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Hangin' With Archives
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Alexis Bledel and America Ferrera:In the “Sisterhood”Petite, elfin-faced, blue eyed Alexis Bledel has carved a niche in fandom with her feisty portrayal of Rory Gilmore in TV’s “The Gilmore Girls”. She also branched out as a hot street chick in the recent Sin City. She played the sweet girl in love with an ageless boyfriend in Tuck Everlasting and rocked out in Bride and Prejudice. America Ferrera, the curvy Latina actress who plays writer Carmen in the new BFF group film Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, got noticed for the Sundance indie film Real Women Have Curves which garnered her an award for Best Actress and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her debut performance. You can catch her in the upcoming skateboard actioner Lords of Dogtown as well. Together, these two young women are a powerful duo. They’ve bonded while shooting the film and emphasize the obvious; that, despite ethnic and physical differences, hey, girls can be best buds. Wouldn’t it be boring if we only hung out with people who looked and acted just like us? For our chat in L.A.’s Century City, America looked ultra-hot in low-cut blue denim blouse with tons of cute chunky turquoise beads. Alexis had a smoky eye number going on and a print cammie over violet tank and tons of gold necklaces. Tune in as the ladies spill on hanging out while filming, their love of the original “Pants” novel, their audition story horrors and future plans. We spoke a bit with America first since Alexis was running for a quick bathroom break. AGW: We know that one pair of pants can’t really fit four obviously different size girls. How was that scene shot?
AGW: So why go to all the trouble of the effects shot? America: I don’t know. They wanted to add that little magic. It was really great to see them be passed from Bridget [Blake Lively] to the two that are the most polar opposite. I thought that was really awesome and lent to the whole mystery. AGW: Had you read the book before auditioning for the film? America: No. I got the script, read the script and read with Ken and Deborah. That’s Ken Kwapis [the director] and Deborah Martin Chase, who is the producer. Then I went out and read the first book because that’s what the script is based on and then had to read the second book because I was a big fan. Before the last book came out, Amber [Tamblyn] knew how much I loved the book and brought me an advance copy of it. She’s like, ‘you are the third person in the world to read it’. I was so honored. I actually read it on set so yeah, I’m a big fan of the books. AGW: Can you talk about your heritage and background? America: I was born and raised in Los Angeles and my parents are from Honduras and they came here right before they started having children and I’m the youngest of six so all six of us were born here in the U.S. AGW: Do you have the most patriotic name? America: Actually, my mom’s name is America as well. In Honduras, she was born on Americas Day which is April 14th. I was supposed to be born on April 14th but I wanted my own birthday so I waited. But, I was named after my mom because I was due on her birthday. AGW: [At this point, Alexis rushes in and sits down] Alexis, did you know the book? Alexis: I got to know the book once I was involved with the project. Then it helped me fill in the blanks, the stuff that wasn’t included about the characters and their history in the script, it just helped fill me in with that stuff. AGW: Why do you think that the book caught on so well? Alexis: I think it caught on because the stories that these four girls have individually in the book are extremely relatable. They’re very real teenage experiences and I think the friendship between the four girls is something that is more realistic than a lot of the relationships we see between girls in movies lately. A lot of the time it’s like backstabbing or petty or superficial. I think most girls’ relationships are real friendships like these. I don’t think they’re that much more dramatic. AGW: You were in three films this year; Sin City, Bride and Prejudice and now this one. How do you choose your scripts? These couldn’t be more different. Alexis: I have a wonderful manager who is sort of, miraculously, on the same page with me most of the time. We just really like the same kinds of stories. We like good material, good stories. I think that helps. AGW: Sin City was kind of a departure for you wasn’t it? Alexis: Well, I didn’t get a chance to read it actually. The script wasn’t out there but we did have a chance to pick up the graphic novels. They basically shot the graphic novels frame for frame. So I saw those and thought it was going to be a visually amazing which it was to me. It was so fun to see it when it came together because we just worked on green screen so we were audience members too, in a way, when we got to see it all together. AGW: How long were you in Greece? It looked so beautiful in the film. Was it during the Olympics? Alexis: I was there for three weeks. It was right as the Olympics were being set up, just is they were kind of beginning to go. Usually, it’s easy for me to pick up bits of languages when I travel but Greek was so foreign to me. It was like a different part of my brain that I couldn’t access or something. But, it was fun to hear it. People speaking Greek have a lot of passion. It sounds like they are excited or angry or something all the time. It’s like ‘oh, what’s going on over there’? It’s cool to listen to. AGW: Do you have any good stories from the shoot over there?
AGW: Some people are going to classify this as a chick flick. Don’t you think guys will like it too? Alexis: I think that if any teenage boys do end up getting either dragged to this movie or end up taking a girl to see this movie, they’re gonna realize that stories like Carmen’s story in the film are just human experiences that have to do with family that aren’t so far beyond their realm of understanding. A lot of the guys who have seen it have actually said they relate most to Carmen’s story because it’s a story about miscommunication with a parent or the lack of a relationship or trying to find how you relate to a parent who has started a new family. That’s a very real topic in our society to any gender. AGW: Shouldn’t they also like looking at the pretty girls? Alexis: Yeah, they should. Blake’s running around playing soccer in those little shorts and she looks cute. AGW: America, have you filmed anything else since this? America: Yes. I did Lords of Dogtown at the same time and then I shot an independent over the winter break. I’m a fulltime student at USC so I kind of restrict shooting to breaks, to my vacations and I shot this last summer. The indie is called Steel City. It’s about a boy’s relationship with his father who is in prison. I’m his girlfriend. AGW: What are you studying? America: International relations. I’m very interested in it. I just feel a responsibility to be an educated citizen and be a smarter human being. I think being part of our media, which has such a huge effect on our society, I feel obligated to be an educated person when I’m creating the images that sometimes have more of a role in effecting young society than what we would hope [rather than] news and politics and what’s really happening in the world. Who are they really looking at and who are their role models in reality? Those role models should feel a sense of responsibility. AGW: Both of you represent different types of girls who are all friends and not much is made about the differences. That’s a good thing. How do you feel about it? America: It’s funny to me that it’s weird at all to people that girls who look different would be friends. Alexis: I know because my friends look so different. They’re different people and work in different industries. America: I don’t look anything like my best friends. I don’t think I look for people who look like me [laughs] to be my friends. I just love how this story takes girls who are so physically different and an object [jeans] that is so unique to each person and then says that that one thing that is supposedly so unique and so different can be so uniting. Even though it appears it couldn’t be the same, these girls can share it. I think it’s about time that grown-ups start sending the message that people who come from different backgrounds have similar experiences because they’re humans. Alexis: I think it’s a mature idea, an adult idea that you can have friends different from yourself. That you can learn from them and have fun with them because of they’re different from you. It enriches your life and it’s an immature idea for form cliques and only hang out with people who do what you do and categorize yourself in that way. I think this [film] presents an idea to a younger generation who could benefit from it. AGW: Anyone have any jean preference? Alexis: I don’t know much about the brands. I know the styles I like. I like a really loose-fitting pair because it’s comfortable or, if you’re going out you want something tight that looks good. Whatever fits. AGW: What gadget can you not live without right now? America: My cell phone. Alexis: My Blackberry. AGW: Anything cool about your cell phone, America? America: It’s a Trio. It’s kind of like a Blackberry. You can open it and write Word documents on it. It’s ridiculous. I check my e-mail and I dial phone numbers and take pictures with the camera. It’s got this awesome camera on it. AGW: What do you use your Blackberry for? Alexis: E-mail. The newer ones are great because they have speaker phone and you can pictures and text and make calls. AGW: What are your worst audition stories? America: Oh so many! I hate auditions. I had a pretty horrifying one. They were adding season regulars to ‘Boston Public’ and I went in and knocked ‘um dead. Had a great audition and they called me back the next day to read for David E. Kelley [show creator]. I had a paper due that day and I spent the entire night up writing the paper and I turned in the paper and drove from the San Fernando Valley to Manhattan Beach in a rush looking at my lines. It was paragraphs of lines I was trying to memorize. I get there and David E. Kelley is sitting there and all the producers and I just totally blanked. I was so angry at myself but I got over it. That was a horrible audition. Alexis: I’ve definitely had the ones where I’ve been too busy to prepare and I’m just holding the paper and reading essentially. You don’t have time always. I blank the bad ones out. I don’t have many bad memories because they leave my brain as soon as things happen. I only have good memories. AGW: At one point in the film, the girls take a short road trip. Have either of you been on a road trip or cruising with a bunch of girls? America: Yes, with my sisters. I’m one of five girls in my family. Alexis: It’s fun. It’s the girliest, loudest most fun.. America: It’s like silly and fun and gross and all those things. AGW: Okay, tell the truth. Did you guys get into any trouble on the set of this movie? America: Every day! [laughter] Alexis: We were always in trouble, always loud. America: Always doing something wrong. They couldn’t get us to shut up. They’re like ‘we can’t hear anybody’s lines. Please stop laughing’. AGW: Where did you hang out in Vancouver? America: They had a great music scene. We went to concerts and movies and dinner and shopping. We went to an indoor outdoor place and they had trees inside. Alexis: It was two stories. They had really good crab and stuff.
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America:
[teasing us] What are you talking about? Those were magic jeans. What
are you trying to say? That I couldn’t fit into Blake’s jeans?
No. It was really funny because there was one take where we forgot to
do our thing and I put on the jeans and they like closed! Blake looked
at me and she had this look on her face like ‘oh my God’.
I said ‘what?’ ‘They fit you!’. I’m like
‘oh my God’ and they did. We were so excited. 
Alexis:
They had me running around like crazy. They had me riding Vespa scooters
and motorcycles which I hadn’t ridden before in my life but I was
like ‘come on, let’s go!’ It was so fun. I was swimming
and riding donkeys and drawing. I had like summer camp over there.