Anna Paquin is on the telephone from Winnipeg, Canada, to talk about her latest film, “X-Men: The Last Stand.” But she’s calling from the set of “Blue State,”
a dark comedy that she’s starring in and, with her brother Andrew, co-producing. Casually mention “Blue State,” and the normally soft-spoken, low-key actress turns downright effusive.
“It’s going really, really well,” she says. “We’re pretty much at the halfway point right now. … I love everyone I’m working with, and it’s very exciting.
“It’s about a die-hard Democrat (Breckin Meyer) who makes a drunken promise to move to Canada if Bush gets re-
elected,” Paquin says. “Bush is re-elected, and this guy’s cajoled into following through with the promise and heads up north with a traveling companion he finds via a message-
board type of thing. That companion turns out to be me, who apparently shares his political, moral and social beliefs and is a girl, which kind of eclipses his judgment.
“It’s about the two of them and their various funny adventures,” she concludes. “I guess you could call it a romantic black comedy, but it’s not a romantic comedy in the usual way.”
After nearly 15 years in the business, the 23-year-old Paquin was ready to see what she could do with whatever fame, clout and bankability she had attained by winning an Oscar for “The Piano” (1993) and co-starring in the comic-book-based blockbusters “X-Men” (2000) and “X2: X-Men United” (2003). She wanted to be the decision maker for a change. After all, she says, it’s nice when interesting scripts land in an actress’ lap, but even nicer when she develops the scripts, raises the financing and controls all the creative elements.
“I like that you can pick whom you want to work with and that you can be so much more involved,” she says. “I love my job. I love acting more than anything. And I’ve really, really enjoyed being more involved in the behind-the-scenes process too.”
Paquin returns to more familiar territory next Friday in “X-Men: The Last Stand,” reprising her role as Rogue, a mutant with the ability to suck the life force from anyone she touches. This time, amid the usual mutant-vs.-mutant battles, Rogue finds herself tempted when the government announces the introduction of a “cure” for mutation.
“The Last Stand” reunites Paquin with fellow “X-Men” veterans Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Halle Berry as Storm, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, James Marsden as Cyclops, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Aaron Stanford as Pyro and Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier.
“Like all of the movies,” Paquin says, “it doesn’t really focus on one character. Because there are so many characters, it can’t focus on one person. That’s part of what’s great about the ‘X-Men’ movies, that there’s so much happening at the same time.”
Paquin will have to fight hard for an audience when it comes time to release “Blue State.” By contrast “X-Men: The Last Stand” has a built-in audience and good buzz surrounding it, not to mention a major studio working overtime to ensure the film’s success.
And then there are all the toys.
“I think it’s just a really, really awesome thing that people want to see something you’re doing before you’ve even finished it,” Paquin says. “The second we finished ‘X-2,’ people were asking, ‘When is “X-3” coming out?’ I was like, ‘We haven’t even made it yet.’ It’s very flattering and exciting.
“At the same time it’s a little weird,” the actress concedes. “It’s weird that there are these little 6-inch action figures of me all around the world that kids are playing with.”
Born in Canada, raised in New Zealand and currently living in New York, Paquin continues to follow the path she took after “The Piano,” alternating between independent features and studio projects. She’s amassed diverse credits that range from “Fly Away Home” (1996) to “Amistad” (1999), from “A Walk on the Moon” (1999) to “Almost Famous” (2000) and from the “X-Men” adventures to “The Squid and the Whale” (2005) and “Margaret,” an upcoming Kenneth Lonergan drama in which she plays the lead character opposite Matthew Broderick, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo.
“I feel like I haven’t really done a great number of big films, the gigantic ‘X-Men’ trilogy excluded,” Paquin says. “Even most of the films that are technically studio films have been smaller in size. And, for whatever reason, the more character-driven, intense stuff tends to be done in a smaller forum, I guess because it’s not so much of a guarantee that hundreds of thousands of people are definitely going to go to see it opening weekend.
“But I’ve never really cared even slightly about the size of a film,” she says. “”It’s really not about where or what, and it’s not even about the size of the character. If you can do something really interesting with awesome people, the rest of it doesn’t really matter.”