Selma Blair reveals her ‘wonderful kismet’ connection!

Selma Blair may be best remembered for her role as a rebellious troubled teen Cecile Caldwell in the cult film Cruel Intentions. However the Hollywood star has come a long way since and is now herself playing a mother, Carol Young to a teenaged daughter Tessa (Josephine Langford) in the much-awaited romantic After. Here the actress talks about this role reversal of sorts and reveals what drew her to the Jenny Gage directorial After

What can you tell us about your character Carol Young in After?

I play Carol who’s our lead Tessa’s mom. For me this was so relatable to play a mom, because I think any caring mom is kind of a universal thing, and Carol just wants so much for her daughter. Her daughter is beautiful and has promise and they’ve worked really hard to get her to go to school and this is really a defining moment in Carol’s life and of course in Tessa’s life. But this is the first time we see her kind of struggling on how to let her daughter be her own person.

What attracted you to the movie After?

You know this book is so huge (Anna Todd’s best-seller After) and I’m kind of out-of-the-loop of a lot of the things that are in this site-gist of public consumption that everyone loves because I’m so busy being a mom and now trying to go back to work. But this was so amazing because then I get to go back to work and be in the midst of something that is so beloved by so many. I got a call a couple of days before I came to shoot asking if I was interested in this. I had worked and known Jenny, the director – we had done a photo-shoot right when I was starting out, as the first celebrity she had ever shot. And I loved her movies and so I was invited on board and I hadn’t read the books, but I immediately went and downloaded them as billions have done. I’ve heard and I was like this is great to be a small part of something like this. I love this and it’s kind of a throwback for me also to Cruel Intentions when I first started and I’m kind of playing the mom that Christine Baranski, was but much more toned down, we played it in a much more kind of not-as-heightened way. But then I was told okay don’t read the books and we were just there working on the scripts but I’m really excited, I love when something has an energy already around it and people really want to see it already.

What are your views on the story of After?

It’s a really flawed love story and it’s the kind that we all have when we fall in love with the people who might not be the best for us. And you know that this girl grows up with her first love, and she’s forced to grow up with her first experience with a really kind of mature complicated love.

How did it go with Josephine Langford being Tessa Young, your screen daughter?

Josephine Langford is playing Tessa Young and again I’m so out of it that I didn’t know who this exceptional creature was. And I’m so flattered that people would think we are very similar, but we really are! She has the juiciness of youth that is so perfect of course for this young love story, but I mean we’re really so similar the way we walk, our broad shoulders were really goofy, we got along truly instantly, we laughed the same way. I let my natural hair colour grow out and everyone’s like wow I always think of you as brunette – I’ve dyed it for years, that’s not even my colour but it’s really nice when it just gets to work like that but I was like wow! I don’t have to really copy your mannerisms to make something more realistic, we’re already there so that’s just a nice bit of wonderful kismet and I happen to adore her really. She’s very innocent and pure in real life it seems but also really wise and it’s really nice to know someone like that.

Directed by Jenny Gage, After is based on Anna Todd’s best-selling novel After (2014). Besides, Selma Blair and Josephine Langford, the film also stars Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Shane Paul McGhie, Samuel Larsen, Khadijha Red Thunder, Swen Temmel, Inanna Sarkis, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Beals, Pia Mia, Meadow Williams and Dylan Arnold. A PVR Pictures release, watch the incredible love story After on May 3 in your nearest PVR cinemas.