A Mia Moment

WOW THIS GAL IS AN INSPIRATION!

Mia Wasikowska

is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut on the Australian television drama All Saints in 2004, followed by her feature film debut in Suburban Mayhem (2006) She gained worldwide prominence in 2010 after starring as Alice in Tim Burton's $1 billion-grossing Alice in Wonderland and appearing in the comedy-drama film The Kids Are All Right, a role for which she received the Hollywood Awards Breakthrough Actress Award.

In 2011, Wasikowska portrayed the title character in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre, and starred in Gus Van Sant's drama Restless and Rodrigo Garcia's drama Albert Nobbs. She also starred in John Hillcoat's crime drama Lawless (2012), Park Chan-wook's psychological thriller Stoker (2013), Richard Ayoade's critically acclaimed black comedy thriller The Double (2013), David Cronenberg's satirical drama Maps to the Stars(2014), and Guillermo del Toro's dark fantasy Crimson Peak (2015). She has received British Independent Film Award nominations for her performances in Jane Eyre and The Double, as well as a Saturn Awardnomination for Stoker and a Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for her leading performance in Tracks (2013). As a director, she received a nomination for AACTA Award for Best Direction for her work on the 2013 anthology film The Turning. Wasikowska reprised her role as Alice Kingsleigh in Alice in Wonderland's sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, which was released on 27 May 2016.

At the age of nine Wasikowska began training as a ballerina with Jackie Hallahan at the Canberra Dance Development Centre, with hopes of going professional. She began dancing en pointe at thirteen, and was training 35 hours a week in addition to attending school full-time,^] her daily routine consisting of leaving school in the early afternoon and dancing until nine o'clock at night.^[18] A spur on her heel hampered her dancing.^[19] Her passion for ballet also waned due to the increasing pressure to achieve physical perfection and her growing dissatisfaction with the industry in general, and she quit at fourteen. However, she credits ballet with improving her ability to handle her nerves in auditions.^[19]

At the same time, she had been exposed to European and Australian cinema at an early age, particularly Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours trilogy and Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. Although she was shy and averse to performing during her school years,^[15][20] she became inspired to break into acting after watching Holly Hunter in The Piano and Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence,^[21] in addition to the opportunity of exploring imperfections in film. Despite having no prior acting experience, Wasikowska looked up twelve Australian talent agencies on the Internet and contacted them all, receiving only one response; she successfully arranged a meeting following persistent callbacks.