Anna Paquin, 41, says she’s ‘extraordinarily touched’ by fan support amid ‘difficult’ health issues that have affected her speech and mobility: ‘I’m just really grateful’

Anna Paquin told it Entertainment tonight On Friday, she was overwhelmed by support from fans after she was spotted using a cane to help her get around at the New York City premiere of her new film A Bit Of Light.

“I am extremely touched and moved by people who show that they care and are interested and kind about it,” she said Wednesday in response to her performance.

After a two-year health battle with an unknown illness, it’s been almost a year and a half since her last red carpet appearance in October 2022.

“I’m just really grateful for the support,” she continued. “At some point I’ll probably go into more detail about my own platform in my own words.”

Speaking at the event at the Crosby Street Hotel, Anna admitted that the past two years had been “difficult” for her, as she referenced recent health issues that had affected her mobility and caused her some speech problems, according to PEOPLE.

“It hasn’t been easy,” she said. This appears to have been the first time Paquin has publicly revealed that she has been struggling with health issues.

However, a source was optimistic that Anna could make a full recovery from the undisclosed condition.

Despite her health problems, which she only briefly alluded to, Anna looked sensational in an angular black sequin dress that matched her 54-year-old husband’s all-black look.

The lovebirds presented a united front at the premiere of the new film, in which she stars and Stephen directed.

She plays a recovering alcoholic who reunites with her estranged father (played by Ray Winstone) after losing custody of her daughters, who go to live with her ex-husband and his current partner.

The film and television star – who in 1994 became the second-youngest person to win an Academy Award after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 11 for Jane Campion’s classic The Piano – sounded excited to be back in front of the camera to stand up and get started. a small independent production.

“My first love was independent filmmaking,” she said. ‘That’s how I ended up in the film industry. I worked with people who were committed to telling stories and telling them with integrity and truth.”

Anna added that she was grateful for her husband Stephen’s help both on and off the road.

“He’s my favorite person to play with,” she said, before clarifying that she was attracted to his artistic talents when it came to signing on for the film.

“I’m not sentimental when it comes to work,” she added with a laugh.

Anna explained that although her main character’s struggle with addiction in A Bit Of Light was foreign to her, her experience as a mother to 11-year-old fraternal twins Charlie and Poppy with Moyer helped her tap into the emotional struggles from a mother. separated from her children.

She also shares two stepchildren with Moyer: a son from his first marriage and a daughter from a previous relationship.

“Not everyone ends up having the motherhood journey they hoped or planned,” Anna said. “We’re all flawed and imperfect, and Ella is in a way repeating some sort of familial patterns of suppressing feelings.”

She was able to simulate her character’s pain because it was “very relatable because there are so many ways people can get in their own way, or learn to deal with trauma in some way.”

Anna and Stephen were brought together by their popular supernatural series True Blood.

The HBO horror romance, which ran for seven seasons from 2008 to 2014, was an adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ popular Southern Vampire Mysteries, starring Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in rural Louisiana who begins a relationship with a vampire ( Moyer). in an alternate present where supernatural beings walk among us.

Paquin and Moyer met while working on the steamy series — which was infamous for its copious sex scenes — and the on-screen lovers soon struck up an off-camera romance.

Moyer, an English actor originally from Brentwood, Essex, revealed on Watch What Happens Life that he and his future wife first met during a screen test prior to filming True Blood.

“We were both single at the time, and there was just such a spark,” he recalls. It was three months before they saw each other again, but once they got on set to start filming, Stephen noticed that something had changed between himself and Anna.

“I didn’t see her for three months, and she had gone from dark hair to a beautiful blonde, and I had gone from blonde to a dark vampire,” he continued. “By day three or four – oh, this is going to sound so syrupy – but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. It actually happened within seconds and it just became a thing.”

Moyer said elsewhere that he and Anna were dating by the time they filmed the pilot episodes of True Blood in 2007, even though he was still married to his first wife Lorien Haynes.

However, he has claimed that they had already broken up when he started his relationship with his costar, and that their divorce was finalized in 2008.

The two became engaged in 2009 and married in 2010 at a private home in Malibu, in the middle of True Blood’s run, although ironically their characters’ relationship became increasingly strained in later seasons.

Paquin also came out as bisexual in 2010. She and her husband welcomed fraternal twins – daughter Poppy and son Charlie – in September 2012.

Before True Blood, Anna was known for successfully navigating the often difficult transition from child stardom to a stable acting career as an adult.

After her Oscar win, she appeared in other popular films in her teens, including Fly Away Home (1996) and Almost Famous (2000), which earned her a SAG nomination.

As an adult, she has balanced her appearances in popular blockbuster films (several Whale by Noah Baumbach. others.

Anna looked her best at the premiere in a sleek black dress with long sleeves covered in glittering sequins.

It had sharp padded shoulders and a skirt that reached mid-thigh.

She paired the look with black stockings and black nail polish, along with short leather boots, and even her all-black walking stick matched the look.

The Margaret star wore her dark brown hair, with a slight bounce back and tightly tied, putting her winning smile in the spotlight.

Stephen complemented her monochrome ensemble with one of his own, consisting of a tasteful black suit with narrow pointed lapels and a black shirt without a tie.