Interview with HUGE Actress Nikki Blonsky

Posted June 29, 2010 by shooting in Uncategorized / 5 Comments

I was recently given the opportunity to interview Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray) from the new ABC Family show, Huge. It was a lot of fun and she’s such a sweet young lady. I love that she’s happy with herself and believes so strongly in everyone else feeling the same.
The first episode premiered last night and though I missed a bit of it, it was really good. I think the characters are interesting and believable. I really do hope to continue with this one and see where it goes. Hopefully it will only become more intriguing to watch each week. Nikki is great as the “Why Should I Change?” Wil and Hayley Hasselhof is fascinating to watch. She’s definitely a good actress. That’s just two of the characters…the rest really round it out and make it more interesting. Huge has a lot of heart and some humor mixed in for good measure. Be sure to check it out.
Huge on ABC Family. Monday Nights at 9/8c
Conference Call with Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag (Plus a Few Other Questions from Others)-This is not the full interview. Email me if you want it all.

L. Becker: Who would you love to see work on the show either as a guest star or as a director?

N. Blonsky: Right now we don’t know who Will’s parents are because Will really hates her parents, because they are fitness gurus. They’re the reason she’s at this camp. They’re very successful fitness gurus who send her to this camp because they don’t approve of what she looks like. So she decides, well you know what, I’m going to go to camp and do it my way. I’m going to gain weight in camp. If we get any guest stars, I hope my parents would be played by someone really fit like John Stamos and maybe Ricky Lake.

L. Becker: In terms of meeting your fans, do you have any crazy or can’t-believe-this-happened stories that you’ve had to deal with so far?

N. Blonsky: When I was down in Australia, which I loved, I had a male fan down there who tried to rip my blouse off on the red carpet and then he asked me to marry him in front of the entire red carpet, in front of Zac [Efron], in front of everybody. What do you say when a guy asks you to marry him in front of 300 people? And I just said, “Thank you.” It was kind of embarrassing.

Now for some other sites’ questions!
 
L. Steinberg from Starry Constellation Magazine: Well you’re a role model for the heavier set community. I have to say it was amazing for you to be photographed in a bathing suit for the advertising of this campaign. How did you feel when they were shooting you?

N. Blonsky: Oh, thank you so much. I have to say it was the most freeing experience of my life to be out there with just a bathing suit, you don’t get barer than that unless you’re doing Playboy and that’s not happening anytime soon – not ever. So, I think it was the most freeing experience of my life. Growing up you always have those little things like, “I’m in a bathing suit and I really want to go to the pool, or I want to go to the beach, but I don’t want people to see me.” A lot of kids and adults still deal with that. I dealt with that for a very long time until I got the part of Will and it said, day one, first shot of the day, she’s taking off her clothes, stripping down to her bathing suit, she’s doing a strip tease.

When I saw the posters I was like, “Whoa,” I didn’t know that it was going to be just me in the bathing suit.” So, I’m actually headed back to New York soon and I’m really shocked because there’s a full one in Times Square, so from a New Yorker it’s really, really sweet.

K. Martinez from Extra Chicago: Obesity is becoming a major problem among teenagers in the U.S. today. Do you ever advocate losing weight or is it more about sending out the message of being happy with who you are and things like that?

N. Blonsky: Yes. I totally advocate of being who you are, loving who you are and living and let live. Just love what God gave you because He gave it to you for a reason. And you were made this way for a reason. If you were meant to be six foot tall, skinny blonde model, than you would have been. But I’m meant to be a 4’10” plus-size actress and I am perfectly okay and happy with that. I think if we all just accept who we are and love who we are I think we’ll all be okay.

K. Martinez: I wanted to know you talked a little bit about the cut throat industry of Hollywood. Have you, yourself, ever had any weight discrimination against you or have you heard any stories or anything like that or run into anything like that?

N. Blonsky: Yes, I had an agent look me in the eye and tell me well if you want to get roles in this town you need to drop at least 100 pounds and I said, oh really? She said, yes, I looked at her and I said well you’re not my agent and I walked away from her because if you don’t get me then you don’t get why I’m the way I am than you can’t be part of my life. It’s like, I am who I am and I’m proud of who I am and that’s just how it is and this was when I was, I didn’t have an agent when I got Hairspray so this is when I was, I don’t want to say auditioning for agents, but seeing different agents.

N. Vlassoff from The Dead Bolt: In the scene from the first episode, Will asked why she should have to change. Can you talk about that thought process on how you approached the character?

N. Blonsky: Well, I think, Will doesn’t want to change. Will is fine with who she is. She just wants to be left alone and listen to her music and drown herself in her rock-n-roll and her food and just be let be. It’s true when she says, “Everyone wants us to hate our bodies.” It’s true because the media makes it seem as though you have to be a size two if you want to be an actress or that that’s the normal size.

Kids read that and I’ve experienced meeting fans and family members, my cousins who are younger than me, who are like 10 and say, “Oh I have to go on a diet.” I’m like, what? And they say, “Well, everybody in this magazine looks like this.” I try and explain to them that what’s in the magazines is not, sometimes, what’s in real life.

E. Brown from ABC Family: You found out that you got the role of Tracy in Hairspray in a pretty dramatic fashion. What about this time around? How did you find out that you were going to be Will and what was the first thing you did?

N. Blonsky: Well, it was actually pretty dramatic fashion as well this time around. My Dad just had spine surgery and I was wheeling him out of the hospital when my phone rang. It was my agent and he said, “How’s your Dad?” And I said, “Well, I’m putting him in the car right now.” He said, “How is he feeling?” I said, “Well, he’s in pain but he’ll be okay.” He said, “Well ask him if he’d feel better if he found out that his daughter just landed the lead in the new series.” And I just let out this scream like I did with the Hairspray one and I yelled, “I got the part!” and somebody in the parking lot yelled, “Who got shot?!” They thought somebody got shot and I was like, no, nobody got shot, I’m sorry, I’m an actress. I got a part. I’m sorry and my dad was like, “Congratulations ,Shorty,” because that’s what he calls me. Everybody was just so happy and my family was so elated. My dad was in so much pain but that eased his pain a little bit.

5 responses to “Interview with HUGE Actress Nikki Blonsky

  1. Loved the interview! It's really awesome that Nikki is happy with herself and never gave up even after that mean agent. I didn't watch the first episode, but I do look forward to watching it online : )

  2. Oh, I love her!
    Aside from being an amazing actress, she seems very real and down-to-earth.
    I loved the first episode of HUGE, and am planning on reading the book as soon as possible!!!
    Go, Nikki!!!

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.