An Interview with local actress Tammy Blanchard

After the presents have been opened on Christmas Day, itâ€s always fun to go out and catch a movie. Thatâ€s what Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp and Stephen Sondheim fans will be doing when the movie musical INTO THE WOODS opens nationwide on Dec. 25^th.

Meryl Streep stars as the Wicked Witch and a troupe of wickedly talented stars including Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, Christine Baranski and Bayonneâ€s Tammy Blanchard join her for a romp in the woods. “Be careful what you wish for” is the filmâ€s tagline because although itâ€s about Grimm Fairy Tales, this is no kiddie movie. Sondheim and co-writer James Lapine have taken several fairy tale characters on loopy adventures where very adult things happen, and not every journey ends happily ever after.

Disneyâ€s INTO THE WOODS is the filmed version of the Tony Award winning musical which debuted on Broadway in 1987 starring Bernadette Peters as the wicked witch, and directed by Hal Prince. It has been performed throughout the world, has had several revivals here and in London, and has taken almost 30 years to go from stage to screen.

During her career, Bayonneâ€s Tammy Blanchard earned Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of Judy Garland in LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND; ME AND MY SHADOWS; and two Tony Award nominations for supporting roles in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS…(with “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe) and GYPSY starring Bernadette Peters.

A single-mom, Blanchard keeps a busy schedule while balancing a full-time career. River View Observer caught up with her right after INTO THE WOODS premiered at the Ziegfeld on Dec. 8^th to find out what it was like to work on a Disney film with superstar Meryl Streep and director Rob Marshall, (who directed the film version of the Broadway musical CHICAGO).

RVO: Tammy, can you talk a bit about your character in the film?

TB: I play one of the wicked step-sisters being pressured to marry a prince. We have a lot of money, but weâ€re losing the money and desperate. Our wicked step-mother – played by Christine Baranski – will do anything to get us married.  We had a lot of fun working together. Christine is amazing.

RVO: What was it like working with Christine Baranski?

TB: She was flying back and forth from filming THE GOOD WIFE (CBS-TV). She loves acting, and talking about it. Iâ€m so laid back, but a lot of other actors are so into their roles and they talk a lot about it. Although I like preserving, I like seeing other actors be that way. Thatâ€s why I love acting. Itâ€s a bunch of geeks and dorks who get together and make something beautiful happen. And the set is like a church. I love it. Itâ€s a saving grace for me.

RVO: What was it like at the Dec. 8^th movie premiere at the Ziegfeld, seeing yourself on that huge screen?

TB: It was fun. It was cool seeing myself be so mean and rotten. I was impressed with my snottiness. (she laughs)

RVO: Can you share an anecdote about working with Meryl Streep?

TB: Before filming, the entire cast went out to dinner and Iâ€m sitting at the table with all the leads including Meryl Streep. Iâ€m pretty shy and donâ€t say much. Then Meryl asks me where Iâ€m from. When she talks, everyone stops. I tell her I was born and raised in Bayonne. She said her father was from Newark. I had no idea that sheâ€s a Jersey girl, too. And to reach out to me in that moment, that was so generous. But thatâ€s what Jersey girls do.

RVO:  Did you have any scenes with Meryl Streep?

TB: We had a scene in the woods where Meryl as the Wicked Witch is about to throw the blind girl to the giant. When we started shooting it, she kept throwing me. Rob had to go over and tell her that it was the blind girl who was to be thrown. Thatâ€s how it was rehearsed. But I loved getting thrown by Meryl Streep. She wanted to connect with me and she did.  (Tammy laughs) It seems she still has that Jersey girl way about her. Sheâ€s happy and free-spirited. And as an actress, sheâ€s blessed with this gift for knowing humanity. Sheâ€s beyond great. She has a sense of truth in her. Meryl does so many charitable things for so many people. I just love her so much.

RVO: Did you do any scenes with Johnny Depp?

TB: He came to the recording studio and we met. Rob Marshall, the director, walked him into each booth to say hello. He seemed shy, sweet and timid. He smiled at me at one point, but for the most part he was hidden away from everyone.

RVO:  Youâ€ve worked with Sondheim before when you did GYPSY on Broadway with Bernadette Peters. Whatâ€s he like?

TB: Anna Kendrick and I were waiting in a rehearsal room when he came in to use the piano. He changed some notes on a piece of paper for a new song (that was eventually cut), thanked us and left. We witnessed Stephen Sondheim writing music. Afterwards, I cried. It felt like such a magical moment and then for him to thank us for allowing him to use the piano. On set and in rehearsals, heâ€s a quiet man. Sort of like Santa Clause: he smiles and laughs; he seems sweet and cuddly; and youâ€re terrified of him.

 RVO Do you think the film is okay for kids to see?

TB: It demolishes your thoughts about fairy tales. Itâ€s a dark take. Childrenâ€s minds are very precious. I think in order to make that decision, you have to know your child. If your child doesnâ€t believe in fairy tales and princesses then you can take them. If your child loves princesses and fairy tales, I wouldnâ€t take them if theyâ€re younger than 10.

RVO:  What do you think of Rob Marshallâ€s direction?

TB:  Itâ€s different from the Broadway show; Rob put a modern day twist on it. He cast all of these people from different parts of the world and he has us sing all types of music. Meryl Streep raps in it. Itâ€s mind-blowing, dark, funny, sarcastic, and itâ€s different from what we grew up knowing about fairy tales. Princes arenâ€t always what you thought they were.

If you go:

Opens nationwide on Dec. 25th

Into the Woods, the movie

Check local movie listings

www.disney.com/IntotheWoods‎

www.movietickets.com

The post Bayonne’s Tammy Blanchard in her first Disney film: INTO THE WOODS first appeared on River View Observer.

Amish Grace Sunday Night March 28th-8pm on the Lifetime Channel

By Sally Deering 

 Emmy-award winning actress Tammy Blanchard recalls growing up in the 1980s a shy girl who cherished Judy Garland’s performance in “The Wizard of Oz,” and dreamed of her own stardom in her tiny bedroom.  In the past ten years, Blanchard’s break-out performances as Judy Garland and other complex women have received critical acclaim and respect from her peers. And like Garland, whom Blanchard calls her “angel,” when it comes to playing a role or singing a song, her shyness disappears and she becomes a chameleon blending herself into the part and in the process turning in dynamic, edge-of-your-seat performances that are anything but shy.

 This week, TV viewers can tune in to see Blanchard in two sensational roles in a TV movie on the Lifetime Movie Network and in NBC’s Monday night line-up. On Sunday, (March 28^th) Blanchard takes on the role of a young wife dealing with anger and guilt after her husband kills five young Amish girls in the TV-movie “Amish Grace” on LMN (Lifetime Movie Network, 8 pm;) and, on Monday, (March 29^th) Blanchard plays another young mother in the “Law & Order,” episode “Brazil,” (NBC, 10 pm.)

 

A new mom herself, Blanchard, 33, brings a sense of truth to the mother roles she plays.  She says this comes from her deep relationships with her own mom, Patty Rettig, and her 2 year-old daughter, an adorable toddler and Blanchard’s bundle of sheer joy.

 

“Now that I’m a mom, it’s not about me anymore, it’s not about the goal to be a movie star,” Blanchard says. “I wanted to be a movie star, now its condensed to I want to give and receive love and this talent that God has given me is like this child he has given me, something I need to nurture and respect and use with good intentions.”

 

Although she’s never taken an acting class, Blanchard’s natural talent is as evident as her natural beauty. Off-camera, she wears no make-up and comes across as quiet and somewhat serious. On-camera, she can explode with emotions that are so raw, they make viewers feel like their hearts are being ripped out of their chests – she’s that good! And the TV and film credits Blanchard keeps racking up on her resume are strong indicators of the high-quality of her work and the increasing demand for her talents.

 

Channeling Garland

In 2001, Blanchard earned an Emmy Award for her spot-on portrayal of the sweet, yearning and deeply-troubled Judy Garland in “Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” that also starred Judy Davis. This role garnered Blanchard raves from critics and started opening doors, like the movie “The Good Shepherd,” directed by Robert DeNiro and the Broadway production of “Gypsy, The Musical Fable” where Blanchard transformed from a gawky 13 year-old girl to the elegant striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee and earned a Tony award nomination in the process.  She recently completed filming “Rabbit Hole” playing the younger sister to Nicole Kidman’s character. Kidman is also producing the project.

 

Immersing herself in the characters she plays seems to be Blanchard’s trademark. A self-described “sponge,” Blanchard knows she has acted with some of the best in the business and has chosen to observe the masters in action, soaking in their knowledge, listening to their perspectives, applying what they’ve taught her and then letting it rip. Blanchard channels the emotional pain of the characters she plays with an uncanny depth that seems to be rare in most actresses her age.

 

Blanchard attributes her acting ability to a somewhat lonely childhood growing up in Bayonne, a “Pleasantville” type of New Jersey community in the shadow of New York City.  Like her favorite movie character, Dorothy in her favorite movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” Blanchard has traveled to faraway places, but there’s still no place like home.

 

“For me, Bayonne is my family, my hometown, my safe place, and I love this place more than anything,” Blanchard says from the porch of her cozy house on the first sunny day of spring. She is joined by her Calico cat, “Deva,” who plops down next to her to sunbathe while through the window, Blanchard keeps an eye on her daughter playing in the living room under the watchful eye of her dad and Blanchard’s partner of 11 years, Damon Chasmer.  “Most of us are from all the same background in this town. We grew up together. We’ve all been through the middle-class trial and error and we understand it. This town should feel pride in every success I’ve had. This town gave me everything I have inside me. If I grew up in another place and time, it would all be different.”

 

It was in public school when Blanchard, a sixth-grader, first felt the inspiration to become an actress from friend and family members’ reactions to her solo rendition of “Over the Rainbow” in an assembly program. When she finished, there was complete silence at first and then a roar of applause.

“It was like a way for me to express what I was feeling, all the joy and hope that I really had in my heart as a child and it was a way to bring joy to my family,” Blanchard remembers. “That’s when I realized, wow, maybe I can do this.”

 

The Wonder Years

Blanchard doesn’t hail from a theatrical family and she didn’t really have connections to show biz’s movers and shakers, so if you ask her how she managed to carve out a serious acting career, she says without hesitation that it was her mother Patty, who inspired her. Patty Rettig saw that her daughter Tammy had talent and when Tammy was 13 and in high school, she wanted to compete in the Miss Teen New Jersey pageant. She didn’t win the crown, but a manager was impressed enough to get her an audition with a talent agency that signed her and sent her on commercial auditions. Patty Rettig accompanied Tammy to her auditions while raising two other children with Tammy’s father, a Vietnam Veteran. These were tough times for the family, Tammy says.

 

“My mom would scrape 20 bucks together and we would drive into New York for an audition,” Blanchard remembers. “It was a broken down car and she would sit in the car for hours, waiting for me to come down from my audition. She would do anything for me.”

 

Blanchard spent the next several years doing commercials for Domino’s Pizza and other products, while going on TV and film auditions. Her first big break came in 1997 when she landed the role of spoiled brat Drew Jacobs in the soap opera “Guiding Light.”  She worked on the show for 3 years and credits actress Patty D’Arbanville – who played her biological mother on the show- for teaching her about acting for the camera.

 

“Because she was such a natural actress, I learned a lot from Patty,” Blanchard says. “She allowed me to open up and find my own instrument; it was great to work with her. I’m always working with great women – Patty, Jessica Lange, Bernadette Peters, Blythe Danner …”

 

But it was her breakout role in “Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” that earned Blanchard an Emmy for her uncannily spot-on performance as a young Garland. She signed with one of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies, ICM, and began attracting the attention of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

 

Robert DeNiro Directs

In 2006, DeNiro cast Blanchard alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in “The Good Shepherd,” a spy film about the birth of counter-intelligence in the CIA.  Blanchard played a girl who was hearing-impaired and during filming, she remembers DeNiro being extremely particular about his direction, sometimes doing 20 takes until he was pleased.

 

Once satisfied with the take, DeNiro would nod his head, Blanchard says, illustrating her point by scrunching her eyes, lowering her voice and saying, “That was good. That was good.” It’s a dead-on DeNiro impression.

 

“He was fatherly to me,” Blanchard says. “He gave me the advice that enhanced my performances for (the film) ‘Bella,’ and probably saved me from a lot of bad performances in my life. He told me (when playing a role) to never play the victim. The point is to not know you’re being victimized and always try to keep your dignity. He definitely changed my career.”

 

Playing 16 Characters in One

In 2008, Blanchard gave a heartbreaking performance as the title character in the TV redux of “Sybil,” based on the real-life experiences of a young woman who splintered into multiple personalities to deal with the abuse she suffered as a child. In a review of the work, “New York Times” critic Neil Genzingler wrote, “The film has fine performances by Tammy Blanchard in the title role and Jessica Lange (as) the psychiatrist. It is crisply told and full of powerful scenes…”

It’s been a little more than a year since “Sybil,” and in that time, Blanchard has landed plum roles in TV shows like “Law & Order,” and films including “Rabbit Hole,” starring Nicole Kidman and directed by John Cameron-Mitchell – director of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”  Blanchard has acted with the some of the biggest stars in show business and she hopes one day to work with her favorite actress, Meryl Streep.

There’s No Place like Home

And now that she’s proven herself in the industry and enjoying a fulfilling acting career, Blanchard talks about fulfilling one more childhood dream.

 

“I want to build homeless shelters, stock the shelves with food and employ the mothers and fathers,” Blanchard says. “This is a big dream I had when I was a little girl. I remember my mom struggling to get by cleaning other people’s homes.  I always felt compassion for single mothers with children. I’ve always wanted to help.”

 

Amish Grace

LMN (Lifetime Movie Network)

Sun, Mar. 28^th, 8 pm

 

“The Amish Community of Nickel Mines is forever changed when a gunman senselessly takes the lives of five girls in a schoolhouse shooting before taking his own life. What transpires afterward takes the community by storm, as the media descend on the town and criticize its Amish leaders for their notion of unconditional forgiveness of the shooter and their outreach of support to his widow, Amy Roberts (Tammy Blanchard.) Devastated by her daughter’s death, Ida Graber (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) finds herself struggling with her community’s belief in the transcending power of forgiveness. Deeply conflicted and unable to forgive the gunman and his family, Ida is tempted to leave the only life she’s ever known before re-embracing her faith,” – www.lmn.tv

The post TAMMY BLANCHARD “Amish Grace” Actress Follows Her Yellow Brick Road first appeared on River View Observer.

Tammy Blanchard co-stars with Kimberly Williams-Paisley

Ms. Blanchard’s role is that of Marie Roberts; widow of Charles Carl Roberts the shooter of the Pennsylvania schoolhouse.

The Nickle Mine, Pennsylvania schoolhouse shootings received world wide  attention not only for the depth of the tragedy but because of the reaction of the Amish leaders’ who forgave the shooter and his widow wife.

Ms. Blanchards acting roles include: In 2009 co- starred in  “Rabbit Hole” about a  happy couple who’s life is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident. Co-starring with Nicole Kidman as Ms. Kidman’s sister in David Lindsay-Abaire Pulitizer Prize winning play brought to the big screen. Also appearng in the film is Aaron Echhart, Diane Wiest and Giancarlo Esposito. A 2010 release of the film is in the works.

Ms. Blanchard co-starred as Laura a young hearing and speach impaired girl who becomes Matt Damon’s love interest  in Robert De Niro’s  2006 CIA movie blockbuster The Good Shepherd.”

In 2006 she also starred in “Sybil”  with Jessica Lange in the television remake  about Sybil Dorsett who suffered from multiple personality disorder for CBS which aired in June of  2009.

In the 2006  she also co – starred in “Bella” playing Nina” a waitress , struggling to make it in New York City, who  discovers something about herself that she’s unprepared for. Bella went on to win the 2007 People Choice Award  at the Toronto Film Festival.

In 2004 she played Gypsy Rose Lee in Sam Mendes adaption of Gypsy Rose Lee on Broadway co-starring with Bernadette Peters.

The talented Ms. Blanchard won an Emmy in 2001 for her performance as a young Judy Garland in CBS’s movie Me and My Shadows “Life With Judy Garland” based on the book by Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft.

Video of Blanchards “SYBIL” Performance

Blanchard in Living Proof

Read about Tammy Blanchard in “Bella”

 Read about Blanchard’s Emmy

The post Tammy Blanchard Co-stars in new Lifetime Movie-AMISH GRACE first appeared on River View Observer.