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| Born As |
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Mia Sarapocciello |
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| Sex |
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Female |
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| Height |
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5' 4" |
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| Nationality |
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US - United States of America |
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| Date of Birth |
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June 19, 1968 |
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| Place of Birth |
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Brooklyn, New York, USA |
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Biography |
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MIA SARA (nee Sarapocciello) was born in the spring of 1968 to a photographer father and a stylist mother. Her parents divorced several years later, shortly after the birth of her younger sister, Cassie. The girls were raised by their mother in Brooklyn Heights, NY. In an attempt to cure her childhood shyness ("I was always 'foot-in-mouth-Mia,'") and also to earn pocket money, Mia began acting professionally at the age of fourteen. Television commercials, and a summer stint on ALL MY CHILDREN soon followed.
While attending the prestigious St Ann's High School, she found time to act in school productions as well, starring as 'Helena' in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and as 'Juliet' in ROMEO AND JULIET. She even tried her hand at singing, for a tribute to Noel Coward entitled DEAR NOEL. These experiences with live theatre were fun, but marred by a nasty side effect: "I have terrible stage fright," she admitted in a 1985 interview. "Really horrible stage fright. That's something I have to overcome."
At sixteen, Mia won her first feature starring role, debuting as 'Princess Lili' in Ridley Scott's fairy tale adventure, LEGEND. According to Mia's own account, "I read half a poem for Ridley Scott and that was my audition." If only production could have been that simple. Due to the usual problems and delays that arise when making a special effects film, as well as a fire that destroyed most of the huge forest set, Mia spent nearly eight months in London filming LEGEND. "I haven't had any formal education as an actress," she told Harper's Bazaar in 1986. "So to make up for it I've had to work tremendously hard. The eight months we spent filming LEGEND were grueling for me -- I was still just a high school kid."
Once she returned home, readjusting to school life after almost a year of being treated as a working adult was difficult. Equally hard was the process of applying to colleges -- her classmates were in the middle of applications and interviews, and Mia had only two weeks to get everything done. She was accepted to Barnard University, but deferred matriculation for a year to make FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, which she called in the film's presskit "one of the best scripts" she had ever read. The biggest comedy hit of 1986, FERRIS BUELLER remains her most popular and succesful film to date, and by her own admission, 'Sloane Peterson' is the role for which she is best remembered.
Her worries were quickly alleviated, and the following year she shelved college plans permanently, after beating out 75 other hopefuls to win the title role in the 5-hour miniseries QUEENIE. Loosely based on the life of Merle Oberon, QUEENIE also starred Kirk Douglas and Claire Bloom. Shooting on location in Europe and India for five months, the workload was grueling, and Mia appeared in nearly every scene of the film. Stress led to migraine headaches and stomach problems, but she was never less than professional on the set. "The pressure on her is terrible," director Larry Peerce told TV Guide during production. "She's a very fragile girl. Yet she seems to take it all in her stride."
Soon after relocating, her second miniseries, Judith Krantz's TILL WE MEET AGAIN, aired on CBS. Another splashy soaper, this time Mia played a supporting part, working with future "friend" Courtenay Cox, and the up and coming Hugh Grant. Although she did the best she could with the somewhat over the top role of 'Delphine,' reviews for her work were similar to this quote from Variety: "Mia Sara, looking smashing, poses nicely." Determined to hold out for a role she could really sink her teeth into, Mia took up tennis, did some traveling, and bided her time waiting for a good script. Her goal, she told a reporter in 1988, was to work with "very established, very respected directors... I'd like to play someone realistic for once ... A smaller scope, but more defined."
She found just what she was looking for in Sidney Lumet's A STRANGER AMONG US. Set in Mia's hometown of Brooklyn, STRANGER starred Melanie Griffith as a tough-as-nails cop working undercover to solve the murder of a Hassidic diamond merchant. Mia, in a real departure for her, played a sheltered young Jewish woman who befriends Griffith. Mia admits that she had to campaign hard for the part of 'Leah,' but felt it was more than worth it. Despite its failure at the boxoffice, Mia has said more than once that it is the film of which she is the most proud.
Around this time, Mia began studying with famed acting teacher Roy London, who prior to his death several years ago, included among his clients Michelle Pfeiffer and Sharon Stone. As Mia told The Los Angeles Times in 1995, "I've been really studyiong hard these past few years, trying to learn more about acting, and I've been getting better. I've been getting looser."
She got a chance to test her new found acting chops in a two episode arc on the popular CBS television series CHICAGO HOPE. Starring as 'Annie,' a post-operative transsexual, Mia struggled to build a relationship with resident 'Dr. Billy Kronk.' His inability to forget that she had once been a man (and the high scorer in their pee-wee hockey league) ended the love affair. Her character returned the next season, suffering from physical problems associated with her hormone therapy. Told that she faced death if she continued to take estrogen, 'Annie' committed suicide.
Of Mia's more recent theatrical efforts, Peter Hyam's TIMECOP, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, has been the most successful, debuting at the top of the boxoffice the week it was released. Working in an action movie apparently gave Mia some added confidence in her own physical abilities, and she took up flying, earning her pilot's license shortly after the movie wrapped. In interviews given during that time, Mia was always quick to mention her fiancee, actor/producer Clayton Rohner (whom she had met during production if the straight-to-video flick CAROLINE AT MIDNIGHT), as well as flash the sizable rock on the third finger of her left hand. The Los Angeles Times described theirs as a "very un-Hollywood lifestyle," living in a Hancock Park fixer-upper with two wheaton terriers. This homelife situation changed drastically, however, during the filming of BULLET TO BEIJING in Russia. Mia, who once described herself as a "raging Anglophile," had fallen for her co-star, Englishman Jason Connery (son of Sean). The two were married in Las Vegas in early 1996.*
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