STILL IN THE GAME, 20 YEARS ON
Bre Blair finally ascends to leading lady after ‘growing up’ on the set of ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’
Bre Blair made a splashy acting debut playing Stacey, the beautiful teenager with a big crush on the hunky older boy, Luca, in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995). Pretty much every young girl who came of age in the mid-1990s loved the film and still has a soft spot for it. Blair is 35 now, and never stopped working after The Baby-Sitters Club. In fact, the upcoming NBC series Game of Silence could be her highest-profile and most successful project since that film. More on Game of Silence in a moment, though, because first there’s tribute to be paid to The Baby-Sitters Club.
“That movie was a perfect experience,” Blair said, speaking by telephone from Hawaii, where she was attending her best friend’s wedding, “but I didn’t think every job would be like that, because I was pretty aware as a kid and I’d already had disappointments, roles I wanted and didn’t get.
“We actually just had our 20-year reunion,” she continued, “and everyone showed up. It was like yesterday that we were all hanging out, and I think doing that movie bonded all of us.
“It was the first job for most of us. It was like summer camp, because it was two months in LA, living in a hotel and making this movie together.
“I grew up on that movie. I was 14. We were all going through puberty. I had my first kiss, and it was on screen. Girls were getting their periods. So it was a pretty unique experience for us, and so many people still talk about the film and show it to their own girls.”
Following that film, Blair went on to appear in such films as Cherry Falls (2000), Quarantine 2 (2011) and Last Vegas (2013). She also had guest or recurring roles on such television series as Without a Trace (2004) and The Flash (2015).
Now, with Game of Silence, Blair ascends to leading-lady status. The series, which is based on a Turkish show called Suskunlar, casts her as Jessie West. She’s one of a group of five childhood friends who are unexpectedly reunited 25 years after a deadly accident that resulted in Jessie’s four male friends spending a life-altering nine months in a brutal prison.
One of the boys, Boots (Derek Phillips), has assaulted someone, prompting Gil (Michael Raymond James) and Shawn (Larenz Tate) to call for help from their estranged friend Jackson (David Lyons), a respected lawyer. Jessie is currently dating one of the men, so she’s drawn back into the circle as well.
“It’s great storytelling,” said Blair. “You’ve got these complex characters, all dealing with a part of their past that eventually reveals itself, and you’re watching how all of these people deal with the revelations in very, very different ways.
“So the psychology behind it is interesting, because they’ve all tried to push this part of the past away, and you just can’t do that, or you can only push it down for so long,” she said. “Now it’s 25 years later and they’ve all got secrets, and they’re trying to protect themselves and each other. But it’s all going to come out.
“It’s really a risky show for network television,” Blair added. “It’s different from most shows.”
Describing Jessie, Blair felt compelled to choose her words carefully. She explained that the pilot starts with the characters as kids and will set in motion the various secrets, as well as the relationships.
“You’ll see that, even before the life-changing event happens, Jessie never really got to be a kid,” Blair said. “She’s been taking care of her alcoholic mother since she was super-young. When we see her now, she’s moved forward with her life as best as she could. She’s not had the best relationships with men, but she’s dug in and done the best she can, though there’s this part of her life that she’s buried.
“Now that past is coming back. Someone she was in a relationship with comes into her life again. What happened all those years ago, the big secret, comes up, and Jessie doesn’t know everything that happened to the guys when they were boys, which will be revealed.
“All of that makes things very complicated, but it makes her want to help the guys try to get justice.”
Blair didn’t bother to conceal her excitement about the possibility of a second season.
“I think we’d all be thrilled to do a second season,” Blair said. “I want to explore Jessie more. It takes a while to get to know her, and we’re really just scratching the surface by the end. There’s so much more to reveal, and all the answers you get in the series just lead to more questions.
“Plus, and I don’t say this lightly, this is the best job, the best opportunity I’ve had. I’ve been acting for 24 years, and this is really my first series that’s made it to air. I’ve guest starred and I’ve recurred on shows that were already on, but this is the first show where I did the pilot, it made it to air and we’re doing a full season.
“So I’ve been consistently — and gratefully — working, but this is what you want, and I’m glad it’s Game of Silence. I’m glad because I’m so proud of it, and because I love everyone I work with and I love my character. It’s been a long time coming, but worth the wait.”
Blair grew up in Canada, and was 11 when she made her acting debut in the CBS miniseries Intruders (1992). She never considered acting a job, she recalled, but rather a “curiosity, a passion”, and she didn’t for an instant think she’d act for the rest of her life.
“I enjoyed doing it, and my parents let me have a go at it,” said Blair, who lives in Los Angeles with her two dogs. “No one else in my family was acting, and they let me try. I did my first movie in LA when I was 14, but we never moved to LA, we never did pilot season. I led a very normal childhood.
“My parents said, ‘Let’s see how this plays out. You can do it when you have time, but otherwise you’ll go to school and play sports,’ ” she recalled. “I kept working and kept saying, ‘I’m still interested in this.’ And then, in my twenties, I guess, I thought, ‘Oh, this is what I’m doing with my life.’ I never let it go.
“I never had a plan B,” Blair concluded. “It was scary, but I’ve honestly never had a plan B.”