Anastasie Lane Schratter-Colvin was born into a home with two kitchens, two staircases, and two single parents. Determined as they were to keep Anastasie's life bordering on normal, the divorced pair (Joseph Schratter and Gianna Colvin, respectively,) purchased a sprawling mansion that was, for all intents and purposes, two different homes smashed into one large building. Joseph kept post over the west side, and Gianna the east- as if going away to summer camp every week, Anastasie would occasionally pack a bag for the time she'd spend across the house, sleeping and eating and watching television in one wing while pretending her entire life would not repeat in the other wing on Sunday. It was only when Anastasie got to school that she realized that this sort of setup was peculiar- having been raised in it since she was nine months old, the age where her parents' divorce was finalized, she had no idea there was any other way to live your life.
Then again, Anastasie was born out of peculiarity. The daughter of a newly-retired pro wrestler the likes of Hulk Hogan and The Rock and his faithful groupie, no one in the lives of the Schratter-Colvins had any prediction of marital bliss. The two married for separate, but equal reasons- Joe, because he desperately wanted someone to show affection toward, and Gianna, because she desperately wanted to never have to feel poor, lower-class, or worthless again. Though they met in California, the pair ended up in Joseph's native town, Nashville, where they began their lives together. Only two years later- and nine months into Anastasie's life- the pair were divorced, living together, of course, for their lovely daughter, a bright-eyed brunette who came out of the womb wailing so loud there could be no doubt of her lungs, or her power.
Gianna had high hopes for Anastasie from the moment she was born and, like most "manager" parents, quickly started sending out photos of Anastasie for commercial work. The pair would fly to Gianna's native California home, spend the week or two with Anastasie's grandmother, a well-meaning but notoriously cold woman, and then fly back to Nashville when work was done. She showed up in the usual ad campaigns for bright-eyed little kids: Toys R Us, GAP, KB Toys, Lisa Frank. Anastasie didn't particularly enjoy the work, though she did enjoy the trips. She was nine years old when her mother made a life-altering decision: with the help of a almost entirely useless agent, she had Anastasie audition for the role of Matilda, the lead in a children's movie- and she got it.
From that moment, Anastasie wasn't Anastasie but instead became Ana, a cleaner, easier name. The "King" they stole from Ana's great great grandmother, Iva Jean King, and those Ana never met her, she was so fond of this new name, much easier to spell than her own birth name of Schratter-Colvin, that she accepted it immediately. This was who she was now: Ana King, superstar. And while she enjoyed filming, loved spending time with Danny Devito and dancing and making a mess, she showed up to the premiere and, with all the flashing lights in her face, calmly told her mother that she was done. She wanted to be a veterinarian, not an actress.
To Gianna's credit, the pair were back in Nashville in no time, and she never said a word about it- though she certainly stormed about it to herself from time to time. Agent after agent rang up Gianna's phone line telling her about all the great things they could land for Ana, and each time, Gianna would have to say, exasperatedly, "I'm sorry. She doesn't want to do it any more. She's decided to be a veterinarian." And though Gianna surely did her best to be a supportive parent instead of a pushy manager, she did make sure to let Ana know that veterinarians kill the puppies and kitties sometimes, too.
Growing up in that big house in Nashville meant that Joe and Gianna wanted Ana to feel like a normal kid- to go through the same things all kids do, to not lose her childhood on a prep school or home schooling. So she was shipped off to a school a little outside of her district, a little more rough around the edges than the school that housed the other hybrid high-class suburban kids, and here, when word got out that Anastasie Lane Schratter-Colvin was an actress, things became difficult. Things became even more difficult in 2002 when Ana decided to return to acting, taking a role in a children's comedy that meant she spent three months of school on location- making the other students in her class both revere and absolutely loathe her.
Not at all helpful to Ana's case was that she was outted as bisexual- here, Ana's parents had failed her again, in their own way. Joe and Gianna had been so understanding of Ana's fascination with women- at seven years old, she fell in love for the first time with a girl named Cecilia, and proudly told her mother all the details- that she had expected that same love and appreciation from others. When word got out around school that Ana was not only an actress but one who liked girls, the not-so-clever moniker "Gay Matilda" started floating around and, though she loathed it, it stuck.
Mercilessly bullied and often beaten up by her classmates, Ana was determined to get out of Nashville and hopefully, never come back. Though her parents had stood firm in making her stay in the school where the bullies waited, they agreed to her request to leave for Los Angeles immediately after graduation, and after punching one of her school bullies in the nose so hard she had bled all over her graduation gown, she disappeared, Gay Matilda no more.
At first, Ana took any job that was offered to her- little more than a child star or teen queen, she had no right to demand a special kind of script or a special kind of role. Any role she liked, she auditioned for it, and if she got it, she got it. This meant that occasionally she got herself into some real messes- but it also got her into the lead role of Juno, for which she won an Oscar nomination, and suddenly became more than just the Matilda they once knew.
With the nomination came more concrete roles, but it was still hard to get out of playing the sidekick or the guest star. She managed a role in Captain America, but the part lasted maybe five minutes on screen, and most audiences didn't even notice her. Ironically, this was just one year before she landed Tiffany in Silver Lining's Playbook, and her entire life and perspective changed. The decision to cast Ana King as the main character in the film was often criticised- given her film history, no one thought she'd be able to carry the work. Maybe that was exactly what saved her: Ana ended up winning an Oscar for the film, and, with it, she gained the ability to pick and choose her roles as she pleased.
Now, Ana works only on films that interest her, while she works tirelessly to gain traction in her fight for better roles for women. She writes many think pieces on the topic, and on bisexuality and feminism in general, which are often posted in some magazine or another- as long as she agrees to do a cover shoot for them. Still severely crippled by anxiety and a looming eating disorder, Ana certainly isn't all the way "there" yet, wherever "there" is. But she's figuring it out.