Selma Blair went for primetime laughs last season in the NBC sitcom Kath and Kim. Now she’s taking on the darkest role of her career in a wrenching portrayal of a drugged out, alcoholic mom in The Poker House.
What adds to the impact is that it’s based on the true story of the mother of actress Lori Petty, who both wrote and directed the film. Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out that Blair was shocked by some of her scenes.
A character you love to hate.
“I wasn’t doing a likable portrayal of this woman. There wasn’t any point in sugarcoating it because this really happened. There were not really any redeeming moments. Lori’s mom was neglectful, hurtful, narcissistic, drunk, drugged and selling her body. She just was not getting it together for herself or her kids. That’s a pretty hateful place to be, but I really believe drugs and alcohol do that to the extent that you’re abusing them. I know plenty of damaged people and I’ve had my own moments of being a really damaged person.”
The downside of making her believable.
“Some people kind of got angry at me. At a screening I got some comments like, ‘How could you be so awful?’ I guess that’s a compliment because I was really just acting, actually. Horrible things happen to people. People go through dark periods. People do horrible things to other people. But I think this was also a story of redemption.”
See photos of Hollywood mothers and daughters
The real life happy ending.
“Lori and her mother have a good relationship now — a supportive relationship. Things have changed and her mother has finally gotten it together and is so supportive of Lori. Knowing that allowed me to play her as kind of truthfully and really kind of ugly as I did because I knew she wound up on the other side.”
Lori Petty behind the camera.
“Lori is a very outspoken woman, so she wasn’t going to just pussyfoot around something if I was really kind of mucking it up. She can talk about anything or tell you to get the ‘bleep’ out of her business. She’s not a shrinking violet. But that made me feel comfortable because I knew exactly where she was coming from.”
The booze flowin’ in the Poker House wasn’t exactly 100 proof.
“We were just drinking ginger ale. It’s always ginger ale or they have that near-beer like ‘O’Doul’s’ or something. But if you down like six of those it’s like the equivalent of one beer, I guess.”
As for the non-stop smoking.
“When you smoke in a scene, I’d rather just smoke a regular, darn cigarette. But they have these weird herbal cigarettes—especially for kids that are smoking in scenes—which are really headache-inducing and awful.”
And they’ve become a taboo prop.
“Cigarettes are a lovely crutch for an actor but they’re so not politically correct anymore. You’ve automatically made your character a villain if they smoke a cigarette. I get it. They’re very unhealthy.”
Who she’d most like to play in a biopic.
“I would love to do Courtney Love. I ran into her once – I’m sure she doesn’t recall it – but she was joking like, ‘Oh you should play me in a movie.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so great.’ I mean, I looked nothing like her at the time. Maybe now I do. But you know it was just crazy.”
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