Kiwi star Anna Paquin breaks silence over Irishman controversy

Kiwi star Anna Paquin has spoken out after fans slammed her latest film insisting she's "incredibly proud" of her work and the project.

Fans took to social media to express their outrage when The Irishman released and they saw that Paquin had only six words of dialogue and spent only ten minutes on screen, despite being the film's only female lead.

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One was prompted to ask: "What was the point of casting her let alone creating the part to begin with?!"

Speculation even began to rise over whether or not Paquin had somehow been "ordered" to take on the role - a notion which the star has now laughed off.

Paquin took to Twitter to clear the air writing, "Nobody was doing any 'ordering'. I auditioned for the privilege of joining the incredible cast of @TheIrishmanFilm and I'm incredibly proud to get to be a part of this film."

In the film, Paquin plays Peggy, the daughter of De Niro's character Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran, a real-life hitman and war veteran who worked for infamous Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa and the Bufalino crime family.

In a previous interview, Paquin told the MailOnline: "I think a lot can be said without words. I think sometimes a look is worth a thousand words and the internalised judgement that [Peggy] has passed on her father is not something that she would be able to verbalise, not at that stage of her life.

"She'd need 20 years of therapy to be able to explain to him why he was a problematic parent. But it was really interesting, it was a bit of a challenge but one that was incredibly exciting for me.'

Some fans were able to see and appreciate that too, with one writing: "Anna Paquin, with almost no dialogue, delivers nothing but subtlety" and another pointing out: "Anna Paquin is excellent... and her lack of dialogue is both the point and what makes her arc so devastating."

Director Martin Scorsese also addressed Paquin's role while speaking with Spike Lee on The Director's Cut podcast

He said: "I decided that she doesn't have to say anything... Anna ultimately was amazing in the looks. She has one line in the film. There's something you can't talk about. She knows it. She knows who he is. He knows she knows."