birthdays: Mia Wasikowska

. 14 October_

Mia Wasikowska

(26th anniversary)

14 October 1989

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

5' 4" (1,63 m)

Known for Alice Kingsleigh in "Alice in Wonderland". At age nine, Mia took ballet classes with dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. However, an injury prevented this from happening and she quit at age fourteen. Mia turned to acting, having been excited by European and Australian cinema. She was attending Canberra High School, but left to pursue her career as an actor.

She had just turned 15 when she landed the role of Lilya in Suburban Mayhem (2006). Her breakthrough role came when she was cast as Alice in Tim Burton's Alicia en el país de las maravillas (2010).

Mia is an Australian actress, born and raised in the country's capital, Canberra. She is the daughter of photographers Marzena Wasikowska and John Reid. Her mother is Polish and her father is an Australian of British ancestry. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. At age eight, her family moved to Poland for a year. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Kad

Trivia

Studied ballet while growing up.

One of Variety magazine's Top Ten Actors to watch (2008).

Last name pronounced "vash-i-kovska".

Completed school via the Karabar High School Distance Education Centre, a form of correspondence school based in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia, just outside of Canberra, so that she could continue acting while still in High School.

Has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai.

Tied with Alicia en el país de las maravillas (2010) co-star Johnny Depp as the second highest-grossing actor of 2010, behind Leonardo DiCaprio.

Good friends with Jamie Bell.

Her father, John Reid, is Australian-born, and has British Isles ancestry. Her mother, Marzena Wasikowska, is Polish.

Resides in Sydney, Australia.

Personal Quotes
I just wanted to try a different type of performance - ballet is more an image of perfection, and film can show a grittier side. Sometimes it's the more realistic topic of real life that really intrigues me.

When I decided to pursue acting at 15, I heard that you had to have an agent to do film and television, so I did a Google search for acting agencies in Sydney. I hounded one to take me on and started auditioning. I did some films in Australia, and then I started working in America on En terapia (2008) when I was 17.

[on Jane Eyre (2011)] The challenge is that the book, start to finish, is Jane Eyre's internal monologue - everything we know is because of what we're hearing directly from her. So my concern was 'How do we keep that intensity?' I was excited about seeing how we could portray all that's going on inside, all that she's observing and feeling, thinking.

What I like about film is it explores imperfections. That was something that really attracted me.

I really love doing things that are different and challenge me in different ways. And I think to remain interested and excited by acting it's really great to have such diverse opportunities, and I feel really lucky that I've been able to do that so far.

It's never been about the blockbusters and making a huge ton of money. It's always been about wanting to do projects about the things that I think are important to be out there, because there's a lot of stuff that probably doesn't need to be.

My earliest childhood memory is walking down the corridor with my sister Jess in the middle of the night to see my brother Kai being born in the living room.

It's so unsatisfying to play a nice, sweet girl. It's so dreadfully boring and almost painful! I like to play characters who have their own fire.

I didn't have a typical teenagehood so I have a lot of repressed rebellious teen left over. Every now and then I'll act out in some unusual way.

Fourteen is that wonderful time in your life when you feel such extremes of emotions, you can feel the most incredible elation. It's when everything is still possible. It was this little adventure for me.

My mom remembers a period when I locked myself in my room and did research and made phone calls and wrote letters to try to get an agent.

I need the consistency of one place and people and friends. But I'll probably end up being the pregnant 30-year-old in the back of the class at university one day.

I think I have a reputation for being quite shy, but I don't think I'm too shy. I guess I lived in a bit of a fantasy space in my mind.

I have this funny thing that, if war breaks out, or if anything catastrophic goes down, I want to know that I can walk home.