Revision as of 22:13, 18 January 2010

Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987), is an American film, television and theater actress, and singer. Wood made her debut as a lead film actress in 2002's Little Secrets, and became well known after her Golden Globe-nominated role in Thirteen, which gained her critical praise. She has been described by The Guardian newspaper as being "wise beyond her years" and as "one of the best actresses of her generation". She is the current fiancee of Marilyn Manson.

Biography

Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to Ira David Wood III, an award-winning actor, singer, theatre director and playwright, and Sara Lynn Moore, an actress. Her brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor. She also has a half brother, Dana, from her mother's first marriage. Her aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, is a Hollywood production designer. Wood is Jewish.

Wood and her brother were actively involved in their father's theatre, Theatre In The Park, while growing up; she appeared in a production of A Christmas Carol at the theatre when she was a few months old, and later starred as Helen Keller in a production of The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.

Career

She appeared in several made-for-television films from 1994 and onwards, also playing an occasional role in the television series American Gothic. In early 1997, Wood's parents separated and later divorced, and Wood moved with her mother to her mother's native Los Angeles, where 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. 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."

Wood left regular school at the age of eleven, and was home schooled, because of bullying and difficulty with teachers, who Wood says treated her like she was "spoiled" because she was an actress. She later drew upon her experiences with bullying to portray a malicious high school student in Pretty Persuasion.

Wood subsequently appeared in a number of films catering to a teenage audience, including Little Secrets. She was set to have the leading role in the films Raise Your Voice and Mean Girls, but was unable to because of production scheduling changes. Wood's breakthrough movie role followed, with the controversial 2003 independent film Thirteen, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress - Drama. 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.

Her next two starring roles were in the dark independent films, Pretty Persuasion, in which she played a villainous, sexually active high-schooler, and Down in the Valley, in which her character engages in a sexual relationship with an older man posing as a cowboy. Wood has commented on her choice of sexually themed roles, saying that she is not aiming for the "shock factor" in her film choices, and adding that she hopes her roles "spread awareness" about the consequences of deviant behavior among teenagers, citing that she has known people who behave similarly to her film characters.

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". In September of 2006, she received Premiere magazine's "Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent".

Wood has roles in several as-yet unreleased films, including King of California, and Across the Universe, a musical directed by Julie Taymor and set in the United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam; she will perform musical numbers in the film. During August and September 2006, Wood filmed In Bloom, in which she plays a younger version of a character played by Uma Thurman.

In the summer of 2009 she will be playing the role of an over 500 year old French vampire in the second season of HBO's "True Blood".

Personal life

Wood was homeschooled due to bullying, and received her high school diploma at age fifteen. She has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys singing, having recorded the songs "Christmas Isn't Christmas Without You" and "Silver and Gold" for the School's out Christmas Album, which featured various artists. Wood is now considering taking part-time college courses, but is not yet pursuing a full-time college education.

Wood has said that her character in Across the Universe, whom she describes as an "old soul, street smart and ahead of her time", is close to her real-life personality. Wood also describes herself as being "laid back" and "not a party girl", citing her choice to stay away from what is considered a typical Hollywood lifestyle.

In 2006, Wood, who was described by The Guardian as an "Anglophile", dated her "Wake Me Up When September Ends" music video co-star, English actor Jamie Bell. She is also a friend of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In January 2007, reports emerged romantically linking Wood to shock rock star Marilyn Manson before he made public his estrangement from his wife, Dita Von Teese. Wood was allegedly a factor in the demise of their relationship. Two portraits of Wood, painted by Manson, hang in The Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art. Manson has subsequently confirmed that the two were together in a BBC Radio 1 interview with presenter Zane Lowe. Wood is the inspiration behind Manson's song "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)". On November 5, 2008, it was reported that Manson and Wood had seperated as of October 23. Manson confirmed in November 2009 that they have since resumed their relationship.

Later in 2007 Wood appeared with Manson in the music video, "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)", having simulated sex with him in the video.

Evan Rachel Wood in Heart Shaped Glasses

She has six tattoos. The letter "J" on her ankle which is in reference to former boyfriend Jamie Bell, a Beatles themed tattoo on the other ankle, a black diamond in reference to Pink Floyd and her own nickname "Crazy Diamond" and across her upper back the Edgar Allen Poe quote, "All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." She also has two Manson-related tattoos, a a black heart with a lightning bolt on her thigh - the heart represents her love for Manson and the lightning bolt in reference to David Bowie - inked on Feburary 14, 2007, and a 15 behind the ear matching Manson's, inked in January 2009.

Filmography

• Practical Magic (1998)
• Digging to China (1998)
• Down Will Come Baby (1999)
• Little Secrets (2002)
• S1m0ne (2002)
• The Missing (2003)
• Thirteen (2003)
• Pretty Persuasion (2005)
• The Upside of Anger (2005)
• Running with Scissors (2006)
• Down in the Valley (2006)
• Asterix and the Vikings (2006)
• Terra (2007)
• In Bloom (2007)
• King of California (2007)
• Across the Universe (2007)
• Bronte (2007)
• The Wrestler (2008)