Young, gifted and sensible

Anna Paquin keeps the Best Supporting Actress Oscar she won for

Playing Holly Hunter's intense, obstinate daughter in the critically acclaimed costume drama was life-changing, but as for the prize itself, well, it's not really her thing - 'I don't want to show off, it's not my personality. I wouldn't want people to talk about it because, quite frankly, I don't want to talk about it.

I don't want to be that kind of person - "Hey look at me, I'm special".' The actress tugs on one of at least six silver studs inserted in her left ear and settles back in her chair. She's a fast talker with a nervous laugh and a disconcertingly direct gaze for someone who claims to be shy when away from the camera. 'Besides, The Piano was nine years ago. I'm 20 now and doing different stuff.'

Today the different thing she's doing is publicity for summer blockbuster X-Men 2. Paquin plays Rogue, another of her famously difficult teens, only this time the teen isn't a runaway as in 1998's Hurlyburly or a groupie like in Almost Famous, but a mutant with a white stripe through her hair and the ability to drain the energy out of anyone she touches.

Five foot, five inches, pale and dressed all in black, Paquin would look the part if not for the fact that she's arrived for her interview cradling a terrier puppy recently christened Dee Dee. Her mistress explains why Rogue has become the pin-up for smart alienated kids everywhere. 'She's a completely tormented teenager - the ultimate outsider - and that's the appeal. I'm very glad I'm not one any more because adolescence is miserable.

Everything is changing so much that you're just freaked out,' she shrugs. 'Everything about being a teenager and not feeling like you fit in is magnified by being a mutant.'

The word among Hollywood's casting clique is that the Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised Paquin portrays troubled American youth better than anyone else - better than Kirsten Dunst, better than Natalie Portman, better than Claire Danes - because the girl's never been one in real life. Paquin is a non-smoking vegetarian who combines making movies with studying history of art at Columbia University.

She's aware that the business considers her to be something of a bluestocking in a stable of high-strung fillies, which probably explains why she was George Lucas's first choice to play Princess Padme in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace ahead of Portman. The extent of Paquin's teenage rebellion was dressing like a goth and listening to Nine Inch Nails. Impersonating troublemakers is fun because they're a novelty for her. 'I think one of the reasons teenagers rebel is because they don't always know what they love. They haven't found it yet - I was lucky to have found it very young.'

'It' turns out to be acting, a profession Paquin had zero interest in before The Piano. Apart from pretending to be a skunk in a school ballet, she'd never performed before attending the film's open auditions in Wellington. Whatever she did on her video tape helped her beat 5,000 other girls to the part and caused director Jane Campion's jaw to drop. 'She had such power and transparency - her talent was mature,' says Campion.

When The Piano became a surprise success, Paquin and her teacher mum, Mary, moved to LA. Ever sensible, Paquin consciously avoided doing anything that would have jeopardised her chances of getting work. 'The people I was hanging out with are way too talented to be dabbling in bad behaviour or wasting their time with too much partying. They weren't out drinking late at night.' But the transition may not have been as smooth as Paquin makes out. Her parents divorced soon after The Piano hit cinemas, leaving her father Brian, a physical education teacher, behind in New Zealand as his daughter's reputation grew with Jane Eyre and A Walk On The Moon.

Did the separation force a sensitive child to grow up faster than she would have liked? Paquin instantly protests. 'But I'm not a grown-up! Besides, the grownups that I've always thought were the coolest have always been the ones who don't really act like grownups. If you're an actor, then being a grown-up like a grownup is like the kiss of death.'