Actor Stephen Moyer walks in, a bit perplexed about why she wants him to open his mouth to a room of strangers. Then she giggles and asks him again to bare his fangs.
And he does.
"See," she says, smiling.
"He does have them."
As the star of the TV vampire drama True Blood, Anna Paquin thinks her co-star's pointy real-life canine teeth are cool. They are long and sharp like a vampire's would be. Strangers might find them a bit disconcerting, especially since Moyer plays a vampire on True Blood.
It's part of Paquin's charm to flirt. She can be playful and silly but rarely inappropriate or shameless.
She still loves to talk about acting, with the same vigour of a young artist although she's played the Hollywood game more than half her life. Despite her world travels, she still comes across as a bit of an innocent.
At 26, Anna Paquin's no longer the little girl audiences discovered in 1993's The Piano, for which she won an Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role. After a few high-profile period pieces and a big movie franchise (Rogue in the X-Men movies), she's grown up. Unlike many actresses who had careers as children, Paquin doesn't feel a need to declare to the world she's an adult.
"I never did kids films," she says.
"I was a kid in [serious] films most of my life.
"It wasn't as if I had to overcome this cute-kid-with-dimples thing."
Paquin has come of age while working.
Today, she is engaged by talking of her work.
She doesn't do the Hollywood party scene much. She lives quietly.
Paquin has little pretence for an actress with an Oscar on her mantle.
She isn't interested in being the star. She wants to be one of the gang.
