for his 1993 film Indian Summer...

-directed
The Upside of Anger
The Upside of Anger
The Upside of Anger is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Binder and set in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan...

, opposite Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...

 and Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...

, 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 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s. In the 2005 Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 nominee
Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion is a 2005 American black comedy/satirical film about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who makes an allegation of sexual harassment against her drama teacher. The film's tagline is: "Revenge knows no mercy." It was written by Skander Halim and directed by Marcos Siega...

, a black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

/satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 focusing on themes of sexual harassment and discrimination in schools
Sexual harassment in education
Sexual harassment in education in the United States is an unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that interferes with a American's student’s ability to learn, study, work or participate in school activities. It is common in middle and high schools in the United States. Sexual or gender harassment ...

 and attitudes about females in media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

 and society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...

, 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
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 who is at odds with modern society (Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...

). 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 video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s for Bright Eyes' "At the Bottom of Everything" and Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...

's "Wake Me Up When September Ends
Wake Me Up When September Ends
"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a song by American rock band Green Day released as the fourth single from their seventh album, American Idiot. The single peaked at number six in the United States, becoming Green Day's second Top 10 single. It also peaked at number eight in Canada and the UK,...

".

2006–present

In September 2006, Wood received Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...

magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent." Also in 2006, she was described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

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
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

-drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 
Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors (film)
Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy-drama film based on Augusten Burroughs' 2002 memoir of the same name, written and directed by Ryan Murphy, and starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, and Gwyneth Paltrow with...

. Directed by Ryan Murphy
Ryan Murphy (television creator)
Ryan Murphy is an American film and television screenwriter, director, and producer. He is best known for creating/co-creating the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.-Background:...

 and starring Annette Bening
Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...

, the film was based on the memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Xon Burroughs is an American writer known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors .- Life :...

, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood in a dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...

. Wood was awarded the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation for her performance.

Wood had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California
King of California
King of California is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Mike Cahill. It is his debut as a screenwriter and director. The film premiered on January 24, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and opened in limited release in North America on September 14, 2007...

, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

, a story of a bipolar
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...

 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician (Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

) 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
Quixotism
Quixotism is impracticality in pursuit of ideals, especially those ideals manifested by rash, lofty and romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality...

 search for Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 treasure. One review praised Wood's performance as "excellent".

Across the Universe
Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...

, a Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...

-directed musical that was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 and was set in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, New York City, and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, focused on the tribulations of several characters during the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s. It was set to the songs of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. 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
Jim Sturgess
James Anthony "Jim" Sturgess is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His breakthrough role was appearing as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe .-Early life:...

). 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
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...

 named Mala, a mechanically inclined free-thinker, in Battle for Terra, a 2008 computer-animated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....

 science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 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
Vadim Perelman
Vadim Perelman is a Ukrainian-American film director. Perelman made his feature film directorial debut in 2003 with House of Sand and Fog, following a successful career as a commercial director. The film, nominated for three Academy Awards, also marks his first screenplay credit...

-directed The Life Before Her Eyes, based on the Laura Kasischke
Laura Kasischke
Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and American poet with poetry awards and multiple well reviewed works of fiction. Her work has received the Juniper Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for...

 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
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...

'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
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...

's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...

 Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

, about Randy "Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....

), 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 has a role in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

's Whatever Works
Whatever Works
Whatever Works is a 2009 American comedy film directed and written by Woody Allen, starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley, Jr., Michael McKean, and Henry Cavill.-Plot:...

, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

. She plays the young wife of Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...

's character. In May 2009, she played Juliet
Juliet Capulet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....

 in six fundraising performances of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

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
True Blood
True Blood is an American television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana...

, from 2009 to 2011 as Sophie-Anne Leclerq. She appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

 on September 12, 2010. Wood had a role in the film
The Conspirator, which premiered at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...

 in Washington D. C. in April, 2011, directed by Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

 (about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

).

In production

Wood has been attached to play writer Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a...

 in the film
Brontë
Brontë
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte , Emily , and Anne , are well-known as poets and novelists...

, the title character in Flora Plum and will be involved in the film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll
Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll is an upcoming fantasy-horror film by Marilyn Manson with Geoffrey Cox and Anthony Silva. It is directed by Marilyn Manson as part of his Celebritarian Corporation art movement, and is his directorial debut as a feature filmmaker. It is being produced by...

. Variety reported in May 2010 that Wood and Marilyn Manson were attached to star in a slasher film entitled Splatter Sisters.

Personal life

Wood has described her religion as Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 (her mother is a convert to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism is a formal act undertaken by a non-Jewish person who wishes to be recognised as a full member of the Jewish community. A Jewish conversion is both a religious act and an expression of association with the Jewish people...

 and her father is Christian). She briefly attended Cary Elementary, a public school in Cary, North Carolina
Cary, North Carolina
Cary is a large town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham...

. She was home-schooled and received her high school diploma
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...

 at age 15. Wood has a black belt in taekwondo
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

.

In 2007, Wood's relationship with Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...

 became public. The two met at a party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel
Chateau Marmont Hotel
The Chateau Marmont is a hotel at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Built in 1927, and modeled loosely after the Château d'Amboise, in France's Loire Valley. It has served as the backdrop for a number of events in the lives of well-known rock stars and actors.-History:Fred...

; Wood has stated that she was attracted to Manson's frequent use of black eye liner
Eye liner
Eye liner is a cosmetic used to define the eyes. It is applied around the contours of the eye to create a variety of aesthetic illusions. Although primarily aimed at females, it has broadened its appeal to the male market, known commonly by the portmanteau guyliner.-History:Eyeliner was first used...

 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 in the film was the highest-paid music video role ever. It was reported in early January 2010 that the couple was engaged to be married. On August 17, 2010, People magazine reported that the couple had ended their engagement earlier that month.

In April 2011, Wood came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

 as bisexual in an interview with Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1998 Digging to China
Digging to China
Digging to China is a 1998 American drama film that marked the directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood...

Harriet Frankovitz Limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....

Practical Magic
Practical Magic
Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches who carry on a family legacy of witchcraft and tragedy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Alice Hoffman...

Kylie Owens Nominated — Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress
Profiler
Profiler (TV series)
Profiler was an American crime drama that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series follows the exploits of a criminal profiler working with the fictional FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force based in Atlanta, Georgia....

Chloe Waters 6 Episodes
Nominated — Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Drama Series - Supporting Young Actress
1999 Down Will Come Baby
Down Will Come Baby
Down Will Come Baby is a true story thriller drama based on a book by Gloria Murphy. It was released in 1999 on the CBS network.-Plot:Twelve-year-old Robin Garr witnessed her friend Amelia's death at summer camp. Robin cannot cope with the death and blames herself. Further, her parents are...

Robin Garr TV Film
Nominated — YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Mini-Series/Made for TV Film
1999–2002 Once and Again
Once and Again
Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father...

Jessie Sammler 55 Episodes
Young Artist Award for Best Ensemble in a TV Series (Drama or Comedy)
Nominated — YoungStar Award for Best Young Actress/Performance in a Drama TV Series
2002 Little Secrets
Little Secrets
Little Secrets is a 2002 independent comedy-drama film starring Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Angarano, and David Gallagher. It premiered in the Heartland Film Festival in October 2001, and made its limited theatrical release on August 23, 2002.-Plot:...

Emily Lindstrom Nominated — Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress
S1m0ne
S1m0ne
S1m0ne is a 2002 science fiction comedy film written, produced and directed by Andrew Niccol. It stars Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Rachel Roberts, Evan Rachel Wood, Winona Ryder and Rebecca Romijn.-Plot:...

Lainey Christian
The West Wing Hogan Cregg 1 Episode
2003 C.S.I. Nora Easton Got Murder? - Season 3, Episode 12
The Missing
The Missing
The Missing is a 2003 Western thriller film directed by Ron Howard, based on Thomas Eidson's 1996 novel The Last Ride.This Western thriller set in 1885 New Mexico Territory is notable for the authentic use of the Apache language by various actors, some of whom spent long hours studying it...

Lily Gilkeson Nominated — Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress
Thirteen
Thirteen (film)
Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...

Tracy Louise Freeland Bratislava International Film Festival Award for Acting
International Film Festival Bratislava
The International Film Festival Bratislava is an international film festival established in 1999 and held annually in Bratislava, Slovakia....


Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Youth in Film
Las Vegas Film Critics Society
The Las Vegas Film Critics Society is a non-profit organization, composed of selected print, television and internet film critics in the Las Vegas metropolitan area....


Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Breakout Performance - On Screen
Phoenix Film Critics Society
The Phoenix Film Critics Society is an organization of film reviewers from Phoenix-based publications.In December of each year, the PFCS meets to vote on their Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for films released in the same calendar year.Categories of awards include:* Best Actor The Phoenix...


Prism Award for Best Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance
Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
The Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is an award given by the Phoenix Film Critics Society to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-2000s:-2010s:...


Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role - Female
Phoenix Film Critics Society
The Phoenix Film Critics Society is an organization of film reviewers from Phoenix-based publications.In December of each year, the PFCS meets to vote on their Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for films released in the same calendar year.Categories of awards include:* Best Actor The Phoenix...


Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
The Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama is one of the annual awards given by the International Press Academy.- Winners and nominees :The following listing is based on the web postings of the International Press Academy.- 1990s :...


Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association
The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association is a group of film critics based out of Washington, D.C., United States that was founded in 2003. WAFCA is composed of 34 DC-based film critics from television, radio, print and the internet...

2005 Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion
Pretty Persuasion is a 2005 American black comedy/satirical film about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who makes an allegation of sexual harassment against her drama teacher. The film's tagline is: "Revenge knows no mercy." It was written by Skander Halim and directed by Marcos Siega...

Kimberly Joyce Limited release
The Upside of Anger
The Upside of Anger
The Upside of Anger is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Binder and set in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan...

Lavender 'Popeye' Wolfmeyer
2006 Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors (film)
Running with Scissors is a 2006 American comedy-drama film based on Augusten Burroughs' 2002 memoir of the same name, written and directed by Ryan Murphy, and starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, and Gwyneth Paltrow with...

Natalie Finch
Down in the Valley October "Tobe" Limited release
Asterix and the Vikings
Asterix and the Vikings
Asterix and the Vikings is an animated feature film, produced in France and Denmark, and directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Jesper Møller. The story was adapted from the graphic novel Asterix and the Normans, which was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo...

Abba (English dub) Limited release
Shark Bait
Shark Bait
Shark Bait is a 2006 computer animated film. The plot revolves around Pi and his attempt to win the heart of Cordelia while dealing with a bullying shark. The film was a commercial failure...

Cordelia (voice) Also known as The Reef
2007 King of California
King of California
King of California is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Mike Cahill. It is his debut as a screenwriter and director. The film premiered on January 24, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and opened in limited release in North America on September 14, 2007...

Miranda
Across the Universe
Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...

Lucy Carrigan
Battle for Terra Mala (voice)
The Life Before Her Eyes Young Diana Limited release
2008 The Wrestler Stephanie Ramzinski Nominated — Utah Film Critics Association
Utah Film Critics Association
The Utah Film Critics Association is an organization of cinema journalists affiliated with publications, broadcasting stations and online media based in Utah...

 Award for Best Supporting Actress
2009 Whatever Works
Whatever Works
Whatever Works is a 2009 American comedy film directed and written by Woody Allen, starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley, Jr., Michael McKean, and Henry Cavill.-Plot:...

Melodie
2009–2011 True Blood
True Blood
True Blood is an American television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana...

Sophie-Anne Leclerq 6 episodes
2011 The Conspirator Anna Surratt
Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce (mini-series)
Mildred Pierce is a five-part miniseries that first aired on HBO on March 27, 2011. Adapted from James M. Cain's 1941 novel, it was directed by Todd Haynes, and starred Kate Winslet in the title role, alongside Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood, and Melissa Leo...

Veda Pierce HBO Miniseries
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
The Ides of March
The Ides of March (film)
The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama thriller film directed by George Clooney from a screenplay written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon. The film is an adaptation of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North...

Molly Stearns

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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