When Denys Arcand cast Jessica Paré as the lead in his film “Stardom” in 1999, little did Jessica know the role would mirror her own experience with fame over the course of the subsequent decade. In Arcand’s film, Jessica plays Tina, an unassuming Canadian teenage hockey player who catapults to instant fame. In similar fashion in the wake of the film (it screened out of competition in Cannes in 2000), Jessica came to great attention – even landing in the top 25 most beautiful people in Canada by a Canadian magazine.
She was born outside Montreal in 1982 to a theatre family and attended Villa Marie High School in Montreal where she performed in the school’s stage productions. After some minor roles on TV, Arcand plucked her from a pool of possibilities for the role of Tina in “Stardom” and propelled Jessica to a whirlwind of attention and offers. She followed “Stardom” with “Lost and Delirious” for the openly lesbian director Lea Pool. A couple of miniseries roles followed before another acclaimed indie director, Deepha Mehta, cast her in “Bollywood/Hollywood” in 2002.
Jessica crossed over to Hollywood in 2004 in “Wicker Park” before returning to more TV series (“Lives of the Saints” and “Jack & Bobby”). The end of the 2000s displayed Jessica’s versatility in donning a variety of roles in films like “Suck,” “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Peepers,” to name a few. She married filmmaker Joe Smith in 2007 and now claims Los Angeles as her home. More recently, she has joined the cast of the widely popular “Mad Men” for its fourth season.
Jessica on Video
Canadian Film Centre Interview
Short video interview with Jessica on “Suck” and horror movies.
“Suck” Trailer
Official trailer for the vampire comedy “Suck.”
Jessica on the Screen
She’s Rosana Profaci in “Bonano: A Godfather’s Story” in 1999, Tina in “Stardom,” Tori in “Lost and Delirious,” and Kimberly in “Bollywood/Hollywood” in 2002. She has co-starred in the TV series “Napoleon,” “Jack & Bobby,” “Lives of the Saints,” and most recently “Mad Men” in 2010. Her recent film appearances include “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “The Trotsky” and “Suck.”
Jessica Says
On fame:
“When the time comes when nobody cares about me anymore and nobody wants to see my face anymore, then that’s fine, too. It’s totally normal.”