E-mail a friendAlexis Bledel
airdate August 21, 2009
Before her success in both TV and film, Alexis Bledel was already comfortable in front of the camera. The Texas native began modeling while in high school and traveled the world during summer breaks. She attended NYU Film School to study writing and directing, but detoured when she made her television debut in the WB's Gilmore Girls. Branching out into movies, her big screen credits include Tuck Everlasting, Sin City and Post Grad. Bledel volunteers for First Book, a national youth literacy program for the underprivileged.
Actress talks about having to work to avoid falling into her Gilmore Girls character with other roles. (1:34)
Full interview. (8:43)
Alexis Bledel
Tavis: Alexis Bledel is the talented actress who starred for years on the popular primetime drama, Gilmore Girls. Her latest project is the new film, Post Grad. The movie hit theaters earlier today. Here now a scene from Post Grad.
[Clip]
Tavis: (Laughter) Alexis, nice to have you here.
Alexis Bledel: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Tavis: When I first saw the project - of course, the scene we saw a moment was with you and Michael Keaton, but what a lineup. Carol Burnett?
Bledel: Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch, Michael Keaton. They all play my very eccentric family. One, my character has to move back home which she's not having luck getting a job. They're each so perfect for the roles and the little idiosyncrasies that are supposed to come out. They're just great.
Tavis: What kind of charge do you get - charge, my word and not yours - what kind of charge, what kind of, you know, charge, does one get when you get a chance to work - I mean, Keaton's been around for a long time. We all know him from Batman fame, of course. Carol Burnett is a legend, you know, no doubt about that. What does an actor get when one gets to play opposite that kind of cast?
Bledel: I just get really excited. You know, I want to learn what I can from them, but mostly I just feel, you know, lucky to get to share the screen with them and bring some characters to life. It's just great.
It's such fun because, I mean, like watching Michael Keaton working. He's been doing it for so long and he's this, you know, consummate professional and he's just so lovely to everyone on set. So there's just so much to learn. I just love it.
Tavis: But never intimidation, though?
Bledel: I mean, sometimes. I knew Carol Burnett from the musical, Annie. I grew up watching that and she's very scary to a child as Miss Hannigan, the character she played. Because she's terrifying. She's just so brilliant in the role because she's hilarious, her character is completely drunk the whole time (laughter) and she's singing, but she's also terrifying, you know, just really a terrifying personality.
So when I met her in person, she's just the sweetest lady. I mean, I think I was a little maybe intimidated then more from the character (laughter).
Tavis: There's a pretty interesting learning curve for your character.
Bledel: Yes.
Tavis: Getting to know herself, in fact. I'll let you explain the character and the backstory to the project.
Bledel: Okay. She basically starts out very - you know, planned out everything in her life, you know, is planned. She knows how she wants it to go; she knows where she wants to work, where she wants to be in ten years, I wouldn't be surprised.
So she starts out on her journey graduating from college and basically nothing, nothing goes as planned, so she basically just hits rock bottom and has to learn how to build herself back up with an open mind and learn how to entertain different possibilities for herself and to think outside the box.
Tavis: Parallels to your life or no parallel at all? In terms of planning things out, wanting things to go a certain way. Are you that methodical, that analytical?
Bledel: Not at all. I don't really plan much. I'll plan my day a little bit so I don't forget to do things (laughter), but I really go with the flow, I mean, completely. I sort of stumbled into acting kind of, you know, when I was going to school in New York.
I knew I was interested in film. I was in film school, but that was kind of an afterthought, you know. It all kind of just came to me. I really believe in just following what you instinctively feel and then just working hard once you're, you know, in a position that feels right.
Tavis: You say you stumbled into acting. For you, that means what? I ask that of you because I always find it funny and curious at the same time when people who end up being really good at their craft say, "I just kind of stumbled into this." I hate people like you (laughter). Stuff just kind of happens and they end up being good at it. So you say you stumbled into acting. That means what for you?
Bledel: I had sort of modeled in New York since the age of fourteen and, when I went to NYU, I had an agent that was kind of starting to send me out on some auditions. They were sending all the girls out on a handful of auditions.
So I was in film school and I'd heard from one of the other girls that she was taking an acting class at Stella Adler's Conservatory where a film student was allowed to sort of film the classes, like do the camera work, and then the acting students could watch their scenes back. So I did that.
I signed up to work the camera and I just found myself watching their scenes and getting my own ideas about how I would maybe do the scenes in my own way. So then when I would go on these auditions that I happened to be going on, I got to kind of try out my ideas and that's literally how it just kind of happened.
Tavis: So your friend hates you now?
Bledel: (Laughter) No, she's very sweet. She's doing great, actually.
Tavis: (Laughter) Yeah. You invite your friend to class to film you and she ends up being on the Gilmore Girls. You look back on those Gilmore Girls days now and you think what in retrospect?
Bledel: So much of it is a blur. The first couple of years are just such a blur because I was learning so much and we just had to memorize so many words that that was, you know, mostly what was going on in my head for many, many years, those lines. But I see it so differently now.
You know, at the time, I felt like, you know, I was so busy that I just didn't know what to think and now I just appreciate it so much because it was - I mean, it's rare that a show goes on for so long and that it's, you know, beloved by so many people, so I just feel blessed at this point.
Tavis: Blessed is one side, which is a beautiful thing to feel blessed by a particular project. The flip side of that in this business is being typecast. I get the sense, though, that you are being allowed to move beyond that. You don't feel burdened by that past, given how long it ran?
Bledel: It's funny because, you know, because it was so long, I sometimes will fall into that habit that I try very hard to break or just, you know, an old comfortable way of reading lines that feels like that character.
So it's a conscious, you know, effort to try to change that and I think it takes a lot of time for an audience to see an actor differently than, you know, a TV character that they love. So I'm sure it will just take time. But I try to definitely look for different sorts of roles just for my own, you know, education.
Tavis: There is a certain level of discipline that one has to have to be a successful model. Even though you were doing it as a young person, were there things that you took from that part of your career that worked for you that were transferable to the acting?
Bledel: Yes. I think there's a certain amount of focus that you have to have to sort of get good shots and to sort of maintain yourself, keep yourself healthy even though you're supposed to be quite thin, you know.
While there were sort of negative things that I heard during that time when I was, you know, sixteen, my agent or someone would tell me that I needed to, you know, lose weight or something, I just kind of blocked out anything negative that I would hear and would focus on the positive, the fact that I was, you know, working. I couldn't work more because I was in high school as well.
So I think that was actually a good skill to develop to sort of block out the negative to a certain extent. You know, just hear it, but then kind of move forward without it.
Tavis: Yeah. And finally, I'm fascinated by - even though it's not like you spent years doing this - by I'm fascinated by what you learned filming other people in the acting class before you got into it yourself. Was there something you gained from being on the other side of the camera, before you got on the front side of it?
Bledel: Yeah. I think so. I only did it a couple of times, but I think I sort of noticed when somebody was very aware of what they were doing on camera. I kind of always appreciated when a person would get a little bit lost in the scene and forget themselves. So I think that's what stuck with me the most.
Tavis: Post Grad is the new film starring Alexis Bledel, formerly of the Gilmore Girls, but you already know that. Alexis, nice to have you on. All the best on the project.
Bledel: Thank you so much.
Tavis: My pleasure.
Back to August 21, 2009