Mamie Gummer, the 27 year-old daughter of Meryl Streep, must have had numerous advantages starting out as an actress with a living film legend as her mother. But it surely can't be easy either knowing that everyone who watches her perform have seen her mother in countless Oscar-nominated performances.
Now she's about to take an important step as one of the stars of ABC's new TV show “Off The Map”.
Reuters asked her what advice her mother has given her:
We don't really talk shop at home; it's not like we own a line of pizza joints, and there is a secret ingredient.
Gummer, who is one of four children, says that her decision to become an actress wasn't a natural one,
I was hyper-aware of the ramifications that decision would hold. It was a long process.
When she was three she appeared with her mother in Heartburn, though her name was changed to Natalie Stern for the credits to keep her anonymity. In 2005 she made her off-Broadway début with Michael C. Hall in Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade, and in 2007 she starred with her mother in Michael Cunningham's film Evening, playing her mother as a young woman. The film also boasted Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and Claire Danes in the cast. Gummer's Broadway début was in the 2008 revival of Les liaisons dangereuses.
In “Off the Map” she plays Mina Minard, one of six doctors who are running away from personal problems by going to work in a tiny clinic in a fictional South American jungle. Called a cross between “Lost” and “Grey's Anatomy” it was filmed entirely in Hawaii. Gummer said she took the role because of
the opportunity it afforded me to live with a character for a long time. Hawaii wasn't a bad draw, and I am a big fan of ‘Grey's Anatomy' and I knew the quality of the work would be good.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
