Penelope Ann Miller loves bringing her daughters to the set these days.
That wasn’t always possible for Miller, the fair-haired stunner who previously starred in edgy, adult fare like “The Relic, “Carlito’s Way” and “The Messengers.”
But Miller, who gave birth earlier this year to her second daughter, now finds herself playing more “mom” roles in film and television projects.
“Free Style,” opening tomorrow (Oct. 9), casts Miller as a single mom trying to do right by her motor cross racing son (“High School Musical’s” Corbin Bleu).
“She’s not perfect. The fact that [Bleu’s character] has to be the man of the house at an early age … there’s guilt that comes into that,“ Miller tells WWTW.
“Free Style” freely targets a youthful demographic, but it has more on its mind than just dreamy close-ups of its leading man.
“It’s not fluff,” Miller says, referring to one throwaway moment when Bleu’s on-screen sister asks him if they’re black or white. Their estranged father is black.
“We’re wack,” Bleu’s character answers with a smile.
“This could be a new little term people can use from a mixed backgrounds,” she says.
Miller has nothing but praise for young Bleu, an actor on the cusp of a big screen career following the breakaway smash “High School Musical 3.”
“He’s talented and a triple threat,” she say, adding the young man also is close to his parents. That should serve him well as more doors open to him.
“He’s not going to be one of those kids in the tabloids getting arrested,” she says.
Tomorrow: Miller recalls working with her previous co-stars, including Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.
(Photo: Corbin Bleu as Cale, Penelope Ann Miller as Jeanette, and Madison Pettis as Bailey in “Free Style.” - Photo credit: Marcel Williams / Samuel Goldwyn Films)
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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