The Untold Truth Of Annabelle Wallis
If you are not yet familiar with the name Annabelle Wallis, it is time to get onboard the train, because it is only gaining steam while you wait at the station. Wallis began her screen career in 2005 when she appeared in the intercultural romantic film "Dil Jo Bhi Kahey...," and her career has steadily mounted from there. Her first big break came when she was cast in a small arc on the television series "The Tudors," followed by other guest roles in "Pan Am" and "Strike Back." In 2013, Wallis joined the acclaimed Netflix series "Peaky Blinders," which caused her star to catapult. She played Grace Shelby, who was married to the main character Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) during the early seasons of the show. Further displaying her range, Wallis has voiced the character Zora on "Star Trek: Discovery."
In addition to her television work, Wallis has established herself as a budding movie star with roles in high-profile films like "Tag," "The Mummy," and "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword." She headlined the horror "Malignant" and the action film "The Silencing." Outside of her career endeavors, the actor is a beach-loving world traveler with the Instagram to prove it. Wallis has made a splash for everything from her cultural upbringing to her fashion sense to her high-profile lovers. Here is the untold truth of the fascinating Annabelle Wallis.
She was born in England but not raised there
Though she is technically British — having been born in Oxford, England (per Interview magazine) — Annabelle Wallis did not actually grow up in the United Kingdom, despite what her accent might lead you to believe. When she was a baby, Wallis' family moved to Cascais, Portugal, which is where she spent the bulk of her formative years. "We left England because I was expected to go to boarding school and have the same upbringing that my parents had, but my mother wanted something different for her children," Wallis told Town & Country. "She wanted us to be who we would be. Of course, we went to great schools and all that, but she was adamant that we nurtured who we were."
According to an interview she did with GQ, Wallis spent 17 years in Portugal, during which time she led a very different life from the one she has today as a Hollywood starlet. "It was a real outdoor lifestyle — a lot of sports, paintballing and motocross-bike riding with my brother," she told InStyle in 2016. While Wallis dabbled in acting by starring in school plays, some local theatre, and even a few short films, it was not until she graduated that she jumped into acting as a career (per Interview). She moved to London to look for jobs and possibly attend drama school, but quickly found an agent and booked the first role she auditioned for. The rest is history.
She speaks four languages
Annabelle Wallis moved to Portugal at age one and a half, which explains why she speaks Portuguese in addition to English. She once told an InStyle interviewer that while she thinks in English more often, she enjoys writing in Portuguese due to the descriptive nature of the language. Her language skills do not stop there, either, because Wallis is also fluent in Spanish and French. "I do feel very fortunate that I grew up in a Latin culture and learnt another language," she told Glass magazine. "When I approach a character or a script I can approach it from different points of view, with maybe a more international perspective."
As she told The Hollywood Reporter, Wallis went to an American school for years while living in Portugal, which immersed her in a vast array of languages through the other students. It is that exposure that has allowed her to master accents over the years, playing everything from American to Irish. "We had 42 different nationalities in [a] year at school and when one of the new kids would arrive we would adapt our voice to the intonations of their first language to try to help them understand, and speak in their accent," she explained to Glass magazine. "Now I use that all the time — I do all my pieces in an accent because my own accent is so mid-Atlantic that I have to adapt it with each part."
Annabelle Wallis is not the only entertainer in the family
We won't go so far as to call her family an acting dynasty, but Annabelle Wallis has more than a couple of actors and entertainers in her lineage. For starters, she is paternally related to singer Marie Lloyd, whose song she was asked to sing in an episode of "Peaky Blinders" (per Interview). Her father is also reportedly an actor, per Glass magazine. But that is nothing in comparison to her mother's side, which includes famed Irish actor Richard Harris, a Grammy winner who has two Academy Award nominations under his belt. He also played Dumbledore in the first two "Harry Potter" films (the role was recast after his death).
Harris is Wallis' great uncle, but she was never steered into acting because of that. "I lived a very different life to the one I live now in London. Cinema was a luxury — you went once a week — the whole idea of celebrity was completely absent," she told Glass magazine. "But it was such an instinctual thing, like a path that was already paved that I could not avoid." Wallis' cousins also could not avoid the path, as they followed their father Richard into the business. Her first cousin once removed is Jared Harris, who is best known for appearing as Lane Pryce on "Mad Men," for which he was Emmy nominated. Jared's brother Jamie is also an actor, and his brother Damian is a director.
She enjoys playing characters from different time periods
Some actors go their whole careers only playing present-day characters, while others are constantly appearing in period pieces. Wallis has done both but became famous for the latter earlier in her career. One of her first roles was in "Diana: Last Days of a Princess," set in the late 1990s before Princess Diana's death. Wallis went on to appear in "The Tudors," set in 16th-century Britain, and "Pan Am," which centered on a group of American stewardesses in the 1960s. "I loved the opulence of the Tudor period...attention to detail — incredible," Wallis said in an interview with Filler magazine. "I love the sixties...the clothes of the time defined a turning point for women: the lipstick generation in full swing, the controversial mini skirt. I love that fashion mirrored sexual liberation and a real turning point for women's liberation."
And then there is Wallis' breakout role in "Peaky Blinders," the first season of which was set in 1919. The subsequent four seasons depict basically all of the 1920s, and then Season 6 is set in 1933. Wallis appears in four seasons, but not in order (we won't spoil anything). For what it is worth, Wallis thinks it makes sense that she has been cast in period projects. "There's a very contemporary way to hold yourself," she told DuJour. "And there's also a more classic way that you find. I slip into that role easier." "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and "W.E." are two more projects where Wallis stepped into other time periods.
Tom Cruise saved her life
Annabelle Wallis has had her fair share of high-profile co-stars, but Tom Cruise is certainly amongst the biggest of these names. Their partnership in "The Mummy" was quite interesting for a variety of reasons, including the fact that Cruise reportedly cut their love scene, which Wallis had been looking forward to (per Team Coco). Wallis also let slip another interesting fact, which is that Cruise does not typically let his co-stars run alongside him on the screen. While Cruise originally denied her the shot, she persisted and wore him down. "I would time my treadmill so that he'd walk in and see me run. And then he added all these running scenes. So, that was it. It was, like, better than an Oscar. I was so happy! I was so happy that I got to run on-screen with Tom Cruise," she told The Hollywood Reporter.
The most dramatic story Wallis has told about her time on "The Mummy" has to do with a stunt gone horribly wrong. To shoot a dramatic plane crash scene, the actors were aboard a zero-gravity plane, which eliminates the effects of gravity, and Wallis got stuck when a parachute pack wrapped around her neck. "The plane was coming out of weightlessness about to hit gravity and I heard the countdown '5, 4, 3 ...' At three I said, 'I'm stuck!' and Tom was like, 'Annabelle, don't worry I got you,' and he ran and freed me and we returned to earth and he'd saved my life," she told People.
Annabelle Wallis rebels against being pigeonholed
As a slim, gorgeous blond, Annabelle Wallis could easily find herself cast in only the "girlfriend" roles — which she has purposefully had to work against over the course of her career. She has appeared in everything from drama to horror to action, but Wallis is careful about the types she plays. In a Town & Country interview, she discussed bypassing roles that were little more than glamour shots for pretty girls. "I like the idea that I come into a room, and you think you're dealing with one thing, but the truth is I'm very layered," she said. "I'm this blond, blue-eyed woman who you can be fooled into thinking is quite safe but is actually rather dangerous."
In order to avoid getting typecast, Wallis has intentionally accepted roles that push the boundaries of what she has already done. Some doubted her casting as a Midwestern sheriff in "The Silencing," per The Hollywood Reporter, but Wallis proved she could play gruff and unadorned. It is all about being daring, as Wallis noted in a Collider interview where she discussed her work in the 2021 comedy "Silent Night." "If you are fortunate enough to do what I do, you have to take the opportunities that challenge yourself," she said. "I don't want to be pigeonholed into one genre or one type, or guide my career by my aesthetic, or whatever it is. I have to constantly try to fight through, and I'm happy to do that."
The script for Silent Night blew her away
Most actors dream of the day when they can become successful enough that they have a choice in which projects they take on, and Annabelle Wallis is no exception. She seems to focus heavily on the story when choosing projects and has spoken out on numerous occasions about the "Silent Night" script that blew her away when she first read it.
The film is not your standard comedy, in that it combines two very disparate things — an apocalypse and Christmas. But the characters and story spoke to Wallis on a deep level. "I've been so thirsty for one of these classic British comedies," she told Collider. "And then, I wept. By the end, I was weeping. I was so wowed by my own emotional arc. I hadn't really read a script like it. It was thought-provoking, funny, intelligent, and really saying something, so I wanted to be a part of it."
Wallis was also excited about the talent involved in the film, both behind and in front of the camera. She has said she was a big fan of co-star Keira Knightley, as well as some of the supporting cast, and that everyone got along smashingly (per Screen Rant). Wallis was also pumped about getting to work with first-time writer and director Camille Griffin. The actor told Collider, "Camille is a pretty ballsy woman. That's what sold me. She's a force field." Wallis has a subsequent potential project in development with both Griffin and Knightley.
The world is her oyster
Annabelle Wallis has a big-time career that takes up much of her time, but that has not stopped her from developing a number of personal interests, from psychology to travel. Many of these also impact how she approaches her work, as they allow her to learn about the world and the human experience. For instance, in an interview with Glass magazine, she name-checked Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. "I've got really into Carl Jung and his interpretations of dreams, and the subconscious. It struck me that there is something of a channeling that happens, and you get very connected to a character," she explained, adding, "When you're going through pain, and you're reliving pain, and sometimes emotion comes up, and you don't even know where it's from, it affects you."
Wallis also has a deep-rooted interest in traveling the world, which is something she has been doing since she was young. She told Town & Country that she has done everything from backpack her way through South America to engage in conservation efforts in Africa. The star was also planning a trip to Thailand. "I feel like the more experience you have, the more believable you are as a character," she explained. "I need to put myself out in the world and be brave and be uncomfortable. When I do, it means I can enjoy life so much more." In this same article, she discussed another interest, photography, which pairs quite well with Wallis' explorer gene.
She has rebounded after a high-profile breakup
Like most up-and-coming Hollywood darlings, Annabelle Wallis has had to deal with scrutiny about her love life. It probably doesn't help that she has a tendency to choose huge celebrities to date. First it was Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, with whom she confirmed her relationship in 2015 (per the Daily Mail). The pair broke up two years later, after which Wallis moved on to another hot, equally high-profile Chris, actor Chris Pine. Their four-year relationship received much attention, both because of Pine's notoriety and his desire for privacy (which means we were scrambling for spottings and clues!).
According to People, Pine and Wallis dated from March 2018 until March 2022. Though Pine would be a hard act for any man to follow, Wallis seems to have rebounded after her public breakup. She was spotted spending time with actor Sebastian Stan, and Us Weekly referred to her as his "rumored girlfriend" on August 14, 2022. On that occasion, Wallis was spotted in photos from Stan's 40th birthday celebrations in Greece. Though no official comments have been made on the pairing, this is not the first time Wallis and Stan have been photographed together. They made the news in mid-July 2022 for having lunch and taking a walk in New York City (per the Daily Mail), two days after spending a night out together in Los Angeles (via ET).
Annabelle Wallis is a multi-millionaire
Her rumored boyfriend Sebastian Stan is reportedly worth $8 million, but Annabelle Wallis is by no means needing him to pick up the check at dinner. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Wallis is worth $4 million. She accumulated the majority of her money through her acting projects, including five episodes of "The Tudors" and 19 episodes of "Peaky Blinders," as well as her strong catalogue of film work.
In addition to the money she brings in from acting, Wallis also serves as a face for Cartier. In 2018, she became the company's "Panthère ambassador for watchmaking and jewellery," which led to her appearance in campaign videos. She also posts many photos promoting the brand's jewels on her Instagram, which has 1 million followers. "I found that Panthère de Cartier resonates with the forces and energy that drive me as a woman," the sparkling ambassador said in a statement, per WorldTempus. Given that her star is on the rise, we expect Wallis' earnings to keep increasing in the years to come.
Annabelle Wallis is a feminist and sees herself as a role model
Annabelle Wallis is a self-described feminist, and she has even been spotted wearing "we should all be feminists" emblazoned on a t-shirt. The topic is one she does not shy away from, and she has expressed a desire to produce work that promotes the messages she believes in while still entertaining audiences. "Yeah, when you talk of duty, I definitely feel that. I feel like we're in an age in cinema at the moment where we are really asked to say something with the work that we do," she said in a Screen Rant interview. "So for myself, I feel indebted to...trying in the way I can, but also making it a place [of] escapism for people."
Part of Wallis' journey includes acknowledging the fact that she is a role model for other women. She is conscious of this in her work, but also in how she conducts herself within the industry and the press. In one interview with Glass magazine, Wallis noted that she uses her voice to speak up for equality, both for herself and for those who will follow her into the industry. "I always ask myself 'What will you tolerate?'" she said, "And mourn the idea — if it were my niece, (who's four years old) or my friend's little sister just leaving drama school — what would you tolerate? If you tolerate it, they tolerate it."
She loves fashion and dressing up
Annabelle Wallis is a lover of fashion, and the fashion world loves her back. As Grazia reported, "She is a muse to fashion designer Christopher Kane." The star has made regular appearances at fashion week shows across the world. Town & Country noted that she has attended high-profile events for brands like Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, and that she was seated in the first row — a big deal in fashion circles. She has even attended the Met Gala as Dolce & Gabbana's personal guest (per Grazia).
"I love fashion. I've grown to embrace it over the years. To really enjoy it. Have fun and take risks," Wallis told Filler. "I'd say [I have] an ever-changing style."
Wallis has described herself as someone who loves to dress up and at times has to be reminded to take things down a notch in her everyday look. "I'm actually very opulent in real life," she admitted to InStyle. "If I get a chance to dress up, I really go for it. I went to read for a part in L.A. recently and the casting director emailed me saying, 'Annabelle, please come in jeans and a T-shirt, as simple as possible. We know what you're like!'" Wallis can easily list off her favorite designers, which include Givenchy, Miuccia Prada, Richard Ricci, and Roksanda Ilinca, and the fashion houses of Valentino, Chanel, and Lanvin (per Filler magazine). She comes across in interviews as nothing short of a true fashionista.
Annabelle Wallis is involved with many charities and causes
Like many people in the public eye, Annabelle Wallis has used her celebrity to advocate for causes she cares about. In fact, she has been supporting many of these causes, such as the environment, since before she reached a high level of fame. Speaking with Interview, Wallis discussed her conservation work in the Republic of Botswana, something that aligned with her teenage desire to work in anthropology and have a nature reserve.
Beyond the environment, Wallis has been involved with a number of charities doing good in the world. For example, she promoted Save the Children, a humanitarian aid organization, on her Instagram in April 2020, and once wore a sustainable dress to raise money for Age UK, which focused on helping the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2018, Wallis was a part of "Letters Live," a performance showcase that featured celebrity readings and musical performances for the benefit of 826LA, a non-profit for students in Los Angeles, and Women for Women International, which helps female war survivors. She has been involved with The Roger Moore Charity Project, with proceeds going to UNICEF, and Choose Love, a pop-up store raising funds for refugees (per The Hollywood Reporter).