The DUFF directed by Ari Sandel, written by Josh A. Cagan from the novel by Kody Keplinger, with Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne and Allison Janney. An Entertainment One release. 101 minutes. Opens Friday (February 19). For venues and times, see Movies.
Mae Whitman doesn’t sign on to things lightly. At 26, the actor has spent most of her life in front of a camera or microphone, working constantly in movies, TV and animation.
She’s voiced Tinker Bell in a series of recent Disney movies, turned up as one of Ramona Flowers’s evil exes in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and just wrapped six seasons as Amber Holt on the NBC series Parenthood. And she’s learned to think things through – to consider what a given project represents and what message it sends to the people who see it.
“It’s something I feel very proud of and lucky about,” she says. “Everything that I’ve done I can really get behind and relate to. That’s been rewarding because you know the people who appreciate you [as an actor] appreciate you for who you are and what you believe in. It’s not a vast, confusing body of work that’s difficult to connect with. It’s pretty intimate.”
This is why Whitman decided to go back to high school for The DUFF, a comedy that casts her as Bianca, a student who decides to reinvent herself when she learns people consider her the DUFF (designated ugly fat friend) among a trio of besties. The movie picks at teens’ preconceived social structures and identity issues, which she found intriguing.
“It’s kind of a tricky topic, but I also think it’s an important one,” she says. “I still relate to that feeling of being categorized or limited or put in a specific box. It’s just helpful to kind of provide a perspective, at least, so you feel less alone.”
Whitman also appreciated the chance to play a character who may struggle with her position on the social ladder but always has a clear sense of herself.
“Bianca never changes who she is,” she says. “She tries on different dresses and tries to do different things – as I think we all have to try to make situations go more easily, to help us feel more accepted in a difficult situation. But you know, she still is who she is. It’s more about letting go of all the stuff that you don’t really need.”
Promoting The DUFF has also offered a bit of a distraction from the end of Parenthood last month.
“I go through moments of being really charged for the future and excited and not really thinking about it, and then there’s just these waves of sadness about it,” she says. “I think it’s going to be a kind of eternally shifting process to say goodbye to it – but overall it’s just so positive, because I’m glad to have been a part of it at all.”
Interview Clips
Mae Whitman on the universal experience of insecurity.
Whitman on plans to do more behind the camera.
Whitman elaborates on the end of Parenthood.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
