Blanche Baker Talks 'Sixteen Candles,' Growing Up in the Film Industry and Moving Behind the Camera (EXCLUSIVE)

Over the course of more than four decades in the entertainment industry, Blanche Baker has established quite the eclectic resume. The actress made her TV debut in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, and won an Emmy for her powerful performance. She then went on to act in films ranging from Arnold Schwarzeneggar action vehicles (Raw Deal) to dystopian literary adaptations (The Handmaid’s Tale) to harrowing horror stories (The Girl Next Door), but she’s most famous for playing Molly Ringwald’s beautiful and stuck-up older sister in the 1984 teen movie Sixteen Candles.

After years of acting in movies, TV shows and plays, Baker is currently working on her feature directorial debut, Girl in a Glass Box. The film, which is based on a novel by Italian author Raf Lindia, tells an intense story of childhood trauma and its ongoing impact. 

Blanche Baker spoke to Woman’s World about stepping behind the camera, growing up in the film world and what it was like acting in a John Hughes classic. 

MUST-READ: 16 Fascinating Facts About the ‘Sixteen Candles’ Cast

Woman’s World: What motivated you to make the move from acting to directing?

Blanche Baker: I’ve been teaching for the past 20 years, and for the past 14 years I've been at the New York Film Academy. I've been filming the students day in, day out. I had suddenly become very adept at this, and I started to work with a crew that I was really comfortable with and could rely on.

We made two short films that won awards and played at festivals, and then along came COVID and things ground to a halt with those projects. I decided with my team that we would try to look outside of the school and find a project to do together, and it just seemed like a great fit when this one came along. 

I like psychological thrillers, so the material appealed to me on that level. The short films that I've written and directed have been about social issues, and I like to have something interwoven into a story that is relevant to what's going on in the world today. I was really drawn to the idea of the manipulation of this young girl and the gaslighting of a human being.

WW: You grew up in the film industry. What was that experience like?

BB: I come from a strong lineage of acting and teaching. My mother, Caroll Baker, is still alive at 94 and living on her own. She made her mark in Eliza Kazan's Baby Doll. And my father, who passed away, was Jack Garfein — he was a director and an acting teacher. My parents met at the Actor's Studio. I was born in New York City after Baby Doll was released, but because of the success of that film, we moved to Hollywood.

My father helped set up the Actor's Studio West and became a full-time teacher, and my mother broke her contract with Paramount Studios after a while, and everything exploded. She was blacklisted in Hollywood, and their marriage fell apart. So I grew up around the arts and all these amazing people — Henry Miller would be over for dinner and all that, but I also got to see a very destructive side of it. My parents were never as unhappy as when they were at the height of their fame. We moved to Italy, and I was very fortunate to have a childhood far removed from the chaos of Hollywood. 

When I decided to become an actress, I felt for a long time that I was under my mom’s shadow, but in the end it's you on the screen. It's not them. As we grow up, we stop blaming our parents, and embark on our own lives and feel appreciative for the things that they gave us. 

WW: How did you get into acting?

BB: I really didn't know anything other than the arts, having grown up in my family. I think the big decision for me was should I be a poet, a sculptor or an actress — never considering should I be able to support myself? That never even came into the picture. 

I was in college and was visiting my brother at Yale, and there was a little sign up on a lamppost that said the Yale Repertory Theater was looking for somebody who could play 12 years old. I’ve always been small and looked younger, so they ended up auditioning me.

One of the reasons I'd been so interested to do the play was that the director was Andrzej Wajda, this very famous Polish film director. In Italy, we always saw his films, so I knew everything about him. When he was finally willing to meet with me, I really felt that bond and his artistic vision and I was so inspired. 

The thing that was amazing about this play is it was in rotation with a play that Meryl Streep was in, when she was an up-and-coming young actress. So all these people were going to New Haven to see Meryl Streep, and I guess they figured, “Oh, we might as well see the other play.” Unwittingly, it started my career. I took a leave from college, and was cast in The Seduction of Joe Tynan opposite Meryl. So I suddenly was an actress.

WW: How did you come to be cast in Sixteen Candles?

BB: I had to audition a number of times in New York. I had gone to Poland to visit Andrzej Wajda, and I had been able to see theater there, so I was very free when I came back. I improvised that whole wedding scene at the audition, and John Hughes loved it because of that freedom. I think that made the difference, because he was very much into actors improvising on his set. He would always say, “I wrote the script in two weeks. It can't be that good. Do what you want.”  

Sometimes you have very serious directors and it's more structured, or you have a writer who wants you to say every word. I did the movie of The Handmaid's Tale, and Harold Pinter wrote the script, so that’s one where you're not changing a word. But as a young actress, being encouraged to do scenes with joy was fun.

WW: Do you have any fun memories from making the movie?

BB: It was funny, because I was so young, yet I was one of the oldest people in the film since I was playing Molly's older sister.

Since I was one of the older ones, they would prank me a lot. I remember putting my things down and turning around, and I don't think I've ever screamed so loud in my life — Anthony Michael Hall had hung himself. He was hanging on the coat hanger by the door. They played some fun tricks. I just remember it being a collaborative and free experience.

We were furious at John Hughes at times. He lost a whole day trying to get a dog to pee, and I remember we were all thinking he was spending time on the wrong things. But he was right. That dog did have to pee, and the scene was really funny. 

WW: Did you sense that Sixteen Candles would become such a big film?

BB: I don't think you ever know. Like the film that I did with Meryl Streep, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, I thought it was the most brilliant thing ever, but now no one’s heard of it. And then Sixteen Candles, which was written in two weeks, became this teen classic. When my own kids turned 16, suddenly they thought mom was cool. So, who knows what’s going to last and what’s going to make it with audiences.  

WW: You reunited with Molly Ringwald many years later in the Lifetime Christmas movie Wishin’ and Hopin’. What was it like working together again after so long?

BB: We hadn't seen each other in 30 years, so it felt like a very small business to see her after all this time. And I love Christmas movies. I've done a few of them, and they're such fun. We need to escape from our lives sometimes. 

WW: Where do you find creative inspiration?

BB: I was very fortunate to have studied with Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg as a young girl. One of the things that inspired me to start teaching was that I hadn't fully appreciated the education and the opportunity to study with these people. 

It's very difficult, the ups and downs that you have as an actor, and being famous doesn't make you happy, but it is a privilege to be able to do what you love. At a certain point, I could appreciate this education I'd been given, and tapping into that gives you self-reliance. If you learn the technique of acting, then you're not so nervous. You're working for your own betterment. 

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