Selma Blair: a face made for Storytelling - Actress To Watch - Brief Article

Interview, Nov, 2001 by Patrick Giles

Film acting is not about beauty or emotional range, but honesty and quick chemistry. It's about an actor's possession of a soul willing to wound itself in search of what the character momentarily possessing it is saying and doing, and its ability to biochemically transmit its findings in the gleaming of the eyes, the pulsing of the hands and face, before a watching camera. We're not sure yet whether Selma Blair has got that undefinable, unteachable essence that has made Davis, Crawford, Gish, Garbo, Rogers, Brooks, Streep, Sarandon and others immortal, but we already know from her initial performances that when Blair is onscreen, she looks like acting matters as much to her as life and death. This can take you a long way.

How long for Blair might be demonstrated very soon: next spring she stars in the first of two episodes comprising Todd Solondz' eagerly-awaited film Storytelling. In the first episode, "Fiction," Blair plays a well-meaning college writing student pulled into the control of a teacher--and a volatile situation--far beyond her grasp.

A native of Southfield, Michigan, Selma Blair has made quick progress in a series of small film roles. Her close-up smooch with Sarah Michelle Gellar was one of the best moments in Cruel Intentions (1999), the prep-school mutation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel Dangerous Liaisons. The fact that Blair made good impressions in this film and in Legally Blonde--both of which starred the powerfully gifted, often hard to keep up with, Reese Witherspoon--suggests the newer actress could be capable of much in her own turn.

Patrick Giles is Interview's Associate Editor. This page: Selma Blair wears a top by EMPORIO ARMANI. Shorts by LEVI'S. Opposite: Dress by FENDI. Cosmetic colors: STILA. Styling: LAUREN EHRENFELD for Celestine. Hair: DAVID COX for Bumble + bumble/Celestine. Makeup: LUCIENNE ZAMMIT for Stila at aRT miX. For fashion and photo details see page 151. Photographer: PEGGY SIROTA.