Anna Paquin Snagged For A&E’s ‘Roots’ Reboot

Winnipeg-born True Blood actress Anna Paquin has signed on to be part of the A&E Network’s miniseries remake of the 1977 classic tale of slavery in Colonial America, Roots.

Anna Paquin joins a stellar cast including Laurence Fishburne who will play the role of Alex Haley, the author of the novel the series is based on, who was originally played by James Earl Jones. Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers will also be starring alongside Anna Paquin

The Roots reboot is scheduled to air in 2016 and, according to Variety, will be simulcast on A&E, Lifetime, and History channels. The Hollywood Reporter states that Roots is currently being shot in New Orleans, but production will move to South Africa at the end of the month.

Anna Paquin, who won an Oscar at age 11 for her role in The Piano, is no stranger to American television screens, thanks to her role in HBO’s wildly popular True Blood, which Paquin described quite candidly and with a certain amount of glee in a 2009 interview with Telegraph.

“Oh, it’s a really full-on sexy show. Lots of weird, kinky vampire sex and weird, kinky mortal sex! It never put me off. I guess either you read something and go, ‘Oh, my God, no!’ or you read something and you go, ‘That’s sort of cool!’ I mean, the sex is very romantic, and at first it’s very loving.”

Anna’s run on True Blood ended in 2014. That year Anna Paquin also starred as Rogue in X-Men: Days of Future Past. After that, Paquin took a bit of down time to focus on her kids, Charlie and Poppy.

But, now, Anna Paquin’s professional life is ramping up again. As well as starring in this reboot of Roots, Paquin was reported by the Daily Mail, back in the spring, to be working with HBO to create a miniseries called Madame X she would star in and executive produce with her husband (and True Blood co-star) Stephen Moyer and Jack Black of School of Rock fame.

So, how does Anna Paquin see herself? Surprisingly, not as grown-up as you might think a mother-of-two might. Paquin told Rolling Stone back in 2010 that she still has Metallica and Nirvana blasting on her headphones and Anna doesn’t want to do what she doesn’t want to do.

“[I’m a] 14-year-old goth girl deep down. I was a skate girl. Not that I was a great skater, but I was good at standing around sullenly while the boys skated.”

With all of these projects on the go, it appears that 2016 is gearing up to be a big year for Anna Paquin.

[Photo from Getty Images / Ethan Miller]