Rowan Blanchard is Okay with Deserving to be in the Room | A Wrinkle In Time

Most of us know Rowan Blanchard from her portrayal as Riley Matthews on Disney’s Girl Meets World so they may be surprised at the role she’s playing in Disney’s adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. Her character Veronica is one of the bullies that attends Meg Murry’s school, and yes purists, the character was created specifically for the movie. You’ll be okay, I promise as a purist of the book myself. With the way that the world is going, girls and boys alike need to see clear messages on the magic of youth in one of our favorite novels. 

You’re known for being such a positive proponent of shine theory and positivity. What was it like playing a bad girl? 

I mean, it was definitely different for me. I felt like I was doing it in this way where it wouldn’t be, minimized to just a very stereotypical mean girl role. I really trusted Ava to make a character that felt complex and more than just a mean girl. I think there’s a lot of layers to Veronica that we get to see throughout the film. So, I think, I don’t know, there’s a lot of different parts to her that you sort of see as the film unfolds where she’s more than just the bad girl or the mean girl, which was a relief.

With your character not being in the book, was it easier or harder for you to develop her?

she was added into the script to sort of add this character, an element of friendship for Meg coming from another girl because in the book, that’s not really there. It’s very much about Meg and her dad and Meg and this boy and Meg and her brother. So, I think Ava really, it was really important to Ava and to Jennifer to have a girl character that Meg could have in her life and that they could kind of learn from each other. 

Did you discover anything different about yourself, playing a role that’s so different than what we know you for?

I’m not sure if I realized anything specifically through Veronica. It definitely made me aware of how the bully is always the person who [may be] hurting so
deeply inside, which is such a stereotypical thing to say but very true. And I think we see that in one scene with Veronica and things that teenage girls sort of access every day. One thing that I definitely learned so much through filming this was Ava let me shadow her as a director. I learned a lot just about kind of what I want to do later in my life through Ava.

Was there a time in your life where you felt like you actually give yourself permission to be a warrior, or have you always been free in your pursuit of it?

I have to give myself permission to be a warrior on the daily. It’s not something that is a very conscious thing where I feel totally empowered and fearless every day. There are some areas that I feel more confident and then others. Going off on that panel for our press junket,  with Oprah, Reese and Mindy, I felt like the odd one out. I will tell you guys the truth. But like, that’s a second where I have to be like, I deserve to be here and like, I’m here, a part of something
bigger than myself. So, I don’t know, I guess there’s just so many moments on the daily where I have to remind myself that it’s okay that I am in the room.

You just wrote a book. Can you tell us a little bit about that process and when you fit time into right and just what that looked like for you?

Yeah, I [wrote] this book called Still Here that just came out about a week and a half ago. It was just really important to me I guess to have these concrete
forms of how I view art, which I think is a lot more accessible than how we think of art in a museum or how we think of art as a big painting. I was really always inspired by my friends who kept diaries and whose thoughts were so pure and unfiltered. And being a teenager and specifically being a teenage girl or it’s just this point where your thoughts are not as informed with the outside world yet and you’re still processing so much yourself that your writing is more
unfiltered.

So, I sort of made this thing and I had I think 20 other contributors that helped me kind of compile this thing that I think is about teenage survival. And so, yeah, it’s cool that it’s sort of coming out during the time that this is. It feels like it’s a really cool time to be a teenager. It’s also a scary time. That’s cool. I don’t know. There’s a lot of feelings!

What your best advice to girls younger than you, in the target age range of 8-12 for this movie? 

I think one thing that I realized actually just through making the book that I made was that adults are so shocked when teenagers say that they’re sad, which is really interesting. And especially that age like 11, 12, I remember that was the time where I was most confused because those are right before you’re a teenager and you know that when you’re a teenage girl, there are certain things that you are expected to do. But those years right before where you’re not a baby but you’re not like a teenage girl. And they’re really developmental, and I think really scary years.

So, there’s something really nice that this movie is coming out and that storm sort of represents this 12, 13 age where you’re still realizing so much about yourself and your not fully–, you’re not yet really that far from your childhood. 

 

A Wrinkle in Time is out in theaters now. Check out this trailer to get you ready for it if you haven’t seen it! Tesser to your nearest theater to take part of this extraordinary journey of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin – as they discover themselves and their need for each other.