In Sian Heder’s film Tallulah (2016), Tammy Blanchard plays a neglectful housewife named Carolyn who is dissatisfied with the harsh reality of motherhood. When Carolyn invites a stranger to babysit, her baby is kidnapped by a well-intentioned drifter named Tallulah (Ellen Page). ScreenPrism spoke with Blanchard about the challenges of motherhood, babies on set, and women in film.

ScreenPrism: How would you describe your character Carolyn in Tallulah?

Tammy Blanchard: Carolyn is a new mother who has lived a trophy wife kind of life, and she’s come to the point where she isn’t getting the attention she once got. She seeks it in all the wrong ways: alcohol, booze, men, and at the risk of her daughter’s safety. But through this tragedy of her daughter being kidnapped, she learns to be grateful, and it changes who she is.

SP: When you were first approached for the role of Carolyn, what was your immediate reaction to the character?

TB: Just love and mercy and compassion. That was my first thing, and I think that’s why I was able to play her and not make her this comedic big thing. I didn’t even know I was in a comedy. I thought this was serious! I didn’t think there was anything funny about this situation. I just felt so much mercy and compassion for her because I saw a little girl who never grew up, or a little girl still searching for security or love in life. And now with this big responsibility to love and secure someone else, when she doesn’t even have it herself. I just had complete understanding and mercy for her.

SP: How did being a mother affect your role and understanding of Carolyn and her actions?

TB: It’s very dynamic for me because I have an eight-year-old little girl, and I’m a single mother. There was a lot of guilt about having to leave her father and thinking I was breaking her from a happy home, but it wasn’t a happy home. It was actually a decision a lot of women have to make. No one wants to become a single mother, and when that happens to you, there’s a lot of guilt and shame that comes along with it, so it was easily accessible to me for the film.

Tammy Blanchard as Carolyn in Tallulah (2016)

SP: So you could empathize with Carolyn and her situation?

TB: Yeah! I know a lot of girls who, when they’re so hurt or insecure or lonely or they’re not getting the attention from men or they’re being mistreated, they just go wild. And you can’t really blame them. The opposite of someone like Carolyn and her actions is Margo. Some women will lock themselves in their rooms and not go out and not try to relate with anyone and, in a way, disappear. So you have Margo who disappears, and then you have Carolyn who just goes full out, like out there. Then you have Ellen Page as Tallulah who just is at the point where she’s so mad, and she’s so angry at everyone who’s hurt her, and she’s just going to go and start fighting back. And in that character’s decision to start fighting back, she changes the other two’s lives.

SP: Do you relate most to Carolyn, Margo or Tallulah?

TB: Carolyn! Carolyn. I will fight. I will fight! In the wrong ways, I guess? Sometimes I find myself [saying to myself], like, what am I doing? Or, why am I feeling this way? Or, this is out of control. But I can’t just sit and do nothing, and I’m not explosive like Tallulah. I’m kind of like Carolyn. I fight and sometimes in the wrong ways.

SP: They’re all flawed, but they’re all human and relatable. So you can see yourself in each of them.

TB: Right! Which is what everyone is saying, and [director] Sian [Heder] said it, too, that [all three] seem like the same woman to her.

SP: It’s like three different sides to the same woman. Do you think more woman would relate to Carolyn than they would like to admit?

TB: Yeah. Well, being a mother, I remember candid conversations with many women that were just like, “This is hard.” Like, “I’m not sleeping. This kid is driving me crazy. I want to throw the kid off the balcony!” I experienced a lot of openness in my time, having my child. But I think a lot of women would be ashamed if they were drinking or if they were reaching out to men and stuff. I think that’s something a woman would be ashamed of, and she wouldn’t tell anyone.

SP: It’s very hard to talk about those hardships or those negative feelings that can be associated with motherhood. Do you think this film opens up this conversation?

TB: In Utah, when we screened the film at the Sundance Film Festival, a woman, who looked pretty severe, came up to me with tears in her eyes, and she was like, “I will never judge another mother again.” I think that’s what the film really has the ability to do, which is to make people realize that, just because you become a mother, it doesn’t make you perfect. And you’re not called to be perfect. Everyone is just trying to do the best they can. Hopefully people will either walk out of there forgiving their own mother for the mistakes she made and feeling this compassion for the mothers on screen. Or maybe they’ll walk away feeling more compassion for a friend they know that they think isn’t doing the best job, but, because every mother is, everyone is trying to do the best they can.

Tallulah (Ellen Page) and Margo (Allison Janney) with the kidnapped toddler in Tallulah (2016)

SP: Carolyn is a complex character who feels like the antagonist in the beginning but becomes the victim of a huge crime. I mean, her child is kidnapped. How did you think of your character’s dual role?

TB: I think it’s the whole thing: the villain becoming the one you have compassion for. That’s what’s so great about the role — in the beginning you’re hated, and you’re shameful, and everyone’s like, “Ew!” Then by the end of it they’re like, “Oh my god. I totally have compassion and mercy for that girl.” But when you’re that lost in life, and you’re that desperate and lonely and wrong, it takes a real smack in the face. It takes a tragedy to bring you out of it, and that’s what happens to Carolyn. Her daughter’s been kidnapped, and even though it’s so terrible, she becomes the victim. Finally she learns the truth that she’s grateful and that she’s happy she has a child. It redirects her completely.

SP: In your performance, did you think about making Carolyn a balance of “unlikeable” versus “likeable,” or a “bad mother” versus a “vulnerable victim”?

TB: It was in the writing. When you have a story that is so well written and developed that there is an arc in the film, you just go in and play the emotions. The director plays you like an instrument. They push the B sharp key, and you play that note. It really was just that I had such good material and also that I knew I was working with such great actors, Ellen Page and Allison Janney. I went in there with complete trust and confidence in myself after the first day. The first day is always the worst for me. I’m always like, “Oh my god. I don’t know if I can do this.” But after that day, I’m fine. It’s writing, and it’s fellow actors, and it’s trusting your director that makes everything work.

SP: What was it like working with Ellen Page, Allison Janney and director Sian Heder?

TB: It was life-changing for me working with them. Because Ellen Page, I love her. Do you love her? I love Ellen! I was excited to meet her. There are only a few actors that really turn me on like that, and she was with these babies! She was holding these babies for 12-13 hours a day and acting and focusing and really taking care of the babies.

Allison and Ellen’s relationship was so beautiful and open. Sian was so strong and direct. She was pregnant. Six months pregnant and making a film and in control of everything! Everyone’s commitment was so intense and good that I learned that I would have this same kind of work ethic from here on in that these women taught me. Do anything. Hold a baby for thirteen hours and act if you have to. To the point where I did this movie Warning Shot (2017) in Texas for three weeks, and they were like, “We want you to get in this pond with these snakes and crawl across it.” And I’m just thinking of Ellen holding a baby for four weeks for 12 hours a day, and I’m like, “I’m getting in this pond with these snakes. I’ll do anything! I worked with Ellen Page! I know how to work right.”

They taught me a lot and it was so empowering. All women. The cinematographer was a woman, the producer. We were surrounded with nothing but [female] strength.

The main cast of Tallulah at the Sundance Film Festival 2016

SP: Sadly, it’s still unusual to see that many women working together on a film set.

TB: It was so beautiful. I think it’s true for the film, too. It kind of [creates] that sense that once we stop putting ourselves in a hole, or once we stop seeking attention from men, or once we start accepting a man left us — once we come together and start fighting back and start creating with each other and start talking — we can really influence and change each other’s lives. Women are so strong, but we don’t come together enough. I hope Sian gets a lot of the attention that she deserves, and I hope that she keeps going.

SP: So you said Ellen Page had to work with a few babies on the set. How many?

TB: A lot of babies! I don’t know, like six or seven. I don’t even know how many babies. But they were fun on your off-time. The mothers were beautiful. But yeah, pain in the ass. It’s not easy working with babies. They’re, like, screaming, and you’re trying to be all sad or whatever you have to be. I didn’t really have to work with them that much, so I had it a lot easier than everyone else. When we got to the scene in the hospital when Ellen hands me the baby, she was like, “Listen. The baby’s not going to you. The baby’s screaming and everyone’s tried. Don’t be afraid. The baby’s just not going to come to you.” And the baby came right to me on the first try. And then Ellen! I saw Ellen and she was like, “Give me that baby back.” But the baby loves me.

Ellen Page as Tallulah

SP: Are there any fun memories that stand out from your time filming?

TB: Oh yeah! The first day we did the scene with Allison Janney. It was really hot in the apartment, and sweat was pouring down our bodies. Sian, Allison and I really worked this scene for a while to get it where we wanted it to be. And it was so hot that Allison Janney went into the bedroom, and she jumped and laid back on the bed and she was like, “I can’t ACT anymore!” It was so funny! And Allison Janney is so beautiful! She is so beautiful and funny and wonderful that, for my first day for her to be so nonchalant and cool and funny like that, I just thought this was going to be a great job.

Allison Janney as Margo

SP: Finally, is there anything you want audiences to get out of the film?

TB: For me, the reason why I wanted to play the role is because I want people to walk away feeling like, “I’m never going to judge a book by its cover again.” And if I can make someone have mercy for someone in their life that maybe they’re judging too much, or if I could make someone forgive their mother a little bit or their brother or sister, then I’ve done my job. The movie as a whole, I think, will give people a sense of just: hold on and don’t let go. Something will happen, and you’ll find the strength to want to live again. It’s so deep, but it’s true!

Tallulah is also really funny. It’s a funny film. It’s a dramedy, and you’ll laugh, and you’ll cry, and you’re going to enjoy it.