Denver’s AnnaSophia Robb as Carrie Bradshaw before “Sex and the City”
By Joanne Ostrow || Jan 11th, 2013
AnnaSophia Robb, long Denver’s No. 1 child star, has grown up on camera over the past decade beside A-list actors and under big-name directors. The accomplished film actress has mostly avoided the small screen until now.
This week, the Arapahoe High School graduate is poised to experience immediate TV stardom: At 19, Robb is about to become TV’s flavor of the year in the titular role of The CW’s “The Carrie Diaries,” the eagerly anticipated “Sex and the City” prequel.
If Zooey Deschanel was 2012′s “It Girl,” AnnaSophia Robb is the 2013 model. She may not be “adorkable,” as “The New Girl” lead is known, but Robb is younger and already a better actress.
Robb was home for the holidays and planning to ski Copper Mountain with friends when a raging fever interrupted her powder plans. She did get some cross-country skiing in with her mom. Now she’s full steam ahead in Los Angeles for “The Carrie Diaries” promotional whirl.
She’s been passionate about acting, she said, since performing Irish step-dancing and singing in the church choir as a child.
“I’ve been working since I was 9,” she said from her family’s home in suburban Denver. “I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 10 years.”
Already respected for a range of film roles, including work in “Bridge to Terabithia” and “Soul Surfer,” Robb is about to confront a broader, more sustained sort of pop stardom as the young Carrie Bradshaw.
“The Carrie Diaries” premieres at 8 p.m. Monday locally on Channel 2.
Robb is a stunner, wearing the role of 16-year-old Carrie as easily as Carrie wears those Manolos.
As she romps through 1984 onscreen, she’ll bring into focus for viewers the music and fashion of an era before her time.
“I always loved the pop-y sounds and beats. There was some really bad music — the Bangles might not be a big, hot sound now. I like Duran Duran, Bowie, Michael Jackson.”
As for the clothes, “I’m not wearing anything hideous. We call it ‘aspirational authenticity,’ the flavors of the ’80s.” Some of the costumes are actual vintage, most are adapted to hint at the era.
She put her trust in costume designer Eric Damon, who won raves for his “Gossip Girl” creations.
“There was a pink polka dot dress I wore in the pilot. I thought it was going to be hideous, but once it was tailored and ready, it was actually really adorable.”
It is. And almost too pretty for the period.
Robb was too young to catch the original “Sex and the City,” which ran 1998-2004 on HBO, but once she started to audition, she watched all the episodes: “I fell in love with it.”
She doesn’t have a favorite episode but wonders aloud if she should choose one, since that’s what everyone’s asking. The prequel, like “Sex and the City,” is based on the novels by Candace Bushnell, who serves as an executive producer.
“Carrie is like a friend you always want to be,” Robb said. “She’s a combination of Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. That’s what makes her so relatable.”
This young version of the character, played famously by Sarah Jessica Parker in the HBO series, is “a more naive Carrie. She doesn’t know what she wants, she’s not a writer yet.”
To connect to the part, she’s reading Patti Smith’s “Just Kids,” set in ’80s New York, and listening to 1980s hits on Spotify.
Robb is best known for film roles in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (she was the gum-chewing Violet), “Because of Winn-Dixie” (co-starring with a dog), “Race to Witch Mountain” (as a space alien), “Spy School,” “The Space Between” and “Sleepwalking.” She’s played opposite Johnny Depp, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Eva Marie Saint and Cicely Tyson, and under directors Tim Burton, Doug Liman, Stephen Hopkins and Wayne Wang.
Next, she’s in “The Way, Way Back” with Steve Carell and Toni Collette, a coming-of-age comedy featured this month at Sundance.
In her younger years she was emulated by little girls everywhere for playing the title role in the TV movie “Samantha: An American Girl Holiday.” Needless to say, the Carrie role involves less treacle, more sexuality.
The young Carrie divides her time between the bright lights and underage drinking of the city and the angst of high school, between nightclubs and homework.
“I think it’s evenly balanced between high school and Manhattan,” she said.
The production schedule has been rigorous. “We’re supposed to be a seven-day show, five onstage and two on location.” She has been filming in Central Park and Chelsea, at Indochine and Limelight and other ’80s hotspots, and “enjoying the ride.”
Shooting is complete on eight of the first season’s 13 episodes.
“In TV,” she said innocently, “you don’t know if it’s going to go for another season.”
She doesn’t yet know if she’ll do another film during hiatus or whether she may go back to school if the series doesn’t take off. In fact, she almost didn’t audition for the role since she had already been accepted at Stanford.
Robb has said for years she would look to Jodie Foster, who went to Yale, and Natalie Portman, who went to Harvard, for advice on combining acting and academic careers.
A prediction: Stanford will have to wait. Judging by the appealing “Carrie Diaries” pilot, Robb is more likely to be on screen than on campus for some time.
Source:
http://annasophia-robb.org/archives/965