FILMOGRAPHY

2006] Superman Returns
2004] False Pretenses (TV)
2003] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
2002] Joe and Max (TV)
2001] "Other People"
2001] "A Girl Thing" (mini)
2000] Mercy
1997] One of Our Own
1997-01] "La Femme Nikita"
1997] Vanishing Point (TV)
1996] Woman Undone (TV)
1996] Loser
1995] Naked Jane
1995] The Sadness of Sex

LINKS

IMDB
petawilsonsite.com
petawilson-online.com

CONTACT

Peta Wilson Fan Mail
8581 Santa Monica Blvd
#498
Los Angeles, CA 90069-4120

Born 18 November 1970 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Peta grew up an army brat all over the pacific rim, spending several years in Papua New Guinea where her Australian father was stationed. She discovered at a young age a love of performing, in part to help her dealing with changing schools and being the odd one out growing up. She spent summers with her grandparents in Australia, and she remains very close to her family.

Father Darcy Wilson is a retired warrant officer. Mother Karlene White is a caterer. Brother Rob Wilson, 25, is an Australian army truck driver.

Attended an all-girls Catholic school in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Before becoming an actress, Wilson worked as a model in Europe.

Growing up in Australia, Wilson remembers that her doting grandmother Elizabeth would "wake me up at 4 a.m. for swimming. I'd come home, and she'd feed me lamb chops and eggs, then I'd go off to basketball. After school, I'd [practice] judo." When Wilson was about 15, her mother decided it was time to temper all the jock stuff with a few courses in grooming and deportment. "Mum wanted me to be a bit more feminine," She studied at the same agency that spawned uber-models Elle Macpherson and Rachel (Mrs. Rod Stewart) Hunter.

In high school Peta became the youngest member and "best player" of the Australian national netball team. She is also a champion sailor.

Peta starred in Mercy which was directed by her longtime boyfriend Damian Harris. Together they have a son, Marlowe [February 2002]. Damian Harris is a writer-director & son of actor Richard Harris.

Peta has a production company, Sweet Lip productions, and is developing several projects, including Guns In The Night. "I've set up my own production company, called Sweet Lick Productions, I really want to be a producer. I like movies that make us think for a second about someone else's reality, and I think it's a very powerful medium. So I don't think, 'Isn't it terrible there's no roles for women,' I think, 'What can I do to fix that for myself?' I always believe work begets work."

Peta meditates, practices yoga, gets acupuncture and takes all kinds of alternative medicines to keep her body in balance. She enjoys scuba diving, horseback riding, swimming, cricket, painting and gardening.

At age 17, Peta had a year long battle with anorexia and bulimia, dropping from 140 pounds to 110 in the one year. "It was a combination of things. My parents' divorce upset me a lot. Then I started modeling, went to Europe, and fell in love. When I came back to Sydney, I'd become a woman. All the boys would look at me, and I would look at the boys - or the girls. (laughs) Sydney was kind of wild. I was making more money than my whole family put together, but I was unhappy. Models are about being seen and not heard, and that's just not for me. It was a period when I didn't like myself much."

Peta appeared in underwear along with Yasmine Bleeth, Alyssa Milano, Melissa Joan Hart, Garcelle Beauvais, Carmen Electra, Jamie Luner, and Jeri Ryan on the cover of, and inside the October 1997 issue of "Details" magazine.

La Femme Nikita was Peta's First series & third paid acting job.

Peta is a collector of photojournalism, but her real passion is old cars: she owns a 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible, a '57 T-Bird and '38 Dodge. "I really like to play with cars. My father used to race cars, I've just always been around mechanical things. One of the reasons I became an actress is because I saw Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and I said, I want to be Jeff Bridges and I want to have that car!"

Peta dreams of establishing a performance arts school for disadvanted and troubled youths. Determined to make this a reality, Wilson has already started meeting with educators, administrators and therapists to develop the ideal program and environment for the school. She also has taken it upon herself to hustle up major corporate funding. I could wait and do this when I'm 40 or something, but it needs to be done now. It's a big ambition. I'm not an expert. I'm not anything, just a little actress with a big dream. But that's they way I live my life: Reach for the starts and, even if you don't get there, you might touch a comet along the way."

An animal-lover herself, Wilson grew up with a pet kangaroo, a Great Dane, a goat, two cats, and two wild boars. Along with the occasional crocodile in their pool in Papua New Guinea.

When Peta arrived in Hollywood she drove a ’58 Thunderbird and had packed all her clothes in the back. She had saved up $12,000 from earlier modeling jobs and investments in houses with her brother. "So if it didn’t happen, I could just open a fish and chip shop. I didn’t expect that I would still be in America. That was 10 years ago and I’m still here. I went on walk-about and haven’t gone back. I mean, I go home, but I’m still on walkabout."

A known model in Australia for everything from Levi's to maternity clothes (wearing a false stomach), she decided it would be easier to get training abroad, and studied at the Actors Circle Theater with Arthur Mendoza.

Peta on Arthur Mendoza:
"He was so hard on me, it was a joke. He believed that I could have a career anyway, because if you're a pretty girl in L.A., you sort of can, but I said no, I want to be an actress! So he was harder on me than he was on any of the other students, and I'm so happy he was because I feel like I can really create characters now, and I'm not frightened of anything. I've got a lot of energy, and it's a wonderful place for me to put it, performing. I always was a bit of a clown - we moved around a little as an army brat, and it was a way to fit in, to be funny. It's a really great way to get it all out."

Peta's first acting gig:
"I played a tree in the school play; and then a troll the following year."

Peta on drama class:
"I was really controlling in drama class. My teacher would say to me, `Pete, one day you'll direct. But for now, your job is to act!'"

Peta on playing Nikita:
"I enjoy it. The hours are difficult. But I don't know what else could compare to it for a breaking role. I've been very fortunate and lucky to have [Nikita] still stay on the air."

Peta cites two of her toughest episodes as her favorites:
"Open Heart," in which Nikita has to discover the identity of a terrorist "human time bomb," with whom she bonds and shares some intense intimate moments; and "Brainwash," in which Nikita tests a device used to alter memories, but becomes addicted to its empowering effects as it rewrites her horrific childhood recollections.

Peta on spending her money:
"It's kind of great...I bought ten acres of land in Australia. And I've been able to provide my immediate family with an incredibly interesting, colorful couple of years. Which has been really nice, spending more time with my mum, my dad, my grandmother. And driving cross-country. I really enjoy the freedom that working in this industry and the kind of money that I'm making has brought to me."

Her favourite film is:
"Days Of Heaven. Not for Richard Gere but for the most breathtaking nature scenes."

Her favourite album is:
"Black & Blue by the Rolling Stones. There's a song called 'Melody' that's so sexy I've used it to do a striptease for my boyfriend."

Peta on working out:
"Sure, I have to look good, but thats not why I work out. The energy it gives you is unbelievable. It's good for cleaning your mind, getting rid of stress, increasing confidence and allowing for more creative thought."

Peta on landing the role of Nikita:
"I'd just come out of drama school, I'd done like three jobs before, plus six and a half years in a theater company. This was the first thing I went in on, on TV."

Peta on finding a role model to map Nikita on:
"I'd say the role model was a panther. Cats generally are nice animals, but if you hurt them or you threaten them, they become deadly. So I just watch the Discovery Channel every week, I watch animals, and then the bad guys and good guys in Nikita remind me of certain animals. Nikita is kind of primal anyway, because the dialogue is so unreal. That's interesting for an actor - the most interesting things we do as human beings [are] not what we say, but what we don't say. I move more like a boy-girl than like a girl-girl, and that's what the character is, she's very agile and very fearless."

Peta on LFN's recall for a 5th season:
"I was definitely surprised. I think it was about six weeks, seven weeks after we'd wrapped the last season before they told me. I'm happy to take on Nikita again. Because the last season ended badly. We ended the filming without finding a resolution for my adventures. What became of Nikita? Was she going to leave the Center and take up a new life? Would Michael ever go away without her? There were so many questions for which we owed our fans the answers." Having wrapped up 4 seasons of La Femme Nikita Peta was surprised to find that the network negotiated the show's return for eight more hour-long episodes. After its cancellation the network was inundated with an overwhelming fan support including more than 25,000 e-mails, hundreds of sunglasses (the heroine's signature accessory) and letters demanding more Nikita.

Peta on the differences between her & Nikita:
"I'm a chatterbox, love to laugh, love to giggle, love to carry on, I'm a real flibbertigibbit. And Nikita is really different. The show's been great, actually, because the age I'm at, I'm really kind of coming into my own as a person, and I'm learning a lot about myself, having to work this hard and be constantly responsible, constantly in the moment. You can't help but learn a lot about yourself. I think every journey is interesting because Nikita doesn't really want to be there. So sometimes it seeps into my own life, and I say, 'Oh god, I've got to go hurt someone again?' Sometimes I get sick or really tired or beat up or I cry a lot because the character's been going through stuff, and your body doesn't know 'We're acting now,' you know? You might be acting, but your body can really tell no difference."

Joel Surnow LFN's executive consultant recalls Peta's audition:
"She came [to the audition] in scruffy jeans and had a big [appendectomy] scar on her belly. She was really gnarly, hair flying in every direction. Afterwards, she sat on a chair ... and became the most charming, chatty Australian girl."

Director George Bloomfield on Peta:
"She's outspoken, she's strong, and she has a direct energy that drives everyone around her. She doesn't suffer fools gladly."

Peta on maintaining a characters integrity:
"I have to maintain the integrity of this character. I don't fight the writers because they do the best they can. But sometimes my job is hard when the script goes against everything I know my character to be. In those situations, the real story is going on in my silent moments, which are not writable. The dialogue might say one thing, but my actions give it a completely opposite meaning."

Peta on flying her widowed grandmother Elizabeth (Nan) out from Australia to share her rented loft in Toronto and take care of her: "I didn't think I'd be able to cope with the stress. Every night when I come home, Nan runs a bath with my essential oils, lights my candles and has dinner on the table. She wakes me up at 5 a.m., gives me a big kiss and tells me to say my prayers if I have a rough day."

Peta on being called a role model:
"I'm not a bloody role model, I'm just an army brat from Australia who had a dream and worked really hard and achieved it"

Peta on her desire to act:
"I'd direct one movie one day, just once, and I wouldn't do that till much later in life - I like being on my side of the camera at the moment. I'd suggest to anyone who's ever had the desire to act that you should go to a couple of classes, because it's fun and you learn a lot about yourself. It helps open up walls in you."

Peta on acting:
"When you're starting out, you take what you can get. The pot of gold is not at the end of the rainbow, it's the rainbow itself, in these kind of careers - it's the journey before you get there."

Peta on who she'd love to work with:
"Anyone who's willing to play ball, throw it hard and catch if fast. I'd like to work with Dennis Franz. I'd like to work with Benicio Del Toro, I'd like to work with Leonardo Di Caprio. I would love to have worked with River Phoenix. I love Gena Rowlands, she's my all-time favorite. John Malkovitch, Tim Roth, Anjelica Huston, Ashley Judd, Angeline Jolie. Director-wise, I really love Damian Harris, Roman Polanski, David Lean if he was alive, Merchant Ivory. I'll work with anyone who is passionately into what they're doing."

Actresses Peta admires:
Marlene Dietrich, Catherine Deneuve, Sissy Spacek, Wendy Hughes, Anne Bancroft, Gena Rowlands, Liv Ulman, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep.

Peta on ageing in Hollywood:
"I'm going to get old one day, everyone does. Women like Gena Rowlands and Anjelica Huston, they've always kept their integrity and this sense of identity to their entire careers. As we get older, women, we're like great bottles of wine, we get tastier. With a proper diet of happiness and yoga, maybe one can sort of hold on to what's young inside them. If you can find some way to keep yourself young inside, that will always sort of sparkle through the eyes, you know?"

Peta on baring yourself as an actor:
"I think, as an actor, you have a responsibility to expose yourself. You must take your clothes off. It's about being vulnerable. It's about being as real as you possibly can be. As an actor, you've got to tell the truth about another human being."

Peta on her time in PNG:
"We had a wonderful life, lived in native communities. And my brother and I were the only white children and so loved because of our differences. It was great. No TV. We had radio and eight-tracks and we used to sing. I’d do impersonations of I Dream of Jeannie. When I’d go to Australia to see my grandparents I’d watch TV. We had a very good country life. We were wild, fresh, obedient children. Our mother and father were good parents. Young. At school I was very athletic and very studious. If I liked the teacher, I wanted to learn what they had to teach me."

Peta on what she finds sexy:
"Roman Polanski's movies. Italy. And music: Dead can Dance. Heat was a sexy movie. Gena Rowlands. When I was nine I went to a Doobie Brothers concert and Patrick Simmons ran by with his guitar. He was seating, and I can still smell the leather - that was sexy. John Malkovich, Sean Penn, Sam Shepard, and my boyfriend are sexy. You know who's sexy? Dennis Franz! He's got the shit going on. I like people who dare to look in your eyes and hold a glance. And my boyfriend says I have this thing about Marky Mark, which is ridiculous."

Peta on Canada:
"I love Canada. People here are up front and honest ... that's very Australian."

Peta on her name:
"I hated my name as a kid. I would change my name every few weeks to more girly names. If the family called me Peta, I wouldn't answer."

Peta on Modelling:
It's so bad for girls. It ends up giving nice, young, pretty girls a feeling of self-loathing."

Peta on what gives her 'the willies':
"Guns. I won't have one in my home in L.A. Hopefully people who watch the show will take (the violence) as entertainment and not reality."

Peta on the difference between U.S. and Australian audiences:
"Big difference. Aussies don't idolize their celebrities in the same way as the U.S."

Peta on what she's been taught:
"I was always taught to do my best....and then to do better."