{"id":1900639,"date":"2026-04-24T13:08:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1900639"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:08:58","slug":"rowan-blanchard-hollywood-is-an-extremely-fucked-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1900639","title":{"rendered":"Rowan Blanchard: \u2018Hollywood is an extremely fucked industry\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/0-252-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443762.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article longread\">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/film-tv\/article\/70130\/1\/rowan-blanchard-the-testaments-palestine-interview-hulu-2026\" data-article-id=\"70130\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-portrait-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.75\" data-template=\"Longread Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"@rowanblanchard \/ Instagram\" class=\"img\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443762.jpeg\" width=\"1080\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">@rowanblanchard \/ Instagram<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-04-24T13:08:58+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">DateInMeta<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical vertical - film-tv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Rowan Blanchard: \u2018Hollywood is an extremely <span class=\"nowrap\">fucked industry\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>As she takes on a new role in The Testaments, the actress discusses political responsibility, posting about Palestine, and why she doesn\u2019t expect TV to answer for the state of <span class=\"nowrap\">the world<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-24T13:08:58+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - film-tv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-24T13:08:58+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"24 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"24\">24,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/laurapitcher\">Laura Pitcher<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-6-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Rowan Blanchard Dazed <span class=\"nowrap\">spring 16<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/0\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand3\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-181-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169114.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/1\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"cowboy3_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1000-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169109.jpg\" width=\"1000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/2\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"hallway_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-232-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169110.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/3\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"kidshark2_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"854\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-101-1281-854\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169111.jpg\" width=\"1281\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/4\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand1\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-325-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169112.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/5\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand2\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-147-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169113.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 6 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>At just 24, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/rowan-blanchard\">Rowan Blanchard<\/a> already has an entire acting career behind her, having starred in <em data-start=\"128\" data-end=\"165\">Spy Kids: All the Time in the World<\/em> at nine and Disney\u2019s <em data-start=\"187\" data-end=\"205\">Girl Meets World<\/em> as a young teen. \u201cI started acting when I was five, so it\u2019s the only thing I know and quite literally all I remember,\u201d she says. \u201cI have memories of watching <em data-start=\"364\" data-end=\"377\">I Love Lucy<\/em> and wanting to be that funny, or watching Audrey Hepburn movies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But Blanchard is one of the rare child stars to have pulled off a genuine metamorphosis: today, she\u2019s something of a Gen Z style icon, and many of the young people following the projects she\u2019s part of may never even have seen <em data-start=\"354\" data-end=\"364\">Spy Kids<\/em>. More than that, she\u2019s navigating the industry on her own terms, staying politically engaged while pushing herself across very different kinds of roles. In her latest, Blanchard enters the world of Gilead \u2013 the fundamentalist, totalitarian regime at the centre of <em data-start=\"629\" data-end=\"650\">The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> \u2013 as Shunammite in <em data-start=\"670\" data-end=\"686\">The Testaments<\/em>, the sequel series based on Margaret Atwood\u2019s novel. The character is a young woman coming of age within that brutal system, alongside a cast that includes former Dazed cover star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/chase-infiniti\">Chase Infiniti.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As comparisons between Gilead and America continue to mount, we spoke to Blanchard about building an unexpected career, getting offline, posting about Palestine, and why she doesn\u2019t expect a TV show to carry the weight of the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s it been like to transition from being a child star to acting on your own terms?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s been interesting because I\u2019ve been working for so long. What I don\u2019t love is that, when you\u2019re a kid, you can only work nine and a half hours, but as an adult, you can do 14 to 16-hour days. I miss when I turned into a pumpkin at a certain time, but it\u2019s nice to step into myself and have an experience on set that\u2019s different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Who are the actors you did (and do) look up to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> I don\u2019t want to even put myself in the same sentence as her, but when I was a teenager, I watched Isabelle Adjani in <\/span><em><span>Possession<\/span><\/em><span> or Isabelle Huppert in <\/span><em><span>The Piano Teacher \u2013<\/span><\/em><span>\u00a0I could only dream of being given that material. I pray to God someone gives me a crazy script like that. But, recently, I\u2019ve been thinking about Kristen Stewart and how she bought a theatre in LA. She\u2019s such an interesting actress because she was also a child actor, and has had such a long, dynamic career, going from big franchise movies like <\/span><em><span>Twilight<\/span><\/em><span> to making her own movie. It feels like there\u2019s so much more for her to give, and I\u2019m excited for the rest of her life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you want your career trajectory to be as unexpected?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> I think so, yeah. Coming from being on Disney as a child, I just want to have the opportunity to be in all different types of projects. I want to play more crazy girls, because it\u2019s fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>So many young people also look to your personal style as inspiration. Have you always loved fashion?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I\u2019ve just always loved clothes. When I was a little girl, I loved old movie stars. I loved glamour. I loved dressing up. I love bitches who dress up. So it\u2019s nice that people have embraced that because it\u2019s really fun for me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like you\u2019re good at thrifting.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I haven\u2019t bought clothes in so long, but I am good at thrifting when I do it. As I\u2019ve grown up, it\u2019s become more important to me to buy things that genuinely make me feel good. When I was a teenager, I had so much fun dressing very theatrically, and now I just want a comforting sweater, a nice pair of pants, or a nice dress. I just want romantic, simple things now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cT<span>here are a lot of people who have rejected me [speaking out about Palestine], but I also just have a heart that beats. <\/span>I think that not having an opinion is really concerning\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve also been online, documenting your life, for a very long time now. How has your relationship with the internet changed over time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I grew up on the internet, but I will say now I try not to be on the internet as much. I have an app that sets a timer on Instagram, and I deleted Twitter and Tumblr years ago. I don\u2019t have TikTok. I think I had it for maybe a month. But I was homeschooled and never physically around that many other people, so the internet was once how I connected and learned from other people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re also very public about activism online. Why do you think it\u2019s important for actors to have conversations about issues like Palestinian rights?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>My opinion on celebrity-adjacent activism changes every single day, but I know for me personally, the state of things and the acceleration of things in the last three years has been so extreme and volatile that it feels impossible for me not to affirm my beliefs. I have been talking about Palestine online since 2018, and I didn\u2019t know it was not something I could talk about. Then I talked about it and got calls, and there are a lot of people who have rejected me, but I also just have a heart that beats. <\/span>I think that not having an opinion is really concerning. <span>I know I now work in Hollywood, and it\u2019s an extremely fucked industry, but I really value my integrity, and I can sleep at night knowing my heart is in the right place. I just want people to know where I stand, and that\u2019s a big part of my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>In your latest role as Shunammite in <\/strong><strong><em>The Testaments,<\/em><\/strong><strong> you are stepping into a world that\u2019s very politically charged. How did you prepare to inhabit a society that\u2019s so restrictive?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanch: <\/strong><span>It was fun, honestly, to keep remembering that my character doesn\u2019t know any better. That was a good challenge as an actress, just to completely separate and remember that I don\u2019t have any sort of antiquated opinion because I have no outside reference. There\u2019s no Tumblr. There are no books. You can\u2019t read. So it\u2019s a very clear mind, and I just had to keep reminding myself that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>What was it like to play a teenager now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> It was fun to have that kind of problematic teenage brain where you don\u2019t understand why things happen, and you don\u2019t understand what all the fluctuating emotions in your body are, and your hormones. I\u2019d love to play another teenager.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shunammite is also fairly bratty, which seems like the opposite of you!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I\u2019m not bratty, but I definitely am quite dry and sarcastic, which I think are the qualities that I immediately sensed in my character. But she\u2019s also very societal. She likes her status. She likes her wealth. She likes her family. Gilead\u2019s so hierarchical in that way, and it\u2019s just the opposite of what I believe in. So it was very funny to be someone who cares about being \u2018better\u2019 than other people, and it was an exciting story to be part of for me because of the challenge of being in a completely different universe and having a lot of innocence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like people also always compare Gilead to what\u2019s happening in America right now.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> Personally, I don\u2019t expect any TV show or movie to hold the weight and gravitas of the incredibly fucked state of things right now. If people find their own conclusions, that\u2019s great, but no show really can. Go outside, go to a protest, read a book, donate your money. Talk to your friends. What\u2019s your friend group like? What do they look like? When The Handmaid\u2019s Tale came out, it was such a specific moment in time. Trump had just been elected, and it was very surreal. But America has been fucked up since America got started. There has never been an America without it resting on the oppression of so many different people, so it\u2019s inevitably going to be relevant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/rowan-blanchard\">Rowan Blanchard<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/america\">America<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/tv-shows\">tv shows<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-navigation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/news\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img one\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">News<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img two\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Fashion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img three\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Music<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img four\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Film &amp; TV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/70130\/1\/rowan-blanchard-the-testaments-palestine-interview-hulu-2026#features\" class=\"image-navigation__img five\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Features<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img six\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Beauty<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img seven\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Life &amp; Culture<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img eight\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Art &amp; Photography<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-6-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Rowan Blanchard Dazed <span class=\"nowrap\">spring 16<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/0\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand3\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-181-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169114.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/1\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"cowboy3_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-1000-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169109.jpg\" width=\"1000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/2\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"hallway_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-232-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169110.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/3\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"kidshark2_web\" class=\"img\" height=\"854\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-101-1281-854\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169111.jpg\" width=\"1281\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/4\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand1\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-325-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169112.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/artsandculture\/gallery\/21810\/5\/rowan-blanchard-dazed-spring-16\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rowand2\" class=\"img\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-147-999-666\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1160\/9\/1169113.jpg\" width=\"999\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 6 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>At just 24, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/rowan-blanchard\">Rowan Blanchard<\/a> already has an entire acting career behind her, having starred in <em data-start=\"128\" data-end=\"165\">Spy Kids: All the Time in the World<\/em> at nine and Disney\u2019s <em data-start=\"187\" data-end=\"205\">Girl Meets World<\/em> as a young teen. \u201cI started acting when I was five, so it\u2019s the only thing I know and quite literally all I remember,\u201d she says. \u201cI have memories of watching <em data-start=\"364\" data-end=\"377\">I Love Lucy<\/em> and wanting to be that funny, or watching Audrey Hepburn movies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But Blanchard is one of the rare child stars to have pulled off a genuine metamorphosis: today, she\u2019s something of a Gen Z style icon, and many of the young people following the projects she\u2019s part of may never even have seen <em data-start=\"354\" data-end=\"364\">Spy Kids<\/em>. More than that, she\u2019s navigating the industry on her own terms, staying politically engaged while pushing herself across very different kinds of roles. In her latest, Blanchard enters the world of Gilead \u2013 the fundamentalist, totalitarian regime at the centre of <em data-start=\"629\" data-end=\"650\">The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> \u2013 as Shunammite in <em data-start=\"670\" data-end=\"686\">The Testaments<\/em>, the sequel series based on Margaret Atwood\u2019s novel. The character is a young woman coming of age within that brutal system, alongside a cast that includes former Dazed cover star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/chase-infiniti\">Chase Infiniti.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As comparisons between Gilead and America continue to mount, we spoke to Blanchard about building an unexpected career, getting offline, posting about Palestine, and why she doesn\u2019t expect a TV show to carry the weight of the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s it been like to transition from being a child star to acting on your own terms?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s been interesting because I\u2019ve been working for so long. What I don\u2019t love is that, when you\u2019re a kid, you can only work nine and a half hours, but as an adult, you can do 14 to 16-hour days. I miss when I turned into a pumpkin at a certain time, but it\u2019s nice to step into myself and have an experience on set that\u2019s different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Who are the actors you did (and do) look up to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> I don\u2019t want to even put myself in the same sentence as her, but when I was a teenager, I watched Isabelle Adjani in <\/span><em><span>Possession<\/span><\/em><span> or Isabelle Huppert in <\/span><em><span>The Piano Teacher \u2013<\/span><\/em><span>\u00a0I could only dream of being given that material. I pray to God someone gives me a crazy script like that. But, recently, I\u2019ve been thinking about Kristen Stewart and how she bought a theatre in LA. She\u2019s such an interesting actress because she was also a child actor, and has had such a long, dynamic career, going from big franchise movies like <\/span><em><span>Twilight<\/span><\/em><span> to making her own movie. It feels like there\u2019s so much more for her to give, and I\u2019m excited for the rest of her life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you want your career trajectory to be as unexpected?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> I think so, yeah. Coming from being on Disney as a child, I just want to have the opportunity to be in all different types of projects. I want to play more crazy girls, because it\u2019s fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>So many young people also look to your personal style as inspiration. Have you always loved fashion?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I\u2019ve just always loved clothes. When I was a little girl, I loved old movie stars. I loved glamour. I loved dressing up. I love bitches who dress up. So it\u2019s nice that people have embraced that because it\u2019s really fun for me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like you\u2019re good at thrifting.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I haven\u2019t bought clothes in so long, but I am good at thrifting when I do it. As I\u2019ve grown up, it\u2019s become more important to me to buy things that genuinely make me feel good. When I was a teenager, I had so much fun dressing very theatrically, and now I just want a comforting sweater, a nice pair of pants, or a nice dress. I just want romantic, simple things now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cT<span>here are a lot of people who have rejected me [speaking out about Palestine], but I also just have a heart that beats. <\/span>I think that not having an opinion is really concerning\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve also been online, documenting your life, for a very long time now. How has your relationship with the internet changed over time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I grew up on the internet, but I will say now I try not to be on the internet as much. I have an app that sets a timer on Instagram, and I deleted Twitter and Tumblr years ago. I don\u2019t have TikTok. I think I had it for maybe a month. But I was homeschooled and never physically around that many other people, so the internet was once how I connected and learned from other people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re also very public about activism online. Why do you think it\u2019s important for actors to have conversations about issues like Palestinian rights?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>My opinion on celebrity-adjacent activism changes every single day, but I know for me personally, the state of things and the acceleration of things in the last three years has been so extreme and volatile that it feels impossible for me not to affirm my beliefs. I have been talking about Palestine online since 2018, and I didn\u2019t know it was not something I could talk about. Then I talked about it and got calls, and there are a lot of people who have rejected me, but I also just have a heart that beats. <\/span>I think that not having an opinion is really concerning. <span>I know I now work in Hollywood, and it\u2019s an extremely fucked industry, but I really value my integrity, and I can sleep at night knowing my heart is in the right place. I just want people to know where I stand, and that\u2019s a big part of my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>In your latest role as Shunammite in <\/strong><strong><em>The Testaments,<\/em><\/strong><strong> you are stepping into a world that\u2019s very politically charged. How did you prepare to inhabit a society that\u2019s so restrictive?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanch: <\/strong><span>It was fun, honestly, to keep remembering that my character doesn\u2019t know any better. That was a good challenge as an actress, just to completely separate and remember that I don\u2019t have any sort of antiquated opinion because I have no outside reference. There\u2019s no Tumblr. There are no books. You can\u2019t read. So it\u2019s a very clear mind, and I just had to keep reminding myself that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>What was it like to play a teenager now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> It was fun to have that kind of problematic teenage brain where you don\u2019t understand why things happen, and you don\u2019t understand what all the fluctuating emotions in your body are, and your hormones. I\u2019d love to play another teenager.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shunammite is also fairly bratty, which seems like the opposite of you!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard: <\/strong><span>I\u2019m not bratty, but I definitely am quite dry and sarcastic, which I think are the qualities that I immediately sensed in my character. But she\u2019s also very societal. She likes her status. She likes her wealth. She likes her family. Gilead\u2019s so hierarchical in that way, and it\u2019s just the opposite of what I believe in. So it was very funny to be someone who cares about being \u2018better\u2019 than other people, and it was an exciting story to be part of for me because of the challenge of being in a completely different universe and having a lot of innocence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like people also always compare Gilead to what\u2019s happening in America right now.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rowan Blanchard:<\/strong><span> Personally, I don\u2019t expect any TV show or movie to hold the weight and gravitas of the incredibly fucked state of things right now. If people find their own conclusions, that\u2019s great, but no show really can. Go outside, go to a protest, read a book, donate your money. Talk to your friends. What\u2019s your friend group like? What do they look like? When The Handmaid\u2019s Tale came out, it was such a specific moment in time. Trump had just been elected, and it was very surreal. But America has been fucked up since America got started. There has never been an America without it resting on the oppression of so many different people, so it\u2019s inevitably going to be relevant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/rowan-blanchard\">Rowan Blanchard<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/america\">America<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/tv-shows\">tv shows<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/70130\/1\/rowan-blanchard-the-testaments-palestine-interview-hulu-2026&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/0-252-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443762.jpeg&#8221;] @rowanblanchard \/ Instagram DateInMeta\u00a0 24,\u00a0 2026 Film &amp; TV \/ Q+A Rowan Blanchard: \u2018Hollywood is an extremely fucked industry\u2019 As she takes on a new role in The Testaments, the actress discusses political responsibility, posting about Palestine, and why she doesn\u2019t expect TV to answer for the state of the world April\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1900639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1900639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1900639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1900639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1900639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}