(upbeat music)
- Hey everyone you're watching In Studio,
I'm Evan Real, and today I'm joined by the one and only
Anna Sophia Robb the star of Hulu's new true crime series
The Act.
How's it going?
I'm so excited to have you here.
- Me too.
I'm loving this, I'm loving this view,
I feel so free.
- We have a pretty sick view up here.
- You do.
- It's even better when you're here talking about The Act.
I have so many questions.
I literally just finished binging the entire series.
- I'm so jealous.
(laughing)
- I'm so shook to say the least.
It was such an emotional journey,
and I can't imagine what it was like for you
having to actually film it and live the lives
of these characters.
- I mean it's based, very closely based,
on true events.
So yes Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard,
mother daughter,
and Dee Dee has Munchausen by proxy
and it's like, our episodes cover the period in her life,
where Gypsy...
We cover seven years so it's a long time.
And we jump back and forth in time
of Gypsy sort of figuring out that she's not actually sick
and that her mother has been keeping her imprisoned,
and she's lying about her age
and all these different illnesses.
- Everything.
- Everything,
and I play one of the neighbors
and one of Gypsy's only real friend.
And so the story is about,
it's sort of a murder mystery,
but it's also about mother daughter relationships
and female sexuality,
and mental health,
and...
- It covers a lot of territory.
- It covers a lot of territory yes.
- Your character Lacey, I see her as Gypsy's
window to the outside world.
Her window to what life would look like
as a normal teenager without a domineering mother
forcibly making her daughter appear ill.
What attracted you to playing that character
and being a part of the series?
- I read the script and I saw it was based on true events.
And then I immediately read the BuzzFeed article
written by Michelle Dean one of our creators,
and I watched the documentaries.
The story is fascinating and bizarre,
but I really appreciated the care that they took
with exploring these characters.
And that they weren't trying to exploit the story.
They were trying to understand
the complicated nature of
and psychology behind
these women and their decisions.
And not only for Dee Dee and Gypsy's characters,
played by Patricia Arquette and Joey King,
but also the neighbors and the fallout.
I think in the normal true crime
there's like detectives
and they're finding out what happened,
and in this case it's much more personal
because it's about the community.
I think I represent,
and Chloe Sevigny who's my mother,
we represent this community
learning in real time what happened.
Trying to put the pieces together,
I mean we've experienced seven years of life
with our neighbors
and none of this seems to match up.
And so it's much more,
it's not trying to shock,
it's like an emotional metabolization.
Is that a word?
I don't know.
- No that's totally.
- Processing of
- That makes sense.
- Of what the weirdness and tragedy
that was their life.
- Yeah absolutely.
How much of an impact do you think Lacey has
on Gypsy's life and vice versa?
Where do they fit into each other's orbits?
- I think for Lacey,
Lacey is a catalyst for Gypsy
in terms of she embodies everything
that Gypsy can't be.
She's this teenager who disagrees with her mom
and wears tight dresses and wears makeup
and has a boyfriend
and smokes pot and dances
and is just allowed this sort of freedom.
She's a normal
teenager.
And I think Lacey has,
in terms of Gypsy,
she's excited to have a new neighbor.
She looks at everything with rose-colored glasses on.
She wants to help this new young
friend.
But I also think that she doesn't intentionally
keep her at an arm's distance,
but she's involved in her own world.
She's self-involved like we all are,
I think you might have a neighbor
or somebody close to you,
and you're friends with them but if you're not
really engaged,
you don't know what's going on.
- You miss the details.
- Exactly, and I think that's part of the tragedy
for Lacey is,
what else could I have done?
Maybe was I just helping her because it made me feel good,
was I actually listening to her?
Was I really a friend?
- Right, right.
Now Joey King, she plays Gypsy Rose,
she is remarkable in the role,
and you all have a lot of scenes together.
What was your favorite part about working with her
and do you have a favorite scene with her?
I love, I think it might be one of the first scenes
you have with her one-on-one
where you're doing her makeup in the bathroom.
It was such a touching and lighthearted moment
which was actually really nice to see
when most of the series is so dark.
That was a really sweet moment.
But what are your favorite memories
with working with Joey on it?
- I love Joey.
I think she's so fantastic in this role,
and I'm so excited to see what else she does after this.
It just shows how
it gives her a platform to show her talent
how she can just fully get into a role
and she's a great person.
She's just the best, she's so funny,
she's so kind to the crew,
she doesn't ever take herself too seriously,
she makes me laugh really hard
and I'm so proud of her.
So it was great to be able to work with her.
I loved doing scenes with her because it didn't feel hard.
It was like she was right there.
I knew she had my back.
I felt good about all the work we did together.
When I saw her, I was like you're Gypsy,
this is freaking me out a little bit.
And so it made it really easy to come in
and play off of that.
And I'd agree I think the first,
that scene of me doing her makeup,
it was the first scene we ever did together.
So it was like kind of a meeting anyway,
of that newness of who are you, who am I,
what is going on.
And I'm happy that it came off on-screen.
- Yeah I love that you guys were able to laugh.
Because the subject matter of the show is pretty heavy.
So how did you decompress after a day on set?
Were you able to separate yourself from the work?
- Yeah I think,
it's really sobering to be on a set and go,
wow one of these characters is dead,
and two of them are now in jail.
Like that is real.
And so I think that there's an extra amount
of care and consideration that goes on,
but also,
I loved everyone I worked with.
Patricia is just solid as a rock.
She's so insanely talented and kind
and down to earth.
And Chloe just cracks me up.
She's so great and I had a blast working with her.
The crew
was amazing.
It was a special project to be a part of.
Everyone got really close.
- I know you didn't have too many scenes with Patricia,
but one of the scenes that you did
that really sticks out to me is when
your character Lacey has to confront Dee Dee.
Dee Dee faints to the ground.
What was it like pretty much fighting on-screen
with Patricia Arquette?
How did you prepare for that moment?
- Yeah I remember that day very clearly.
I was like holy shit this is happening.
(laughing)
It's fun, I mean you're becoming a character,
so it's not like,
at that point I'm friends with Patricia,
so you're not thinking like this is Patricia Arquette
who I respect you so much.
It's like I got to be on my A game
because she's on her A game.
And then I was really concerned.
She faints in a scene,
and I was like oh shit.
Oh no, oh my gosh, are you going to fall,
and she's all out of it and loopy.
And I thought wow that was a good faint.
I need to work on my fainting.
- Have you ever fainted on a movie or a TV show?
- Yeah I think I have, yeah.
- Now you'll faint better thanks to Patricia Arquette.
- So many things better thanks to Patricia Arquette.
- I love that.
Now I understand that you actually got to shadow
one of The Act's directors on several episodes.
How did that come to be?
Were you just like hey can I do this?
And why was it important for you
to get on the other side of the screen
after being in front of it for so long?
- Yeah I really wanted to.
When I signed on, I went down to Savannah,
I asked Nick Antosca one of our show-runners
if it was okay if I shadowed.
And, 'cause there were several episodes I'm not in,
so it was perfect I'll have all this time off.
I can just sort of be there.
He was so supportive as was our director.
All of our directors were.
But Laure, who did episodes one, two, and six,
she was like yes of course.
And I loved working with her as an actor,
and I liked her process a lot.
So I was able to shadow her and then also
at the same time prep with Hannah Fidell
and post with Steven Piet.
- Wow.
- So I was able to see a lot of different
segments of it.
And it was so interesting,
so much fun.
I really realized I love being on sets.
It's post-grad so I'm like do I really love this,
and I do.
- Now after getting your feet wet
with shadowing on The Act,
where do you see yourself,
or when do you see yourself directing,
and is there a story right now that you're dying to tell?
- Maybe.
I'm not ready to direct.
I want to direct when I feel like,
if someone asks me a really hard question,
I can be like yes and say it with confidence.
But it's definitely a goal,
and I'll just have to find the right story
that I can stick with.
I feel like good movies for first-time directors
it takes seven to 10 years for them to actually get it made.
So I feel like finding something that you can just
it's like a marathon,
and pushing for for that long,
that's the kind of story you want to be your first project.
- After delving into a true crime story,
would you be interested in doing your own true crime story?
Is this a genre that you would want to expand upon?
- Yes.
I also think it might make me go crazy.
(laughing)
- Yeah totally.
- And I have so much appreciation for Michelle and Nick
because they spent so much time with these people
and with these characters.
And really thought about all different aspects of it.
- There's so many stories out there lots of podcasts.
- Oh yeah.
- Movies and TV shows getting ripped straight from headlines
so you got your options.
- Oh too many options.
- Until you make your producing and directing debut,
what's next on the acting front?
- I am about to start rehearsals
on an all-female version of Macbeth.
- Okay that's cool.
- So this will be my theater debut.
- That's exciting how did that come to be?
- I've been wanting to do theatre for a long time,
and studied in college,
and I worked really hard and auditioned,
and then I got it I don't know.
THat's how actors get jobs some times.
Yeah, and I'm really looking forward to it.
- That's very exciting.
Lastly I would love to ask.
What would the younger version of yourself,
the AnnaSophia in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
or the AnnaSophia in Because of Winn Dixie,
what would she think
of all the cool stuff you've accomplished
and all the cool stuff you're doing at 25?
- Oh I don't know.
(laughing)
- Would she expect it all?
- No I don't think she would expect it all.
I don't think I was ever really,
I don't think I would have expected any of this.
No I think she would have been like,
stay in school.
(laughing)
- Well you still did that.
- And I did, right.
I think she'd be like don't study so much
also at the same time like loosen up.
(laughing)
- Well it all worked out.
- It did yeah.
- AnnaSophia thank you so much for being here.
You guys can catch more of AnnaSophia
on The Act streaming now on Hulu.