Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2555
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Anna Paquin represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Anna is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Anna Paquin appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Anna. Tell It to the Bees is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for adventure, drama, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Stephen Moyer, Jon Erwin, Peter Sohn and others, Anna Paquin helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Tell It to the Bees (2019) as Jean Markham · X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) as Rogue · The Piano (1993) as Flora McGrath
Career snapshot
Ranked #2555 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1993–2023
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Tell It to the Bees
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Most frequent director
Bryan Singer
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Bryan Singer
Most common genre
Drama
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
6.9 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. She's All That, Amistad, The Piano — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.9
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. She's All That, Amistad, The Piano.
Most productive era
2000s
7 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.22 films | 6.93 films | 6.33 films | 5.93 films |
| Action | — | 6.83 films | 7.51 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.31 film | — | — |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | 6.72 films | — | — |
| Crime | — | 6.82 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.82 films | — | 6.22 films | — |
| Horror | — | — | 6.51 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1993The Piano
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Flora McGrath.
Highest rated performance
2014X-Men: Days of Future Past
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2023True Spirit
The current state of the argument, as Julie Watson.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
20 of 20 films
as Brenda Meoni/Brenda Warner
Directed by Jon Erwin
as Flora McGrath
Directed by Jane Campion
as Rogue
Directed by Bryan Singer
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Jean Markham
Tell It to the Bees (2019)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jean Markham gives Anna Paquin a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Brenda Meoni/Brenda Warner
American Underdog (2021)
Performance score7.5
American Underdog asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Brenda Meoni/Brenda Warner is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Flora McGrath
The Piano (1993)
Performance score7.5
The Piano asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Flora McGrath is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Mary D'Annuzio
25th Hour (2002)
Performance score7.4
25th Hour asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mary D'Annuzio is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Jean Markham
Start here. Tell It to the Bees is the clearest statement of what Anna Paquin does — accessible, 106 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Anna at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Piano (1993)
Keeps the romance register of Tell It to the Bees but asks for a colder reading of it.
25th Hour (2002)
Keeps the drama register of The Piano but asks for a colder reading of it.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
A deliberate change of key after 25th Hour — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
American Underdog (2021)
A deliberate change of key after X-Men: Days of Future Past — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Bryan Singer
Director
3 films together
Notably X-Men: Days of Future Past
Jane Campion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Piano
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Amistad
Robert Iscove
Director
1 film together
Notably She's All That
Thomas C. Grane
Director
1 film together
Notably X-Men: The Mutant Watch
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably 25th Hour
Gregor Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Buffalo Soldiers
Noah Baumbach
Director
1 film together
Notably The Squid and the Whale
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably X-Men: The Last Stand
Kenneth Lonergan
Director
1 film together
Notably Margaret
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably Scream 4
Peter Sohn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Good Dinosaur
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together
Notably American Underdog
Stephen Moyer
Director
1 film together
Notably A Bit of Light
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Bryan Singer
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
X-Men: Days of Future PastJane Campion
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PianoSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
25th HourJon Erwin
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
American UnderdogNoah Baumbach
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Squid and the WhaleSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmistadPeter Sohn
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Good DinosaurThomas C. Grane
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
X-Men: The Mutant WatchWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scream 4Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
X-Men: The Last StandKenneth Lonergan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MargaretGregor Jordan
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Buffalo SoldiersRobert Iscove
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She's All ThatStephen Moyer
Director
1 film together · 3.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Bit of LightSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
X-Men: Days of Future Past
as Rogue
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Tell It to the Bees
as Jean Markham
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Piano
as Flora McGrath
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Scream 4
as Rachel
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Tell It to the Bees
as Jean Markham
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Anna Paquin has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Amistad
as Queen Isabella
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
25th Hour
as Mary D'Annuzio
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
True Spirit
as Julie Watson
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Amistad
as Queen Isabella
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
X-Men: Days of Future Past
as Rogue
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
X-Men: Days of Future Past
as Rogue
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Buffalo Soldiers
as Robyn Lee
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
X-Men: The Last Stand
as Marie / Rogue
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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