Industry Sexism Helped Anna Paquin Find Her ‘DINOSAUR’-Sized Roar

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

Anna Paquin has been working steadily since the young age of nine. Where most nine-year-old girls are thinking about sleepovers and Barbie dolls, Paquin was busy winning Oscar gold for her very first acting gig in director Jane Campion’s THE PIANO. Since then, she’s been working steadily appearing in a handful of the X-MEN movies and, most recently, starring as “Sookie Stackhouse” on TRUE BLOOD. Now, she’s taken her talents to voicing “Ramsey,” a badass Tyrannosaurus Rex with a talent for herding in THE GOOD DINOSAUR.

Paquin was immediately on board when she was first approached.

“It’s Pixar. That was it – literally. I’ve seen everything they’ve done. My husband [Stephen Moyer] and I have been talking like, ‘How do we get on the radar for that stuff?’ This just kinda came my way. I was so flattered.”

Being a T-Rex was also a selling point.

“We’re definitely bigger, badder, cooler and tougher – so there’s that.”

Paquin admits finding her character’s roar came easily as she was able to tap into some real world frustrations most actresses have faced.

“My roar came very naturally. I didn’t need much encouraging. I’d say 24 years of being a girl/ woman in the industry and never getting, for the most part, to play girlie girls. Trust me. There were several decades worth of roar built up. I mean…look, TRUE BLOOD was awesome because she was kinda badass but in a very different way and was still girlie. She’s [Ramsey] one of the dudes. There’s nothing intrinsically unfeminine about that and I think that’s really great. That’s the kind of stuff that I would have loved to have watched growing up – if I was allowed to watch movies when I was a kid.”

And she’s got nothing but respect and love for her animated character whose back story includes chewing off part of her own tail in order to survive.

“What a badass bitch, right?!”

Paquin also found THE GOOD DINOSAUR’s tale to be a resonant one.

“I liked the message that the struggles that are hard and the setbacks in your life can also be the things that make you stronger and reach higher and be a better, stronger person. And eventually return the favor to other people.”

THE GOOD DINOSAUR opens on November 25. Read our review here.