Alias Grace: Netflix Miniseries Adds Anna Paquin as its Star

Netflix’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1996 novel Alias Grace has acquired its star. In the book, Atwood exercised dramatic license with the real story of an immigrant housekeeper accused of murdering her boss and a fellow housekeeper, while claiming to have no recollection of the events. Now, the victim of the alleged amnesiac will be played by none other than Anna Paquin.

Netflix has announced that Anna Paquin, former star of HBO’s True Blood, the X-Men film series and Oscar-winning wunderkind of 1994’s The Piano, will join the six-hour-long Alias Grace miniseries as its headlining star. Appropriately enough, the Canadian-born Paquin will reenact an 1843 double murder that was one of Upper Canada’s most notorious crimes. Paquin plays Nancy Montgomery, an ill-fated housekeeper – and secret lover of her boss Thomas Kinnear – who became the resentful focus of a subordinate housekeeper in a young and poor Irish immigrant named Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon).

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While the relationship between Grace and Nancy was initially cordial, things got rough quickly, resulting in Nancy firing Grace. From there, jealously overcame Grace due to her own apparent amorous feelings for their boss Kinnear and, in a whirlwind of white-hot rage, she allegedly carried out the murder of Nancy and Kinnear with the help of a stable worker named James McDermott. Thus, with Netflix quite clearly touting Paquin as the Alias Grace star, it could be an interesting dynamic almost akin to the idea that Janet Leigh “starred” in Psycho, despite the fact that her murder is essentially the central part of the plot.

Netflix also announced that former star of Chuck, Heroes Reborn and all-around geek royalty Zachary Levi will also co-star in Alias Grace. The miniseries, like Atwood’s original novel, will portray the murderous events through the eyes of Gadon’s Grace, with her experiences recollected with help of a fictional doctor character named Simon Jordan. However, since the streaming outlet (at the time of this writing,) has not yet confirmed Levi’s role, it leaves open the possibility of him playing either Kinnear, McDermott or Jordan.

Netflix’s Alias Grace will be written and produced by Sarah Polley, a former actress who many will remember starring in Zack Snyder’s celebrated 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake and Doug Liman’s 1999 seedy crime caper Go. After disappearing from the industry cameras in 2010, she has since refocused herself toward the creative end. Additionally, Mary Harron, the helmer behind American Psycho and I Shot Andy Warhol, will occupy the director’s chair for the miniseries.  

Alias Grace will begin shooting in Ontario on August 15, with no release date mapped out at the moment.