The first thing you notice about Emma Roberts is her chic designer clothes -- today she has on a suit and five-inch black patent-leather stilettos. You were expecting maybe the demure early '60s outfits -- complete with knee socks and penny loafers -- that she sports as the star of the new movie "Nancy Drew"?
The film, which opens Friday, has a contemporary setting. In writer/director Andrew Fleming's fondly satiric vision, it's just Nancy who's amusingly out of sync. When a promising business deal lures her widowed lawyer dad, Carson Drew (Tate Donovan, late of "The O.C."), away from staid River Heights to the fleshpots of Los Angeles, Nancy tags along -- providently renting a mansion with a built-in mystery.
Just as mysterious, to her, are the mores of her trendy new schoolmates. "OMG IM SITING NEXT TO MARTHA STWART!" an appalled peer (Daniella Monet) instant-messages after observing the transplanted teen's retro manners.
Another thing you might notice about Roberts is that she seems to share the tissue-thin reactivity -- a useful trait for a film actor -- of her very famous aunt Julia. The suggestion that her depiction of Drew is "wonkier" than the all-too-perfect (pretty and popular!) heroine of the 1930s book series that inspired the film elicits, for just a microsecond, a cool, mildly affronted look.
Yet there's a definite disjunction. It's difficult to reconcile this poised, polished 16-year-old sylph -- who's midway along a 10-city tour that includes reading initiatives at local libraries -- with the rambunctious character you see on screen. Nancy is whip-smart (not to mention well-prepared), but also somewhat socially awkward, with a headlong way of speaking that gives her a slight, frothy lisp and a geeky air of excessive enthusiasm.
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That must be why they call it acting.
Roberts caught the acting bug as a 5-year-old tagging along on her aunt's many shoots (one of her earliest memories of hanging out on set was the thrill of running wild in a Vegas hotel that hadn't yet opened). Her mother, Kelly Cunningham -- former girlfriend of the actor Eric Roberts, Emma's father -- initially kept her out of the business to shield her childhood, but let her start auditioning at age 9. Roberts snagged the very first part she tried out for, playing Johnny Depp's daughter in the 2001 Ted Demme film "Blow." Next came principal roles in "Grand Champion" and "Spymate," and a long run -- three seasons to date -- as star of the Nickelodeon series "Unfabulous," which has won her a slew of awards. By the time Roberts hit her teens, she was a certified star.
Which might explain her subdued, businesslike manner. She's unfailingly polite but tame and self-contained: hated the guitar lessons her mother urged on her (though ultimately they proved helpful for "Unfabulous," in which her character, Addie Singer, uses music to pour out her soul). Reading-wise, loves Jodi Picoult and "The Gossip Girls" series. Part of her mission in touring the country is to promote two favorite causes: Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) and Get Caught Reading.
source: /www.boston.com
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