
The beautiful Rowan Blanchard plays Veronica, a mean girl, in A Wrinkle In Time. We sat down with Rowan to talk to her about her role, her time learning from director Ava DuVernay, and giving herself permission to be a warrior.

The Magnitude of A Wrinkle In Time
Rowan is known for empowering girls and boys to be positive lights in the world. Through her past work on A Girl Meets World, and her new book, she truly understands the meaning of being an active part of the world we live in today. When asked how she feels about being part of a film that will empower so many little girls around the world, she shared:
“This film marks such an incredible and unique time in history, where so many people who have never seen themselves on screen are able to go to a film and see themselves starring in a huge sci-fi movie. That’s massive.”
To have Storm Reid as the lead role in A Wrinkle In Time, and have her look different from the usual Sci-fi heroes we’ve seen in the past, is a big deal. It’s also a big deal that Rowan plays Veronica, a character that is not from the original book, but was created for the big screen by screenwriter Jennifer Lee. Rowan says it was really important to Jennifer and Ava to have a girl character Meg (played by Storm Reid) could learn from, and have Veronica learn from Meg.

Life Lesson From Playing A Bully
Rowan’s role as Veronica was a step away from what we usually see her play. Since this was her first time playing a bully, we wanted to know if she learned any lessons from taking on the role.
“It definitely made me aware of how the bully is always the person who’s hurting so deeply inside, which is such a stereotypical thing to say, but very true. I think we see that in one scene with Veronica; the layers of her body insecurities and all of these things — that are very, very real — that teenage girls access every day.”

Give Yourself Permission To Be Great
Rowan touched on how she has to give herself permission to be a warrior each day. This hit me hard as a mother of a strong and confident daughter, who sometimes falter when it comes to being as great as she is, because others may have an opinion about how her confidence makes THEM feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, you have give yourself permission to be great, and understand you deserve to be where you are.
“I have to give myself permission to be a warrior on the daily. It’s not something that is a very conscious thing, where I feel totally empowered and fearless every day. There are some areas that I feel more confident and then others…there’s so many moments on the daily where I have to remind myself it’s okay that I am in the room.”
Rowan’s Thoughts On Ava DuVernay
One of our very favorite parts of this interview was hearing Rowan speak about the awesomeness of director, Ava DuVernay. We were able to interview Ava after our interview with Rowan, so we embraced every single word she said about Ava in anticipation of meeting this wonderful woman. Rowan on Ava:
“Her magnitude as a person is so overwhelming. Just the idea that this woman has worked so hard and still remembers everybody’s name. That was the one thing I realized so much working on the same side as her is she knows the entire crew by name. Being able to follow this woman who’s so loyal to everyone around her, and so giving, and wants to not only succeed but wants to bring people up with her. It was so incredible.
I looked to her as so much more than just an inspirational director. She’s this incredible person that I’m so grateful to have in my life, in so many ways.”
Studying Women Directors
Rowan expressed to us that she would love to direct movies in her near future, and Ava actually welcomed her to shadow her during the filming of A Wrinkle In Time. When asked what she loves about working with women directors, she commented on the process they use to get the “perfect” take.
“It’s always inspiring and interesting for me to watch how women directors have to occupy the space that’s been left for them to get attention, and to get the take they want without being as aggressive…because you can’t. You’ll be called a ‘diva’, or you’ll be called ‘very hard to work with.’ It’s just been very cool to watch how women occupy that space.”
A big thank you to Rowan for sitting down with us for this interview. A Wrinkle In Time is in theaters now!