It’s 2019–but society is still obsessed with forcing women into certain boxes. In her newest film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Troian Bellisario is ripping down the barriers that have been placed around women. In the film, which is based on Maria Semple’s 2012 novel of the same name–we meet Cate Blanchett’s, Bernadette Fox. An architect who hasn’t practiced her craft in two decades–Bernadette has become a reclusive outcast in her Seattle community. Her sole concerns are the care of her daughter, Bee, and trying to hold on to the last remnants of her identity.
After becoming increasingly anxious about an impending family trip to Antartica–Bernedette vanishes–much to the horror of her daughter and husband, only to find herself on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Along the way, she meets Bellisario’s Becky–a whip-smart scientist traveling to the South Pole. Becky’s enthusiasm for her work invigorates something within Bernadette that she thought was lost long ago.
Ahead of Where’d You Go, Bernadette’s premiere–STYLECASTER sat down to chat with the Pretty Little Liars alum about the film, her epic kayaking adventure and bonding with Cate Blanchett.
“I was so grateful that this movie was about family,” Bellisario revealed. “It was about a woman’s relationship to her art –about a woman’s relationship to her daughter, and to her self. To be apart of it and particularly to play a scientist, it was pretty amazing. Coming from Pretty Little Liars, I would wake up out of bed, and I would have two hours of hair and makeup. With [Bernadette], I was shooting the biggest movie that I would ever be on, and they were like, ‘Here’s a beanie, and here are some dorky wraparound sunglasses– go Arctic kayaking.’ I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ It wasn’t us trying to be glamorous. It was just, go out there and do your tests. That’s what’s important. It’s not about how you look. It’s not about the style that you’re into. It certainly was not stylish being in a wetsuit in the middle of the Arctic.”
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Image: Wilson Webb/Annapurna Pictures
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