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Department Of Theatre And Media Arts

BYU alumna Mireille Enos stars in 'World War Z'

Actress Mireille Enos, who will star alongside Brad Pitt in this summer’s anticipated blockbuster “World War Z,” traces some of her acting roots back to Brigham Young University. Enos grew up a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her father met her French mother while serving his LDS mission in France, according to IMDb.com. Enos grew up in Houston and attended a high school for performing and visual arts. While enrolled in BYU’s acting program, Enos won the Irene Ryan award in 1996, a distinction only three other BYU alumni claim. She went on to act in New York and Los Angeles, where she began appearing in TV and theater productions, namely HBO’s “Big Love” and AMC’s detective series “The Killing.” “World War Z” is Enos’ first lead appearance in a major film. “Just a few months before I got this movie I was saying to my husband, ‘You know, I’ve done theater, and I’m working in TV and that’s going great and I just can’t seem to crack the movie thing,’” Enos said in an interview on 'The View.' “And then I got this and he was like, “I don’t want to hear anything from you for a really long time.’” While on a panel with other actresses, Enos joked about how horrible it was to kiss co-star Brad Pitt for this film. “We’d be asked what was the scariest experience of our whole career, and these girls were telling really serious stories about directors, and opening on Broadway and I was like, ‘I’ve got to lighten it up,’ so I tried to make a joke,” Enos said on 'The View.' “So I said, ‘Would it be wrong to say kissing Brad Pitt on the second day of shooting? Ha, ha, ha.’ Except nobody laughed. ... I wanted to just stab myself in the head with a fork. It was awful.” Enos is scheduled to continue working in film, starring in upcoming movies with actors such as Brooke Shields, Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth and Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also appeared in 'Gangster Squad' (released in earlier this year) with Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone. In 2008 she married Alan Ruck, who is most known for his role as Cameron Frye in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Together, they have one daughter, Vesper Vivianne Ruck. “I think being a mom teaches you everything you need to know about yourself,” Enos said in an interview with theHollywood Foreign Press Association. “She’s brilliant. She’s an amazing, amazing girl.” Source: Deseret News