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 Mira Katherine Sorvino was born on September 28, 1967 in Manhattan. She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino. Her father's family were Italian immigrants. The young Sorvino was intelligent, an avid reader and an exceptional scholar. Her father discouraged her from becoming an actor, as he knew how the industry often chews up young stars. She attended Harvard, majoring in Chinese, graduating magna cum laude in 1989, largely on the strength of her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and researched during the year spent in Beijing, which helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese.However, she showed interest in a career in acting from an early age, and moved to New York City to try her hand in the City's film industry, waitressing, auditioning and working at the Tribeca production company of Robert De Niro. She succeeded in getting a little television work in the early 1990s, but got her first film job in the independent gangster movie Amongst Friends (1993), on which she worked her way up the ladder behind the camera to eventually associate-produce the film, and, more importantly, was eventually cast as the female lead. The indie production was well-received, and Sorvino's performance attracted enough buzz to get her cast in two more movies, one a more prominent indie, Barcelona (1994), the other her first Hollywood feature, Quiz Show (1994), and her skillful performances brought her yet more attention.An exceptionally poised and articulate young woman, she may have seemed inappropriate to play a crazy hooker, but Woody Allen took the chance, and her magnificent performance as the female lead in his Mighty Aphrodite (1995) proved her range as a performer and earned her an Oscar (at the tender age of 29) for Best Supporting Actress. Since winning the Oscar, Sorvino has continued to take a wide range of roles, including another stretch as Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), co-starring with another very intelligent and skilled young actress, Ashley Judd. Forays into action and horror, such as Mimic (1997) and The Replacement Killers (1998) show that Sorvino is not above being playful in the film roles she chooses.However, what forever cemented her role in popular culture was her performance as charmingly silly California beach girl Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), in which she and co-star Lisa Kudrow utter one hilarious absurdity after another.Mira Sorvino married Christopher Backus on June 11, 2004, and the couple have four children.
Bio:
Mira Katherine Sorvino was born on September 28, 1967 in Manhattan. She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino. Her father's family were Italian immigrants. The young Sorvino was intelligent, an avid reader and an exceptional scholar. Her father discouraged her from becoming an actor, as he knew how the industry often chews up young stars. She attended Harvard, majoring in Chinese, graduating magna cum laude in 1989, largely on the strength of her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and researched during the year spent in Beijing, which helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese.However, she showed interest in a career in acting from an early age, and moved to New York City to try her hand in the City's film industry, waitressing, auditioning and working at the Tribeca production company of Robert De Niro. She succeeded in getting a little television work in the early 1990s, but got her first film job in the independent gangster movie Amongst Friends (1993), on which she worked her way up the ladder behind the camera to eventually associate-produce the film, and, more importantly, was eventually cast as the female lead. The indie production was well-received, and Sorvino's performance attracted enough buzz to get her cast in two more movies, one a more prominent indie, Barcelona (1994), the other her first Hollywood feature, Quiz Show (1994), and her skillful performances brought her yet more attention.An exceptionally poised and articulate young woman, she may have seemed inappropriate to play a crazy hooker, but Woody Allen took the chance, and her magnificent performance as the female lead in his Mighty Aphrodite (1995) proved her range as a performer and earned her an Oscar (at the tender age of 29) for Best Supporting Actress. Since winning the Oscar, Sorvino has continued to take a wide range of roles, including another stretch as Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), co-starring with another very intelligent and skilled young actress, Ashley Judd. Forays into action and horror, such as Mimic (1997) and The Replacement Killers (1998) show that Sorvino is not above being playful in the film roles she chooses.However, what forever cemented her role in popular culture was her performance as charmingly silly California beach girl Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), in which she and co-star Lisa Kudrow utter one hilarious absurdity after another.Mira Sorvino married Christopher Backus on June 11, 2004, and the couple have four children.
Tivia:
Speaks Mandarin Chinese and French fluently.Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with her Bachelor's degree in Chinese (East Asian Languages and Civilizations) (1989). Her honors thesis: "Anti-Africanism in the People's Republic of China" about the Nanjing Anti-African protests, which won the Harvard Hoopes Prize for writing.Was a founding member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, Harvard University's premier co-ed a cappella group (1985).Made her acting debut on an episode of Law & Order (1990) (which at that time starred her father, Paul Sorvino). Although her scene was deleted, she still earned a Screen Actors Guild Card for her trouble.She was considered for a role in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Sir Peter Jackson later claimed that Harvey Weinstein had smeared her by spreading false rumors that she was difficult to work with and would damage production to him to prevent her from being cast and did the same with Ashley Judd who was also considered for a role in the film.She has a beautiful singing voice. While an undergraduate at Harvard, she appeared as Dulcinea in a student production of "Man of La Mancha" at the Loeb Experimental Theatre (1986). The show was directed by her classmate Joseph Giani. Unfortunately, she came down with a cold during the one week the show ran, and performed with a mug of tea in hand.On May 1, 2018 in Los Angeles, California, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation presented "Conversations with Mira Sorvino", a career retrospective, where Mira discussed her many film and television roles. This was a private event for SAG-AFTRA members, but the Foundation videotapes and archives these interviews, and posts them on YouTube as well.Mother, with husband Christopher Backus, of four children: daughter Mattea Angel Backus (b. November 3, 2004, when Mira was 37); son Johnny Christopher King Backus (b. May 29, 2006; Mira was 39); son Holden Paul Terry Backus (b. June 22, 2009; Mira was 42); and daughter Lucia Backus (b. May 3, 2012; Mira was 45).According to Larry Cohen on the DVD commentary for The Stuff (1985), Mira Sorvino came to the set of the film to visit her father, Paul Sorvino, and was given a small role in the film. She plays one of the yellow suited "stuffies" at the plant her father's character attacks. Larry Cohen had forgotten Sorvino appeared in the film until he was talking with her and Quentin Tarantino, whom she was dating, and mentioned that he had directed her father in the film. Mira then reminded Cohen that she actually appeared in the film.Met her husband Christopher Backus at West Hollywood's Sur restaurant when he was her server. She tells everyone they met at a charades party because he is much younger than her and she didn't want people to know she was flirting with a younger man.On June 11, 2004, Mira married actor Christopher Backus in a civil service in Santa Monica, California, and then had their formal ceremony on the island of Capri in Italy. Mira is of half Italian descent, and this was to honor her Italian roots. She wore a gown designed by Giorgio Armani.Daughter of Paul Sorvino and Lorraine Davis. Stepdaughter of Dee Dee Sorvino.Attended and graduated from Dwight Englewood High School in Englewood, New Jersey.Chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1996).Was the 108th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite (1995) at The 68th Annual Academy Awards (1996) on March 25, 1996.Childhood friends with Hope Davis; they performed plays for the neighbors.Returned to work five months after giving birth to her son Holden in order to begin filming Angels Crest (2011). Also returned to work three months after giving birth to her daughter Lucia in order to begin filming Space Warriors (2013).She and her husband Christopher Backus have both guest-starred on the situation comedy Will & Grace (1998), though not in the same episode.Has appeared with Michael Rapaport in three films: Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996) and Bamboozled (2000).Older sister of Michael Sorvino and Amanda Sorvino. Cousin of Bill Sorvino.She auditioned for the role of Dorothy Boyd in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996), which went to Ren��e Zellweger.Is a huge fan of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966). Her father, Paul Sorvino, played Worf's adoptive brother Nikolai Rozhenko on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (episode "Homeward").Her jobs before acting include coat check girl, bartender, model English language paper editor in China.Was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.Mentioned in the theme song of The Adventures of George the Projectionist (2006).Is one of 25 actresses who have received an Academy Award for their performance in a comedy; hers being for Mighty Aphrodite (1995). The others in chronological order, are: Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night (1934)), Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday (1953)), Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower (1969)), Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class (1973)), Lee Grant (Shampoo (1975)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Maggie Smith (California Suite (1978)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck (1987)), Cher (Moonstruck (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King (1991)), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny (1992)), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway (1994)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)), Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets (1997)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Pen��lope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)).Is one of 22 Oscar-winning actresses to have been born in the state of New York. The others are Alice Brady, Teresa Wright, Anne Revere, Celeste Holm, Claire Trevor, Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Susan Hayward, Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Lee Grant, Beatrice Straight, Whoopi Goldberg, Mercedes Ruehl, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Connelly, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway. |
| Name: |
Mira Sorvino |
Type: |
Actress,Producer,Soundtrack (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
|
Business scope: |
Actress,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Products for sale: |
Actress,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Model rank: |
141 |
| Last update: |
2024-07-01 03:33:32 |
| Height: |
5' 9' (1.75 m) |
| Biography: |
Mira Katherine Sorvino was born on September 28, 1967 in Manhattan. She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino. Her father\'s family were Italian immigrants. The young Sorvino wa |
| Trivia: |
Speaks Mandarin Chinese and French fluently.Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with her Bachelor's degree in Chinese (East Asian Languages and Civilizations) (1989). Her honors thesis: "Anti-Africanism in the People's Republic of China" about the Nanjing Anti-African protests, which won the Harvard Hoopes Prize for writing.Was a founding member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, Harvard University's premier co-ed a cappella group (1985).Made her acting debut on an episode of Law & Order (1990) (which at that time starred her father, Paul Sorvino). Although her scene was deleted, she still earned a Screen Actors Guild Card for her trouble.She was considered for a role in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Sir Peter Jackson later claimed that Harvey Weinstein had smeared her by spreading false rumors that she was difficult to work with and would damage production to him to prevent her from being cast and did the same with Ashley Judd who was also considered for a role in the film.She has a beautiful singing voice. While an undergraduate at Harvard, she appeared as Dulcinea in a student production of "Man of La Mancha" at the Loeb Experimental Theatre (1986). The show was directed by her classmate Joseph Giani. Unfortunately, she came down with a cold during the one week the show ran, and performed with a mug of tea in hand.On May 1, 2018 in Los Angeles, California, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation presented "Conversations with Mira Sorvino", a career retrospective, where Mira discussed her many film and television roles. This was a private event for SAG-AFTRA members, but the Foundation videotapes and archives these interviews, and posts them on YouTube as well.Mother, with husband Christopher Backus, of four children: daughter Mattea Angel Backus (b. November 3, 2004, when Mira was 37); son Johnny Christopher King Backus (b. May 29, 2006; Mira was 39); son Holden Paul Terry Backus (b. June 22, 2009; Mira was 42); and daughter Lucia Backus (b. May 3, 2012; Mira was 45).According to Larry Cohen on the DVD commentary for The Stuff (1985), Mira Sorvino came to the set of the film to visit her father, Paul Sorvino, and was given a small role in the film. She plays one of the yellow suited "stuffies" at the plant her father's character attacks. Larry Cohen had forgotten Sorvino appeared in the film until he was talking with her and Quentin Tarantino, whom she was dating, and mentioned that he had directed her father in the film. Mira then reminded Cohen that she actually appeared in the film.Met her husband Christopher Backus at West Hollywood's Sur restaurant when he was her server. She tells everyone they met at a charades party because he is much younger than her and she didn't want people to know she was flirting with a younger man.On June 11, 2004, Mira married actor Christopher Backus in a civil service in Santa Monica, California, and then had their formal ceremony on the island of Capri in Italy. Mira is of half Italian descent, and this was to honor her Italian roots. She wore a gown designed by Giorgio Armani.Daughter of Paul Sorvino and Lorraine Davis. Stepdaughter of Dee Dee Sorvino.Attended and graduated from Dwight Englewood High School in Englewood, New Jersey.Chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1996).Was the 108th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite (1995) at The 68th Annual Academy Awards (1996) on March 25, 1996.Childhood friends with Hope Davis; they performed plays for the neighbors.Returned to work five months after giving birth to her son Holden in order to begin filming Angels Crest (2011). Also returned to work three months after giving birth to her daughter Lucia in order to begin filming Space Warriors (2013).She and her husband Christopher Backus have both guest-starred on the situation comedy Will & Grace (1998), though not in the same episode.Has appeared with Michael Rapaport in three films: Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996) and Bamboozled (2000).Older sister of Michael Sorvino and Amanda Sorvino. Cousin of Bill Sorvino.She auditioned for the role of Dorothy Boyd in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996), which went to Ren��e Zellweger.Is a huge fan of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966). Her father, Paul Sorvino, played Worf's adoptive brother Nikolai Rozhenko on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (episode "Homeward").Her jobs before acting include coat check girl, bartender, model English language paper editor in China.Was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.Mentioned in the theme song of The Adventures of George the Projectionist (2006).Is one of 25 actresses who have received an Academy Award for their performance in a comedy; hers being for Mighty Aphrodite (1995). The others in chronological order, are: Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night (1934)), Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday (1953)), Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower (1969)), Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class (1973)), Lee Grant (Shampoo (1975)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Maggie Smith (California Suite (1978)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck (1987)), Cher (Moonstruck (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King (1991)), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny (1992)), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway (1994)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)), Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets (1997)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Pen��lope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)).Is one of 22 Oscar-winning actresses to have been born in the state of New York. The others are Alice Brady, Teresa Wright, Anne Revere, Celeste Holm, Claire Trevor, Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Susan Hayward, Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Lee Grant, Beatrice Straight, Whoopi Goldberg, Mercedes Ruehl, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Connelly, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway. |
| Quotes: |
There's a side of my personality that goes completely against the East Coast educated person and wants to be a pin-up girl in garages across America...there's a side that wants to wear the pink angora bikini!
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(2011) WiseGirls (2002) is not a bad little film. It missed a theatrical distribution by inches. It did well at Sundance, it got a really good reception there. I made one of my very best friends in the world on it, Melora Walters, who plays one of the three waitresses. It's a pretty gripping little story about a waitress who's a former med student who gets caught up in this mob-run joint, and I end up being the house doctor for the local gunshot wounds, and we all become part of sting operation. It's actually kind of a good movie.
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(2011) Free Money (1998). My Brando experience. The movie? Perhaps not as fully realized as we all hoped. But it was an amazing experience for me to work with Marlon Brando, because I had always idolized him, and it was so thrilling to get to work with him...I actually have lots of Brando anecdotes from that movie, but it would take all day, so I can't really tell you. And besides, I'm saving them for myself, for when I'm 80 and write my book.
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(2011, on making Summer of Sam (1999)) I loved the dancing sequences with John Leguizamo. We had so much fun preparing for that. We just worked for a month with Paul Pellicoro at DanceSport in New York, rehearsing the Hustle moves. The first scene is a choreographed number, and the second scene is improvised, where I'm in a red dress. We had so much fun with both those scenes. There was a certain scene which was not so much fun, which is the orgy scene, where at the end of it I was crying in the corner, like, "I did not become an actress to do this". Because it was basically like being in the middle of a porn movie. Everybody else in the room-although they were not actually having sex-was completely naked, feigning sex with loud, loud noises. We were strategically covered. I mean, on-camera, we looked naked, but we had little things covering the most important areas. But everybody else in the room, who were also sort of rubbing up against you, was naked. For hours of this, everybody grunting and hollering. It was very demoralizing, so I was glad that was only one day of that shoot. But working with Spike [Spike Lee] was a treat, because he set up the way the he shot the movie so that it was all completely fresh in the moment. He used two cameras at all times, and Ellen Kuras, the amazing DP of that, really had it down to a science, so you didn't need to stop the scene to cover it. You were covering it as it was happening. So if in one take something amazing happened that didn't happen in another one, it didn't matter, because she already had it from the other side, because she was working two cameras at once. Like the scene in the cemetery. There's one take where, because John and I really trusted each other, Spike was like [whispers], "Spit in her face." And I didn't know he had said this. But because we trusted each other, when he spit in my face, I slapped him in his face. Then we went on with the scene and I jump out of the car, screaming in this cemetery. None of that was in the script. It just happened, and it was all caught, and it was all in the movie. And I love working that way, when life overtakes the state where it's the page, and it becomes something further than where the blueprint was. I love that way of working, and I loved working with Spike Lee.
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<hr>
(2011, on Norma Jean u0026amp; Marilyn (1996)) I loved that experience. It was an honor to get to play one of my icons. I had always been touched by her, and touched by the fact that, as a teenage girl growing up in a rather repressive household, she was so openly sexual. But also openly, seemingly good and innocent, like a child. That was very appealing to me, because she wasn't this vamp whose sexuality was this dark, knowing thing. It was just natural to her. And her life was so sad. She had such a miserable life. Getting into playing her, researching her, you got drawn into this vortex of desperation as she got older. I almost had a nervous breakdown on the set, because I was putting on the dress she had actually worn-with the cherries on it, from The Misfits (1961)-that I had found at this costume house in New York. I went in there and asked if they had any Marilyn costumes, because we were looking for things for the movie, and they said, "We have the actual dress from The Misfits (1961). Your production can rent it". So putting it on was almost this religious experience for me, and I felt like, "Uh, how dare I try to play Marilyn Monroe? Who am I to think that I can impersonate Marilyn Monroe?" Then, I had this weird epiphany that I was never going to be Marilyn, to take myself off that hook, because nobody could be her but her. But this is my homage to her, and I can try to put into this performance the things I think I know about her, and the things I think I know about her heart. So that made it easier for me to do it. Because to try to compare yourself to Marilyn, you're always going to lose, and there's no way you could be her, because she was one-in-a-million. But I think there's something iconic about her story, which is the great American tragedy-the 20th-century tragedy of illusory fame and lovability by millions, but ending up completely alone and desperate. I think it's an interesting parable that people get drawn to time and time again, because she seemingly had everything and yet had so little...People who actually knew her liked the performance. Some people did not like the way the role was written for the Ashley [Ashley Judd] side. Someone came up to me and said, "I knew Marilyn, and she was NEVER vicious". They showed her as kind of a ruthless, rise-to-power character incarnate in the Ashley character, and my character was the softer side of her. So personally, maybe there's bloggers out there who hate me, but there are bloggers out there who hate everybody. In terms of all the feedback that I've ever gotten in person, people were positive. |
| Salaries: |
At First Sight (1999) - $3,000,000 |
| Job title: |
Actress,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Others works: |
(March 30, 2000 - April 30, 2000) Played Ersilia Drei in the play "Naked". (Classic Stage Company, New York City)
TV commercial (voice) for Nivea Lotion.
Harvard thesis: "Anti-Africanism in China: An Investigation into Chinese Attitudes t |
| Spouse: |
Christopher Backus (June 11, 2004 - present) (4 children) |
| Children: |
Holden BackusLucia BackusJohnny BackusMattea Backus |
| Parents: |
Paul Sorvino
Lorraine Davis
Dee Dee Sorvino |
| Relatives: |
Michael Sorvino (Sibling)
Amanda Sorvino (Sibling)
Bill Sorvino (Cousin) |
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