Take Us Back Mira Sorvino

For 30-plus years, the actress has wowed Us with her vulnerability in both drama and comedy. Now starring on Broadway in Chicago, she shares her journey

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Mira Sorvino contains multitudes: She's a Harvard grad, an Oscar winner, a U.N. ambassador, a onetime muse of the late Giorgio Armani and a protective mom of four. (She and her husband of 21 years, Christopher Backus, are parents to Mattea, 20, Johnny, 19, Holden, 16, and Lucia, 13.) We're only half-kidding when we ask: Has her hair color put her on top? Known for iconically blond roles in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Norma Jean & Marilyn and Mighty Aphrodite, she is actually a natural brunette.

"As a child, I was super serious: I was the dark-haired intellectual girl, very studious, quiet and introspective," the actress, 58, tells Us. "Being blond, for some reason, unlocks the lighter side of my personality and allows me to be kooky or enjoy life a bit more." She continues: "So weird, right?"

Wigging Out

Now she's singing and dancing on Broadway (and "elated wearing my wig") as Roxie Hart in Chicago. "I went to Broadway shows all the time with my parents," she recalls (dad is the late actor Paul Sorvino). "Some of the incredible performances we saw made me decide to be an actor." At the beginning of her second act, Sorvino looks back at where she's been.

SWANS CROSSING

1992

• Sorvino scored her first major role on this daytime soap, a high school drama that also helped launch the careers of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Brittany Daniel. “I was by far the oldest person in [the main cast] — I was in my 20s, and most of the other people were teens,” Sorvino tells Us. “I play a character who’s half Italian, half Chinese. I don’t think that would fly today.” YouTube has given the “silly” Swans new life: “It’s achieved a kind of cult status.”