WARNING – If you haven't seen "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” or read the book, skip this interview until after you’ve seen the movie. Spoilers are included.
Jenna Boyd on Her Role in “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants:”Director Ken Kwapis calls Jenna Boyd his ‘5th Beatle’. While “Sisterhood” is primarily about four girls who are best friends, Boyd practically steals the show with her supporting role as Tibby’s [Amber Tamblyn] young assistant. “My character is Bailey. She’s one of the neighbors that stays home and one of the girls in the sisterhood meets her and we find out later that we find out that she’s diagnosed with leukemia.”
Jenna Boyd on Her Most Memorable Moment from Filming “Sisterhood:” “The scene that I’ll probably always remember… Well there was this one scene where I’m talking to her about me dying and stuff and I’ll always remember that. That was the best scene, I think, in the movie.”
Filming the Emotional Scene:“Well, of course it’s not easy to really cry, but I just think about that person in that situation and that I just have to get really into the character and focus on that.”
A Typical Day on the Set for the 12 Year Old Actress:“We go and usually you kind of have an early call time usually in the morning. Then you go and like you can eat breakfast sometimes, which is cool. And then you’ll go to school and then you get in wardrobe and do hair and makeup. Then you rehearse and they set up for the shot and then you do it. And usually there’s several scenes a day. I’m only supposed to work 9 hours I believe.”
Jenna Boyd on Her Past Directors:“They have all been so very nice and so very supportive of me. I can’t really even say who my favorite director was because they were all just they’ve all supported me so much. But Ron Howard was so great because since he was a child actor, he could relate a lot to me and what I was doing and he would kind of talk to my mom and give her advice on how to parent a child actor. He would give me advice, too, sometimes.”
Jenna Boyd on Why She Loves Acting:“Just getting to go to different places and you work really, really, really hard and sometimes you feel like it’s not worth working. But when you see yourself on the screen, it all clears up for you and you see yourself and how hard you worked it really does pay off. And getting to just travel around and meet a bunch of new people.”
Jenna Boyd on How She Spends Her Time Between Movies:“I go to regular school. I’m not homeschooled. My parents don’t want my whole life to revolve around acting. They want me to be involved in other stuff. They want me to be a normal kid. They just want me to be normal and I want that, too. I don’t want my whole life to be on acting and so I go to regular school. I have friends, all that kind of stuff.”
Her Dream Project:“’Dickie Roberts’ was sort of an adult movie and so is ‘The Missing.’ ‘Sisterhood’ is kind of the first teenage girl movie. I would still like to do a kids movie that everybody could really relate to. I mean ‘Sisterhood’ is like a girlie teenager movie. It’s not really for guys. But I would really like to do a movie that everybody could go see. Like little kids and stuff like that.”
Jenna Boyd on Choosing Projects:“Usually my mom takes a look at it first to see if she even wants me to do it. And then I’ll probably go in for it and read for it and that’s how it goes. She doesn’t want me to do something that’s not right for me.”
Jenna Boyd’s Advice to Kids Who Want to Act:“If you go out on an audition or anything for a modeling audition or anything like that, if you don’t get the part do not be discouraged because there is so much more out there that you could do. And it’s not always because it’s you, like you didn’t act well, it’s not always the case. It could be because they’ve already cast your mom or something and they don’t have the right color hair. There’s always a lot of things you don’t have control over, so don’t be too discouraged. There’s always other chances.
I was pretty discouraged when I didn’t get something in the beginning. Then my mom would say it was because of nothing that you could have done. It was because you didn’t have the right color hair, the right color eyes, or something like that. It was difficult but I learned to cope with that.”
The Actress Jenna Boyd Models Her Career After:“My role model as an actress is Cate Blanchett. Her facial expressions are amazing. She doesn’t even have to think about it. And when we would watch the playbacks for a scene, she wouldn’t want to hear anything. She would just want to look at her facial expressions. I think that I want to have that kind of quality.”
Jenna Boyd on Her Role in “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants:”Director Ken Kwapis calls Jenna Boyd his ‘5th Beatle’. While “Sisterhood” is primarily about four girls who are best friends, Boyd practically steals the show with her supporting role as Tibby’s [Amber Tamblyn] young assistant. “My character is Bailey. She’s one of the neighbors that stays home and one of the girls in the sisterhood meets her and we find out later that we find out that she’s diagnosed with leukemia.”
Jenna Boyd on Her Most Memorable Moment from Filming “Sisterhood:” “The scene that I’ll probably always remember… Well there was this one scene where I’m talking to her about me dying and stuff and I’ll always remember that. That was the best scene, I think, in the movie.”
Filming the Emotional Scene:“Well, of course it’s not easy to really cry, but I just think about that person in that situation and that I just have to get really into the character and focus on that.”
A Typical Day on the Set for the 12 Year Old Actress:“We go and usually you kind of have an early call time usually in the morning. Then you go and like you can eat breakfast sometimes, which is cool. And then you’ll go to school and then you get in wardrobe and do hair and makeup. Then you rehearse and they set up for the shot and then you do it. And usually there’s several scenes a day. I’m only supposed to work 9 hours I believe.”
Jenna Boyd on Her Past Directors:“They have all been so very nice and so very supportive of me. I can’t really even say who my favorite director was because they were all just they’ve all supported me so much. But Ron Howard was so great because since he was a child actor, he could relate a lot to me and what I was doing and he would kind of talk to my mom and give her advice on how to parent a child actor. He would give me advice, too, sometimes.”
Jenna Boyd on Why She Loves Acting:“Just getting to go to different places and you work really, really, really hard and sometimes you feel like it’s not worth working. But when you see yourself on the screen, it all clears up for you and you see yourself and how hard you worked it really does pay off. And getting to just travel around and meet a bunch of new people.”
Jenna Boyd on How She Spends Her Time Between Movies:“I go to regular school. I’m not homeschooled. My parents don’t want my whole life to revolve around acting. They want me to be involved in other stuff. They want me to be a normal kid. They just want me to be normal and I want that, too. I don’t want my whole life to be on acting and so I go to regular school. I have friends, all that kind of stuff.”
Her Dream Project:“’Dickie Roberts’ was sort of an adult movie and so is ‘The Missing.’ ‘Sisterhood’ is kind of the first teenage girl movie. I would still like to do a kids movie that everybody could really relate to. I mean ‘Sisterhood’ is like a girlie teenager movie. It’s not really for guys. But I would really like to do a movie that everybody could go see. Like little kids and stuff like that.”
Jenna Boyd on Choosing Projects:“Usually my mom takes a look at it first to see if she even wants me to do it. And then I’ll probably go in for it and read for it and that’s how it goes. She doesn’t want me to do something that’s not right for me.”
Jenna Boyd’s Advice to Kids Who Want to Act:“If you go out on an audition or anything for a modeling audition or anything like that, if you don’t get the part do not be discouraged because there is so much more out there that you could do. And it’s not always because it’s you, like you didn’t act well, it’s not always the case. It could be because they’ve already cast your mom or something and they don’t have the right color hair. There’s always a lot of things you don’t have control over, so don’t be too discouraged. There’s always other chances.
I was pretty discouraged when I didn’t get something in the beginning. Then my mom would say it was because of nothing that you could have done. It was because you didn’t have the right color hair, the right color eyes, or something like that. It was difficult but I learned to cope with that.”
The Actress Jenna Boyd Models Her Career After:“My role model as an actress is Cate Blanchett. Her facial expressions are amazing. She doesn’t even have to think about it. And when we would watch the playbacks for a scene, she wouldn’t want to hear anything. She would just want to look at her facial expressions. I think that I want to have that kind of quality.”
