Ep 253: From Sixteen Candles to Social Films: A Talk with Blanche Baker
Filmmaking Conversations Podcast with Damien SwabyShow Notes
This podcast episode features a conversation with actress and director Blanche Baker, who discusses her career, her notable roles, and her passion for making films that address social issues.Show Notes:Early Career and the Impact of HolocaustBlanche Baker's debut role was in the Emmy-winning miniseries Holocaust.
This role was deeply personal for her because her father, Jack Garfine, was a Holocaust survivor.
Before filming, she retraced her father’s journey through the concentration camps, including visiting Bergen-belsen, where he was liberated at age 14.
She also shares a story about a taxi driver in Vienna making a joke about the Auschwitz ovens, which made her experience "horrifying at times".
Her father supported her doing the film, believing people would relate to the story better than "just facts and numbers".
She also recounts how her father would laugh at most films about the Holocaust, saying that in the camps people were singing and dancing, and those who felt sorry for themselves were the ones who died. This was his way of saying you have to "find the joy in life despite the horrors" to survive.
Acting Technique and EducationBaker believes that an academic background gives actors roots in a tough business with many ups and downs.
She recommends the books Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen and Intent to Live by Larry Moss for her students.
She has also taken Stanislavsky’s work and translated it for film to help students achieve the naturalistic performances seen on screen today.
She notes that the basic acting technique is the same across mediums like film, television, and theater, but it must be modified for each, with film bringing the "audience... right up into your face".
Sixteen Candles and On-Set StoriesBaker recalls that John Hughes wrote Sixteen Candles in just two weeks and let the cast improvise.
None of them expected the film to become a cult classic that still resonates with young people today.
She recounts a story about Anthony Michael Hall hanging from a coat hook in her hotel room and other pranks on set, describing the experience as "like being at camp".
She also shares a story about trashing a hotel room while shooting a film in Israel when she was younger and how it taught her that pursuing acting as an art is what makes you happy, not acting out.
Moving Behind the CameraBlanche Baker is passionate about making films that make people think about social issues.
Her short films, like Street Right, deal with freedom of speech by contrasting negative advertising with positive graffiti.
Her other short film, Make America Safe, uses humor and a "backwards" world to highlight the issue of gun violence and school shooter drills. She mentions that she believes there need to be stricter gun laws.
She is currently working on a film called Girl in a Glass Box, which explores psychological manipulation and shines a light on gaslighting and abuse
LINKS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect_for_Acting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski https://www.nyfa.edu
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