|
Soon after, she landed a starring role in "Because of Winn-Dixie." Her dozen films also include "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Sleepwalking" and "Soul Surfer," in which she played the real-life surfer who lost an arm to a shark but didn't lose her love of surfing. A year ago, Robb was waiting for responses to her college applications when she got a peek at the "Carrie Diaries" script. "I decided that college is always going to be there, while this show was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." She laughs. "I also knew my getting the role was a super-long shot." But after a week of auditioning, she got the part. Then the pilot was shot last March. The series got picked up by the network in May. Production resumed in October. "The Carrie Diaries" begins on the first day of Carrie's junior year in high school. It's a painful time: Carrie and her 14-year-old little sister (Stefania Owen) lost their mother to cancer three months earlier, so the household now includes only these sisters and their father (Matt Letscher). As in "Sex and the City," this series features Carrie's arch, epigrammatic narration. She describes the scene at school with "everyone passing around news of the day like mono after a homecoming dance," then adds, "I realized that I was the virus no one wanted to get near: the freak who had lost her mom." In this bygone era, a sparkling design sense prevails. The soundtrack throbs with period tunes ("Material World," "Burning Down the House," "Bette Davis Eyes").
Carrie meets a new student (Austin Butler), whom she fancies. But an even bigger crush is Manhattan, where she lands an internship and meets an exciting mentor: the way-cool style editor at Interview magazine (Freema Agyeman). Carrie declares that the "man" she'll be losing her virginity to is Manhattan. That's three decades ago. Fifteen years ago in a SoHo restaurant five minutes away, Sarah Jessica Parker was having lunch with this same reporter as she worried how viewers would receive "Sex and the City," her new show. "We want the audience to see this as provocative and sophisticated, not gratuitous and vulgar," she said. Mission accomplished. Now "The Carrie Diaries" arrives as a prelude, with sweetness and a sense of wonder radiated by its luminous young star. "I felt like this was a character that I would be able to play for a long time," says Robb, the new Carrie Bradshaw. "I will be able to grow with her." ___ Online:
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor