Brittany Snow in ‘Red, White and Blue.'.Photo:Red, White and Blue
Red, White and Blue
Brittany Snowis making an impact with her new project.
Next month, the 37-year-old actress — best known for comedies likePitch Perfect,HairsprayandJohn Tucker Must Die— will see her film,Red, White and Blue,compete for the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar atthe 96th Academy Awards.
Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, theNazrin Choudhury-directed short tells the story of a single mom who crosses state lines in search of an abortion.
“The core of the movie,” Snow says, “is about being a mom.”
Though it centers on the “polarizing” and “hot-button” issue of abortion, Snow tells PEOPLE she “wouldn’t go as far to say that it’s a political film — even though I’m sure that that makes a lot of people feel better, to put it in that category.”
Brittany Snow in ‘Red, White and Blue.'.Red, White and Blue
“You go into this film judging this mother and thinking this certain thing, and then to feel the twist through your whole body is something that I had never expected before,” she says.
“And I think that it’s because it comes with a lot of understanding that when we read a lot of these stories about abortions, or female reproductive health, we just kind of go in with our own assumptions,” she continues. “And this movie really flipped it on its head, which I thought was really, really important and shocking.”
In Snow’s words, the short aims to “challenge the beliefs that we may have inherently from family, from friends, from the way we grew up” — and she has already seen it do just that.
“I never check my DMs — because there’s a lot of crazy people talking about my feet, or whatever — but sometimes I do, especially whenRed, White and Bluefirst came out,” she tells PEOPLE, “and I did get a DM from a girl saying that it completely changed her viewpoint on abortion.”
“I think that that was something huge,” she continues, “because you go into thinking that you’re making this film, and maybe it’ll touch a few people, but for someone to actually have their perception change is a huge, huge deal.”
Juliet Donenfeld, Brittany Snow and Redding Munsell in ‘Red, White and Blue.'.Red, White and Blue
Snow says that before filming, she was “a little hesitant” to portray a mother — a career-first for the actress — noting that she doesn’t “necessarily know the intricacies of how to be a mom.”
Instead, she found a different way to connect with Rachel, a single mom of two navigating a situation that is both emotionally and logistically difficult.
“I think what I related to is that I’m not a mom yet, or necessarily, but I do think a lot of women have to face really hard challenges and yet be very strong and stoic and silent in a way,” she says. “Because they don’t have another choice.”
“They can’t break down and show weakness because they have something to uphold. And I did really resonate with that idea that sometimes you don’t have a choice,” she continues. “There is no room for a hysterical breakdown or something, even though it’s the hardest thing.”
And under Choudhury’s direction, Snow’s performance helped land the gut-wrenching short an Oscar nomination — news that left Snow “shocked.”
“I always knew that it was that brilliant, and I always had belief in the script and in Nazrin, the director, but you never really think ‘Oscar nomination’ when you think about your career,” she says. “Some people do, but I didn’t.”
Snow says she had “big plans” for her career during her child acting days, but quickly learned to “accept the way that your career unfolds and not to be super strategic, but accept just going off of feeling.”
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But if she could turn back the clock, Snow says she would “give myself a little bit of grace.”
“I think I would be a little bit easier on myself if I could go back to thePitch Perfectdays, where I was like, ‘Is this what I’m going to do for the rest of my life? Musicals?’ ” she says. “I remember so many of my agents, managers saying, ‘A career is very long. It’s not really going anywhere unless you want it to.’ “
“Betting on yourself is sometimes really hard, but it’s also really cool when it works out," she adds.
source: people.com
