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Hangin' With Archives
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Amber Tamblyn and Blake LivelyWear it Well!They have a lot in common. Both were born into show biz families. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is gorgeous Blake Lively’s screen debut and TV’s “Joan of Arcadia” Amber Tamblyn’s latest journey from small screen to large. Amber and Blake are physical opposites. Blake is a tall, lanky blonde and Amber a more petite brunette. Other than show biz parents (Amber’s dad is ‘60’s movie star Russ Tamblyn, Blake’s dad is an actor/director and her siblings are also actors), the two share the common bond of friendship and screen sisterhood, a perfect example of the tight, lifelong bonds girls of all types can form. We chatted with the duo recently in L.A.’s Century City where the girlfriends let us know that they were both draggin’ from the night before. Amber had just had her 23rd birthday party and Blake, only 16, had just gone to her prom. You wouldn’t know that the girls were sleep-deprived by their appearance. Amber’s brown, highlighted hair was all curly waves and her yellow shirt with black vest and African-inspired necklace gave her a modified “BoHo” look that was very appealing. Blake, looking complete blonde goddess, wore a light gold camisole top accented with gold sequins; very “Hollywood”. Join us for a funny interview as, like best buds, the girls tell tales on each other and we chat about gal pals, making the film and the girls’ characters, what’s up next for them and the stories of their worst auditions ever! [Note: At the time of this interview none of us, including Amber, knew that CBS had cancelled “Joan of Arcadia”!] AGW: Did the four of you (with America Ferrera and Alexis Bledel) meet and bond before making the film?
AGW: Did you have slumber parties or what? Amber: We did. You name it, we did it. We were inseparable. Whenever we did our scenes together, we had sleepovers at America's [Ferrera]. We went out to dinner with each other. I'd go jogging with America in the morning, we'd work out together, we'd go hiking together, we'd eat dinner, breakfast, lunch together. We’d go see movies. I'd go dancing with Alexis [Bledel] till like five a.m. There was a really awesome club up there called Sonar. I actually got her to break dance in a competition, that’s another story. AGW: They used special effects so that the jeans in the film appear to fit all of you. Were there some try on trials and errors? Blake: Lycra? Right. Alexis’ size. That’s gonna fit me. Amber: Yeah, no there wasn't a lot to do with the jeans. Blake: The jeans aren't really that prominent of a role in this movie. [Oddly enough]. Amber: Even though there's a gigantor backside on the ad! [laughs] Whose backside do you think that is? Not mine, ok honey! [we all laugh]. AGW: Do either of you have some really close girlfriends like the group in the book and film? Blake: I have a friend, my friend Jessica who I've had since I was 3 years old and my friend Brittany who I've had since seventh grade and we can fight like no tomorrow and we can have these crazy times and do pranks, and go do nothing together. It's this great friendship because you have such a deep understanding of one another and we know each other so well inside and out that it's amazing. AGW: How did you end up auditioning for the film, Blake? Blake: My whole family's been in the business. I've been so busy with high school and I'm in all the clubs there, I'm in all AP classes, I've been in cheer, choir and class president so my past four years at high school have been very busy. I left prom last night to come here. Amber: Or this morning, rather. Blake: But my brother knew how much I would love it and he called his agent who called me up one day and they set me up on some auditions and after a very short amount of time I got this movie so I'm very, very, very fortunate. AGW: Were either of you jealous because Alexis got to spend the summer in Greece for the film? Blake: Well, I got to spend the summer in Cabo. Amber: And I had blue hair! [Her character Tibby has blue streaks in her hair]. Vancouver is like a vacation for us. It's not Greece, obviously. Looking at the film some of those shots [in Greece] are just phenomenal. They're so beautiful. It's insane. AGW: We hear “Joan” may not be on next season [again, at this point, the show hadn’t been cancelled]. Amber: They need to move the night. That's all I'm gonna say. If it comes back, I think that Friday night is not a good night to be on. They want Blake Lively's age group, right? She's 16, 17 years old. Blake is not home on a Friday night, like get with it! AGW: Blake, would you like to do television? Amber: No. Let me tell you something, this girl is dragging her blankie and her pillow into the car at 5 a.m. still sleeping. She can't handle 16 hours a day. Maybe a sitcom. I could see you on a sitcom. [Blake just laughs]. AGW: Blake, don't your brothers and sisters have red hair? How was it growing up as a blonde? Amber: Your mom's blond; she's not a red head.
AGW: Well, how is it growing up as the ideal tall, striking long blond hair girl? Blake: I don't think of myself as that. I don't like people to see that. I'm such a dork. I'm such a loser. AGW: Well, pretty girls say that to us all the time... Amber: Yeah, but how many of them stay at the Park Hyatt Hotel and set the blanket on fire because of candles next to the bed. It's Lucille Ball right here, guys. This is the biggest klutz you'll ever meet in your life. Blake: [laughing again] I'm a klutz. Every dance I've ever gone to my date waits at the bottom of my stairs while I walk down. I have not gone to one dance that I have not fallen down the stairs. Last night everyone was dancing and being cool and freak dancing at prom to some Fifty Cent song and I get out there and start Riverdancing. I just do what's fun for me. I don't try to fit into any category or anything. I'm crazy and I do whatever it takes to have a good time. AGW: Sounds good to us. Now that you have had a taste of acting, is it something you want to continue? Blake: Yeah. I got thrown into it. I thought I knew what I was getting into because I've grown up around it but I really had no idea. Like she [Amber] said, I brought my blankie and my pillow. Oh no, it really is work. But I have the bug now. It's so much fun so after high school I'm going to try to pursue acting and see where it takes me. AGW: Are you getting offers now? Blake: I didn't want to do anything this year because I've worked too hard for too many years in school to give it all up to do a movie that who knows which way it will swing. School means so much to me that I don't ever abandon anything that's true to me. If you start early, staying true to what you want, then you'll be successful. And I felt like if it was around, if it's meant to be, it will be around later. And so, after I graduate, I'm just going to welcome it with open arms and see what happens. AGW: Do you play soccer like your character? Blake: Yes. I had two months of soccer training through trainers in Los Angeles and Canada. My brother-in-law took me to all the games with him and his friends and I played with the other girls in Canada. I played for three years when I was young and I was absolutely horrible at it but I loved it. So, when they told me I'd have to learn how to play soccer I was so excited because it's such a fun sport to play. AGW: Was everything shot in Vancouver except for the Greek sequences? Blake: Greece and Cabo. The soccer was in Canada and the running on the beach and the intimate scene was on the beach in Cabo. AGW: Amber, growing up in the industry, do you feel like you've had a normal childhood? Amber: I haven't had a lot of celebrities around me growing up. My father comes from a generation of film that actors my age don't even know about which is really sad. Really sad. So, there are very few people that know what Hit the Deck is and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You'd be surprised. West Side Story, yeah, that's universal. AGW: At what age did you start in the soap “General Hospital”? Amber: I started ‘General Hospital’ when I was 11 years old and I was on there for seven years. But I went to a school for theater before that for nine years. It's been in my genes for a while but my parents are so cool about it. AGW: So you didn’t live a life with big celebrities hanging out at your house? Amber: Probably the biggest celebrities for me even remembering are Kyle McLaughlin and David Lynch because my dad was doing ‘Twin Peaks’ when I was younger, so it's things like that. Other people like Neal Young and Dennis Hopper, those are just really close knit family friends. So it's never like there's just random celebrities hanging out at the house that I know so I'm all hooked up through that. My parents cultured me a lot and they introduced me to a lot of artists, a lot of their friends. I actually often freak out that one day I won't have the same cool stuff to give my kids like my parents have given me. It's something I think about all the time. Q: Is your mom an actress? Amber: No. My mom teaches a program called Life Skills to kids in middle school, which is like the gnarliest grades ever if you guys remember. It's like horrible. I don't know how she does it and makes no money doing it but she loves this program. She believes in it and she helped develop it. It's a program to help kids and learn how to communicate with each other and respect each other and listen. Which we know, for middle school kids, is practically impossible. AGW: Amber, what is the best piece of advice your dad gave you? Amber: As far as acting? ‘Don't get caught acting’. AGW: Would you like to work with your dad on a film? Amber: Yes, absolutely, I'd like to do a nice meaty piece with my dad. it'd be interesting. AGW: Fun question. What things do you have in your life that you can’t do without? Blake: Rhinestones. I rhinestone everything: my letterman jacket, my cell phone, my iPod, my shoes. Amber: Probably my knitting stuff. I love to knit scarves, I make them for my friends or boyfriend or whatever. It's fun. I've been doing it for a long time. Way before it was cool. AGW: [fishing] What do you knit your boyfriend? Amber: A scarf. Like a dark blue or green scarf. AGW: Isn’t that too hot In California? Amber: [sly grin] Maybe he doesn't live in California. AGW: Are you into technology at all? Amber: I'm majorly into everything that Mac ever made ever. I keep all of their old computers like trophies. I love technology. Really, I probably only have stuff dated back five years but that's old. AGW: What are your worst audition stories? Amber: I think they were all when I was younger like nine, probably. They'd be like ‘you've obviously never done this before, have you? Okay, well maybe you should go figure it out, what you want to do with your life’. Like they were mean to me. Blake: Before I tried acting this time, Mrs. Doubtfire was around when I was five. They couldn't find anyone for it. One day they said ‘can we see you?’ I was tagging along with my mom. It came down to me and I don't know the other girl’s name. My mom didn't want me to get nervous. I didn't care. I was five. We were going to Disneyland afterwards for the opening of Toontown. That's all I cared about. My dad, the night before, had taken me to see a Robin Williams movie. I was reading with him. She didn't want me to freak out so she told me that this isn't Robin Williams. This is his twin brother. Robin Williams is in Europe right now! AGW: That must have been weird. Blake: I go in and I'm sitting there and they said ‘this is Robin’ and I was so mad (at my mom). I said, ‘oh you're not his twin’? They just laughed at me. I walked out of the room. She said ‘how did it go?’ and I said, ‘I don't know. He had morning breath’. That's how we left it. It was horrible. AGW: Amber, do you have any movies lined up to shoot this summer? Amber: I have three. One of them is something that I've been trying to put together for a year now with Tilda Swinton, a project called Stephanie Daily, That's the only one I can talk about for sure, because I have a heavy hand in it personally. It's an independent film, it wouldn't take as long as the two other ones sine they're pretty big features. AGW: Would you like to direct in the future? Amber:: I would love to direct at some point. The idea scares the hell out of me though, only because I know that it's something that I should do, and so there's like that in between stage where you're like ‘I know I'd be really good at this, but do I have the patience to deal with it and go through it’?
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Amber:
We all hated each other. No! We became incredibly good friends when we
were up there (Vancouver, where they filmed most of the movie). Really,
really close friends, fast, which is interesting because that's what it
needed for the movie but it just happened to be that it worked that way.
Usually, you get girls with like minds and it just happens, I guess. 
Blake:
No. She's not. I don't know where the red came from at all. It's not in
our bloodline at all. My oldest sister has brown hair but she dyed it
red to fit in with the other ones. My brother and next sister down have
red hair. Then my other brother has blonde hair and I have blonde hair.
But it's changed. The brother with red hair has now turned brown. It's
getting lighter. My mom has blonde hair and my dad used to have blond
hair but now it's brown. Go figure where the red came in.