The name Mia Wasikowska may not yet ring a bell, but it will – soon. The fragile-looking blonde actress with the pixie cut, button nose, mischievous dimples and bewitching smile recently stole the show as Alice Kingsley in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie. And now she’s ready to take on Hollywood with hard work and persistence.
Aussie Actress
You may have guessed it from Mia’s soft accent in Alice - she’s Australian. She was born in that country on October 14, 1989 - that would make her 20 years old today. After she turns 21 in 2010, she’s set to take on the lead role in a film called Jane Eyre, which is based on a classic novel by the same name.
But back to Mia’s “real” life. Her dad is a painter and her mom is a photographer, so she comes from a pretty creative family to start with. She’s the middle child of three – she’s got an older sister and a younger brother. When she was younger, Mia trained as a ballerina, which meant up to 35 hours of practice a week! But when she turned 14, she decided to quit ballet dancing, mostly because it put too much pressure on her to be physically perfect. Mia says that really affected her self-esteem – and it wasn’t worth it.
Cool Career
Mia’s acting career began in 2004, when she landed a role on an Australian soap opera. She went on to shoot a few Australian-made movies after that, and even won an award for her acting! Once she moved to the U.S., Mia worked on perfecting her American accent and earned tons of kudos for roles she played on TV and in film.
All About Alice
Mia’s breakthrough as an actress came back in 2008 when, after searching long and hard, Tim Burton chose her to play the lead role in Alice in Wonderland. As Alice Kingsley, Mia portrayed a 19-year-old girl’s return to Wonderland, where she meets strange and amazing characters played by famous actors like Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway.
“You don’t always sort of come across those roles so it was really exciting to actually play a young woman who becomes very empowered,” Mia said in an interview. “I think that that’s a very important thing for our young girls to see and I hope that they take something away from that.”
Fighting the Jabberwocky
The famous battle scene between Alice (Mia) and the monster, the Jabberwocky, meant two full weeks of stunt rehearsals for the actress. She had to learn to sword fight properly, for example. It isn’t as easy as it looks!
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