Date of Birth

25 December 1989, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

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.

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 Alice in Wonderland (2010).

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 Alice in Wonderland (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. [2014]
• Mia stated on Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014) that her real birthday is not October 14, 1989, as shown all over the Internet. It is her "fake" birthday and when people contact her on this date, she knows that they do not know her.
• Worked alongside several animals on the set of Tracks (2013). She had to handpick one snake, among a selection of seven, that she wanted to share scenes with. Also, she was given three days in a "camel boot camp", where one of the instructors was Robyn Davidson herself, the woman she portrays in the film.
• According to Nicole Kidman, Wasikowska was always reading between takes on the set of Stoker (2013), including the works of Anton Chekhov, David Mamet and Tennessee Williams.
• Was originally cast in both Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Carol (2015).
• Director Chan-wook Park, her director of Stoker (2013), first noticed her when he saw her in the zombie short film I Love Sarah Jane (2008).
• Replaced Emma Stone in Crimson Peak (2015),.
• She sent in an audition for the role of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). The role eventually went to Emma Stone.
• She was among the actresses considered for the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) before Rooney Mara was cast.

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 In Treatment (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.
• [When asked about whether she can speak Polish.] Not very well. I can probably understand more than I could say, a few years ago I could say more Polish words.