She began acting in the 1990s, appearing in several television series, including Once and Again (1999–2002). She expanded to films at the age of nine in Digging to China (1997) and garnered praise for her Golden Globe-nominated role as a troubled teenager in the drama film Thirteen (2003). After starring in several independent films, Wood appeared in more mainstream films, including The Wrestler (2008), Whatever Works (2009), and The Ides of March (2011).
Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 7, 1987.[1] Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore, is an actress, director, and acting coach.[2] Her father, Ira David Wood III, is an actor, theater director and playwright prominent in Raleigh, where he is the co-founder and executive director of a community theatre company called Theatre in the Park.[3][4] Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; she has two other brothers, Dana and Thomas, and a sister named Aden. Her paternal aunt, Carol Winstead Wood, was a production designer in Hollywood.[5]
Of having a traditionally masculine given name, Wood has said: "My mother had a dream that she was gonna have a daughter with blond hair and blue eyes named Evan, so that was just my name."[6]
Wood was actively involved in Theatre in the Park while growing up, including an appearance in the 1987 production of her father's musical comedy adaptation of A Christmas Carol when she was just a few months old.[5][7] She subsequently played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions there, and starred as Helen Keller alongside her mother (as Anne Sullivan) in The Miracle Worker, under her father's direction.[8][9]
From 1999 to 2002, Wood was a regular on the ABC television family drama Once and Again in the role of Jessie Sammler. Her character dealt with her parents' divorce, anorexia, and falling in love with her best friend Katie, played by Mischa Barton,[16] in what became the first teen lesbian pairing on network television.[17] For her performance as Jessie, Wood was nominated for the YoungStar Award for Best Young Actress,[18] and won Best Ensemble in a TV Series along with her co-stars Julia Whelan and Meredith Deane, at the 22nd Young Artist Awards.[19]
2001–2005: Breakthrough
Wood made her teenage debut as a leading film actress in 2001's Little Secrets, directed by Blair Treu, where she played 14-year-old aspiring concert violinist Emily Lindstrom. For that role, she was nominated for Best Leading Young Actress at the 24th Young Artist Awards.[20] Wood next played a supporting role in Andrew Niccol's 2002 satirical science fiction film Simone, which starred Al Pacino. That same year, Wood was recognized as One to Watch at the Young Hollywood Awards.[21]
Wood's breakout movie role followed with Catherine Hardwicke's 2003 film Thirteen. She starred as Tracy Louise Freeland, a young teen who sinks into a downward spiral of hard drugs, sex, and petty crime. Her performance garnered critical acclaim, earning her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Lead Actress.[5][22] During the time of Thirteen's release, Wood was featured on the cover of Vogue, with the magazine naming her as one of the "It Girls" of Hollywood.[5] She similarly appeared, along with eight other teen actresses, on the cover of Vanity Fair's Young Hollywood issue in July 2003.[23] A supporting role opposite Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones in Ron Howard's The Missing, in which she played the kidnapped daughter Lilly Gilkeson, followed the same year, earning her a nomination for Best Leading Young Actress at the 25th Young Artist Awards.[24]
In 2005, Wood appeared opposite Kevin Costner and Joan Allen in the Mike Binder-directed The Upside of Anger, a well-reviewed film in which Wood played Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer, one of four sisters dealing with their father's absence. Her character also narrated the film.[4] Wood's next two starring roles were in dark independent films. In the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee Pretty Persuasion, a black comedy focusing on the themes of sexual harassment in schools and attitudes about women in media and society, Wood played Kimberly Joyce, a manipulative, sexually active high-schooler. One critic commented, "Wood does flip cynicism with such precise, easy rhythms and with such obvious pleasure in naughtiness that she's impossible to hate."[25]David Jacobson's neo-westernDown in the Valley premiered later that year, in which Wood's character, Tobe, falls in love with an older man, played by Edward Norton, a cowboy who is at odds with modern society. Of her performance, it was written that "Wood conveys every bit of the adamant certainty and aching vulnerability inherent in late adolescence."[26] Wood has commented on her sexually-themed roles, saying that she is not aiming for the "shock factor" in her film choices.[4] Also in 2005, Wood starred in the music videos for Bright Eyes' "At the Bottom of Everything" and Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends".[5]
By 2006, Wood was described by The Guardian as being "one of the best actresses of her generation."[4] Later that year, she received the Spotlight Award for Emerging Talent at Premiere magazine's annual Women in Hollywood gala.[27] Also in 2006, Wood appeared with an all-star ensemble cast as Natalie Finch in the comedy-drama film Running with Scissors.[28] Directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Annette Bening, the film was based on the memoir by Augusten Burroughs, which is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs' childhood in a dysfunctional family.
Wood had roles in two films released in September 2007. King of California, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival,[29] tells the story of a bipolar jazz musician (Michael Douglas) and his long-suffering teenage daughter, Miranda (Wood), who are reunited after his two-year stay in a mental institution and who embark on a quixotic search for Spanish treasure. One review praised Wood's performance as "excellent."[30] The second film was Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's jukebox musical set to the songs of the Beatles that was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Musical or Comedy. Set during the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960s, Wood played Lucy, an American teen who develops a relationship with her brother's British friend Jude (Jim Sturgess).[31] The film featured her singing musical numbers, and she has described the role as her favorite.[32] One critic wrote that "Wood brings much-needed emotional depth."[33]
Wood provided the voice of an alien named Mala in Battle for Terra, a 2007 animated science fiction film about a peaceful alien planet that faces destruction from colonization by the displaced remainder of the human race.[31] The film won the 2008 Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The film was also screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where she received an award at the Midnight Awards.[34] In 2007, Wood also starred in the Vadim Perelman-directed The Life Before Her Eyes, based on the Laura Kasischke novel of the same name, about the friendship of two teens of opposite character who are involved in a Columbine-like shooting incident at their school and are forced to make an impossible choice. Wood played the younger version of Uma Thurman's character, Diana. One critic cited her performance as "hands-down extraordinary."[35] Wood stated that she intended the film to be the last one in which she played a teenager.[36]
The following year, she co-starred in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, about Randy "Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a professional wrestler from the 1980s who is forced to retire after a heart attack threatens to kill him the next time he wrestles. Wood played Stephanie, Robinson's estranged daughter. Of her performance, one critic wrote, "Once her character stops stonewalling her father and hears him out, Wood provides a fine foil for Rourke in their turbulent scenes together."[37]
Wood co-starred in Woody Allen's Whatever Works, which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, playing the young wife of Larry David's character.[38] She later expressed regret for taking the role and that she would not work with Allen again.[39] In May 2009, she played Juliet in six fundraising performances of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Theater In The Park; the production was directed by her brother Ira, who also starred.[40] That same year, Wood was named Young Hollywood Superstar at the Young Hollywood Awards.[41]
In late 2012 she began filming 10 Things I Hate About Life, a followup to the hit 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You in which she and Thomas McDonell played a couple who meet while attempting suicide. Filming was suspended when she became pregnant with her son; when it resumed again in 2013 Wood left the production, claiming she had not been paid beyond her $300,000 advance since the production company had not been able to raise enough money to pay her for the filming already completed. In response they sued her for $30 million.[46]
In 2016, Wood began starring as sentient android Dolores Abernathy in the HBO science fiction Western series Westworld. Her performance was praised as "spectacular",[51] "tour-de-force, turn-on-a-dime",[52] as well as "a tremendous technical achievement".[53]
In 2012, Wood recorded "I'd Have You Anytime" which is on the fourth CD of Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, a compilation production for the benefit of the organization.[62] She performed as electro-pop duo, Rebel and a Basketcase, with multi-instrumentalist Zach Villa in 2016.[63][64][65] The duo disbanded in August 2017.[66] Wood is one-half of cover band Evan + Zane, which she formed with guitarist/singer-songwriter Zane Carney in 2018.[67][68] Evan + Zane put out their first CD, called Dreams, in December 2022.
Wood has said, "My mother is Jewish and I was raised with the religion."[81] In 2012, she stated, "I believe in God but I am not religious. I am spiritual. My definition of God isn't in any religion. It's very personal."[82]
In 2011, Wood publicly disclosed that she is bisexual,[87][88] and rekindled her relationship with Jamie Bell.[89] They were married in October 2012[90] and had a son in July 2013.[91] In May 2014, they announced their separation.[92] By 2015, Wood was in a relationship with her bandmate Zach Villa.[93] They were engaged in January 2017, but called it off that September.[94][95] Starting in 2020, Wood and Bell were in dispute over the custody of their son.[96] Bell said he was deprived of contact with him when Wood moved from Los Angeles to Nashville; Wood claimed she did this to protect the child from former fiancé Marilyn Manson.[97] Bell argued in court that Wood's "story defies credibility", and accused her of "withholding our son from me for other reasons of her own invention."[98] In May 2023, the two agreed the child would live primarily with Bell in Los Angeles, with Wood having visitation for "one extended weekend per month," and certain holidays.[99]
In 2020, Wood wrote a message on Twitter regarding the death of Kobe Bryant, describing Bryant as a "rapist",[100][101] a reference to his 2003 sexual assault case.[102] Many, including Bryant's widow, criticized Wood for the comment,[103] and Wood deleted her Twitter account soon after.[102]
In 2016, Wood told a Rolling Stone reporter she had been raped twice years earlier, once by a "significant other".[104][105][106] In February 2021, Wood named Manson as her alleged abuser on Instagram,[107] where four other women made similar allegations against him.[108] Sixteen women have made accusations against Manson, and four have sued him for sexual assault.[109] The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said they were investigating Manson due to allegations of domestic violence.[110] In September 2022, the LACSD presented the report of their 19-month investigation on Manson to Los Angeles County district attorneyGeorge Gascón.[111] Gascón called the file "partial", and said more evidence was needed in order to file charges.[112][113]
In March 2022, HBO released the docuseriesPhoenix Rising, focusing on these allegations and the circumstances that led Wood, who was 18 at the time, to enter a relationship with the then-37-year-old Manson.[114] That month, Manson filed a lawsuit against Wood for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, violations of the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, as well as impersonation of an FBI agent and falsifying federal documents.[115] In May 2023, a judge dismissed a part of the lawsuit that involved an FBI letter, which Wood denied forging, and another that alleged Wood and another woman named as a defendant, Illma Gore, created a checklist for other women to use to accuse Manson of abuse.[116]
^ abcdefgJohnson, Adrienne M. (September 19, 1999). "Raleigh's Evan Wood lands a role in a show that has critics talking". The News & Observer. pp. 1G, 9G.
^Pilcher, Bradford R. (September 10, 2006). "Evan Rachel Wood". American Jewish Life Magazine. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2007.
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