Mia Wasikowska

In July 2008, after a lengthy search, Wasikowska was cast as the eponymous heroine in Tim Burton's retelling of Alice in Wonderland, alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. She sent a videotaped audition to casting directors in London, and her first live reading in Los Angeles occurred on the same day as her Evening Sun audition. After three more auditions in London – which saw her flying back and forth from Australia to England in just as many weeks – she was awarded the role. Burton cited Wasikowska's "old-soul quality" as a catalyst in casting her: "Because you’re witnessing this whole thing through her eyes, it needed somebody who can subtly portray that." Wasikowska portrayed a nineteen-year-old Alice returning to Wonderland for the first time since her youth after escaping an unwanted marriage proposal. Her affinity for the character played a part in her desire for the role, as she had read the Lewis Carroll books as a child and was a fan of Jan Švankmajer's 1988 stop-motion film Alice. She also saw Burton's version of the classic story as a chance to explore a deeper characterization of Alice, to whom she felt young women her age could relate, for which she drew on personal experiences. "Alice has a certain discomfort within herself, within society and among her peers; I have definitely felt similarly about all of those things, so I could really understand her not fitting in. Read Less

Wasikowska continues to make her home in Canberra with her family between projects. When asked by PopEater in March 2011 if she was treated like a celebrity at home, she replied, "No, I still take the rubbish out and empty the dishwasher. It's good going back for that reason." Read Less

The portrayal of her character, a terminally ill sixteen-year-old, required her to crop her long hair. Read Less

From December 2010 to February 2011, Wasikowska filmed Rodrigo Garcia's Albert Nobbs, for which she was a last-minute replacement for Amanda Seyfried. Read Less

Later in the year, she filmed the lead in Park Chan-wook's English-language debut, Stoker, from 31 August to 23 October. Lawless will be released in 2012 while Stoker will premiere in 2013. Read Less