Evan Rachel Wood | |
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![]() Wood at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con | |
Born | Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. | September 7, 1987
Occupation |
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Years active | 1994-present |
Children | 1 |
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Evan Rachel Wood[1] (born September 7, 1987)[2] is an American actress, model, and musician. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in film and television.
Wood began acting in the 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic (1995-96) and Once and Again (1999-2002). Wood made her debut as a leading film actress at the age of nine in Digging to China (1997) and garnered acclaim for her Golden Globe-nominated role as the troubled teenager Tracy Freeland in the teen drama film Thirteen (2003).[3] She continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion (2005), Down in the Valley (2005), Running with Scissors (2006), and 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 also returned to television the following year, recurring as a vampire named Sophie-Anne Leclerq on True Blood from 2009 to 2011. She also portrayed the daughter of Mildred Pierce in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She stars as sentient android Dolores Abernathy in the HBO series Westworld (2016-present), for which she won a Critics' Choice Award and earned Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations. Wood also voiced Queen Iduna in the Disney animated fantasy film Frozen II (2019).
Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore, is an actress, director, and acting coach, who converted to Judaism.[4][5] Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a locally-prominent actor, singer, theater director, and playwright from a Christian family; he is the Executive Director of a local community theatre company called Theatre in the Park.[6][7] Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; she has two other brothers, Dana and Thomas, and a sister named Aden. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, was a Hollywood production designer.[8]
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 musical comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol when she was just a few months old.[9] Subsequently, she played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions at the theater and later starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (who played Anne Sullivan) in a theatrical production of The Miracle Worker under her father's direction.[10][11] Wood's parents separated in 1996, and later divorced, and Wood moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles County, California.[when?][7][12]
She was awarded a black belt in taekwondo when she was 12 years old.[13] She was subsequently home schooled and received her high school diploma at age 15.[14]
Wood began her career appearing in several made-for-television films from 1994 onward,[15] also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic. After a one-season role on the television drama Profiler,[16] Wood was cast in the supporting role of Jessie Sammler on the television show Once and Again.[17]
Wood's first major screen role was in the low-budget 1997 film Digging to China, which also starred Kevin Bacon, Cathy Moriarty, and Mary Stuart Masterson. The film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.[18] 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."[7] That same year she also had a role in Practical Magic, a fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.[19]
Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2001'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.[20] That same year, Wood played a supporting role in the Andrew Niccol-directed science fiction satirical drama film, Simone, 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 Thirteens 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.[21] 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, followed the same year, as well as a role in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Got Murder?".
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.[7] 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 women in media and society, Wood played Kimberly Joyce, a manipulative, 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."[22]
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."[23] Wood has commented on her choice of sexually themed roles, saying that she is not aiming for the "shock factor" in her film choices.[7]
In 2005, Wood starred in the music videos for Bright Eyes' "At the Bottom of Everything"[24] and Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends".[25]
In September 2006, Wood received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent."[26] 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."[7]
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 had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival,[27] 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".[28]
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).[29] 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."[30] One critic wrote that "Wood brings much-needed emotional depth."[31] 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.[32]
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".[33] Wood stated that she intended the film to be the last one in which she played a teenager.[34]
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, 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."[35]
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.[36] She later expressed regret for taking the role and that she would not work with Allen again.[37] 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.[38]
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.[39] 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.[40] She portrayed the title character's daughter in the 2011 HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.[41]
Wood played Gabi in the 2013 psychological romantic thriller film Charlie Countryman with Shia LaBeouf and Rupert Grint.[42] She voiced Marianne in the 2015 film Strange Magic. She was featured with Chris Evans in a 2016 ad for Gucci Guilty Eau fragrances.[43]
Since 2016, Wood has starred as sentient android Dolores Abernathy in the HBO science fiction Western series Westworld. Her performance has been praised as "spectacular",[44] "tour-de-force, turn-on-a-dime",[45] as well as "a tremendous technical achievement".[46]
In August 2019, Wood announced on Twitter and D23 Expo that she was cast to voice Queen Iduna in Frozen II.[47][48] The film was released in November 2019 to commercial success.[49]
In 2012, Wood recorded "I'd Have You Anytime" which is on the fourth CD of Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, a compilation production for the benefit of the organization.[50] She performed as electro-pop duo, Rebel and a Basketcase, with multi-instrumentalist Zach Villa in 2016.[51][52][53] The duo disbanded in August 2017.[54] Wood is one-half of cover band Evan + Zane, which she formed with guitarist/singer-songwriter Zane Carney in 2018.[55][56]
Wood appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2019 when "Show Yourself", the duet she sang alongside Idina Menzel from the Frozen II soundtrack, debuted on the chart at number 99.[57] The song peaked at number 70.[58]
Wood wrote the Phoenix Act domestic violence bill which was passed into law in California in 2019.[59] The bill increased the statute of limitations on domestic violence felonies from three to five years; it also requires police officers to have additional training on intimate partner violence.
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Wood and others told the stories of the people killed there.[60][61]
In 2012, she denied belonging to any religion, stating, "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."[62]
Wood began dating English actor Jamie Bell for a year in 2005 after they met at the Sundance Film Festival. Wood was aware of the false claims that they had first met while co-starring in the music video for Green Day's song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and has stated they were "already dating and very much in love by that point."[63]
In January 2007, Wood's relationship with Marilyn Manson became public.[64] She is the inspiration behind Manson's song "Heart-Shaped Glasses", and appeared in the song's music video.[34] In January 2010 the couple was engaged to be married.[65] They ended their engagement seven months later.[66]
In 2011, Wood disclosed that she is bisexual via Twitter,[67][68] and discussed her sexuality in an interview with Esquire, saying, "I'm up for anything. Meet a nice guy, meet a nice girl..."[69] The same year Wood rekindled her relationship with Bell, five years after they first broke up.[70] They were married in a small ceremony on October 30, 2012,[71] and have one son, born on July 29, 2013.[72] Wood had a home birth with her son, and publicly thanked Ricki Lake, creator of the documentary The Business of Being Born, for inspiring her decision.[73] In May 2014, Wood and Bell announced that they had separated after 19 months of marriage.[74]
By 2017, Wood was in a relationship with her Rebel and a Basketcase bandmate, Zach Villa.[75] They were engaged in January 2017 but they called off the engagement in September 2017.[76][77]
In 2016, Wood told a Rolling Stone reporter that she had been raped twice "many years ago", once by a "significant other" and another time by a "bar owner". She stated that she still suffered from these experiences, but that she did not "believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer," and that she was recalling her past to help other survivors of domestic abuse.[78][79] In February 2018, Wood testified before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations as a domestic violence and rape survivor.[80] It was speculated by multiple media organizations that her abuser was Marilyn Manson, whom she was in a relationship with between 2006 and 2010. Manson refused to comment on the rumors,[81] although Wood has on several occasions "categorically denied" that Manson was her abuser, describing their relationship as "loving and healthy".[82] A representative for Manson released a statement saying: "Unfortunately, we live in a time where people believe what they read on the Internet, and feel free to say what they want with no actual evidence. The effects can be catastrophic and promoting non fact based information is wholly irresponsible."[83]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | Digging to China | Harriet Frankovitz | |
1998 | Practical Magic | Kylie Owens | |
1998 | Detour | Daniella Rogers | |
2001 | Little Secrets | Emily Lindstrom | |
2002 | Simone | Lainey Christian | |
2003 | Thirteen | Tracy Louise Freeland | |
2003 | The Missing | Lily Gilkeson | |
2005 | Pretty Persuasion | Kimberly Joyce | |
2005 | The Upside of Anger | Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer | |
2005 | Down in the Valley | October "Tobe" | |
2006 | Asterix and the Vikings | Abba (voice) | English version |
2006 | Shark Bait | Cordelia (voice) | |
2006 | Running with Scissors | Natalie Finch | |
2007 | King of California | Miranda | |
2007 | The Life Before Her Eyes | Young Diana McFee | |
2007 | Battle for Terra | Mala (voice) | |
2007 | Across the Universe | Lucy Carrigan | |
2008 | The Wrestler | Stephanie Ramzinski | |
2009 | Whatever Works | Melodie St. Ann Celestine | |
2010 | The Conspirator | Anna Surratt | |
2011 | The Ides of March | Molly Stearns | |
2013 | Charlie Countryman | Gabi Ibanescu | |
2013 | A Case of You | Birdie Hazel | |
2014 | Barefoot | Daisy Kensington | |
2015 | Strange Magic | Marianne (voice) | |
2015 | Into the Forest | Eva | |
2017 | Allure | Laura Drake | |
2018 | Flavors of Youth | Yi Lin (voice) | Segment: "Chiisana Fashion Show" English version |
2019 | Frozen II | Queen Iduna (voice) | |
2020 | Kajillionaire | Old Dolio Dyne | |
2020 | Viena and the Fantomes | Susi |
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 | A Father for Charlie | Tessa | Television film |
1995 | Death in Small Doses | Anna | Television film |
1995-96 | American Gothic | Rose Russell | 3 episodes |
1997 | Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story | Jaime Dudney - Age 8 | Television film |
1998-99 | Profiler | Chloe Waters | 6 episodes |
1999 | Down Will Come Baby | Robin Garr | Television film |
1999-2002 | Once and Again | Jessie Sammler | Main cast; 55 episodes |
2000 | Touched by an Angel | Sarah Radcliff | Episode: "Pandora's Box" |
2002 | The West Wing | Hogan Cregg | Episode: "The Black Vera Wang" |
2003 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Nora Easton | Episode: "Got Murder?" |
2009-11 | True Blood | Sophie-Anne Leclerq | 8 episodes |
2011 | Mildred Pierce | Veda Pierce | Miniseries; 2 episodes |
2013 | Robot Chicken | Girl / Mother (voice) | Episode: "Botched Jewel Heist" |
2015 | Doll & Em | Evan | 5 episodes |
2016-present | Westworld | Dolores Abernathy | Main role; 3 seasons |
2018-19 | Drunk History | Various | 2 episodes |
2019 | What We Do in the Shadows | Evan the Immortal | Episode: "The Trial" |
Year | Title | Singer | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | "Wake Me Up When September Ends" | Green Day | [84] |
2005 | "At the Bottom of Everything" | Bright Eyes | [85] |
2007 | "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" | Marilyn Manson | [86] |
2010 | "Love Me Chase Me" | Carney | |
2012 | "I'd Have You Anytime" | herself | [50] |
2015 | "Can't Deny My Love" | Brandon Flowers | [87] |
2019 | "Uneventful Days" | Beck | |
2020 | "Can I Be Your Friend ft. Evan Rachel Wood" | Chevy Mustang | [88] |
Year | Work | Award | Category | Award | Ref(s) |
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1999 | Practical Magic | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film: Supporting Young Actress | Nominated | |
Down Will Come Baby | YoungStar Awards | Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Mini: Series/Made for TV Film | Nominated | ||
2000 | Profiler | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a TV Drama Series: Supporting Young Actress | Nominated | |
Once and Again | YoungStar Awards | Best Young Actress/Performance in a Drama TV Series | Nominated | ||
2001 | Young Artist Awards | Best Ensemble in a TV Series (Drama or Comedy) | Won | ||
2002 | Little Secrets | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress | Nominated | |
2003 | The Missing | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress | Nominated | |
Thirteen | Bratislava International Film Festival | Special Mention Award | Won | ||
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actress | Nominated | |||
2004 | Las Vegas Film Critics Society | Youth in Film | Won | ||
Phoenix Film Critics Society | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Nominated | |||
Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role: Female | Nominated | ||||
Breakthrough Performance: On Screen | Won | ||||
Prism Awards | Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film | Won | |||
Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress | Nominated | |||
Satellite Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama | Nominated | |||
MTV Movie Awards | Breakthrough Female Performance | Nominated | |||
Broadcast Film Critics Association | Best Young Actor/Actress | Nominated | |||
Golden Globe Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama | Nominated | |||
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role | Nominated | |||
2008 | The Wrestler | Utah Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Performance by an Actress | Nominated | |
2011 | Mildred Pierce | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie | Nominated | |
Satellite Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television | Nominated | |||
2012 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television | Nominated | ||
The Ides of March | Broadcast Film Critics Association | Best Acting Ensemble | Nominated | ||
Central Ohio Film Critics Association | Best Ensemble | Nominated | |||
2016 | Westworld | Critics' Choice Television Award | Best Actress in a Drama Series | Won | |
2017 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress - Television Series Drama | Won | ||
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress - Television Series Drama | Nominated | |||
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | |||
Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress on a Television Series | Nominated | |||
Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Nominated | |||
Herself | HRC North Carolina Gala | HRC Visibility Award[89] | Won | ||
2018 | Westworld | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Nominated |