Amber Tamblyn: The Further Tribulations of Tibby

In Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, based upon the popular novels, Amber Tamblyn's character Tibby is at NYU, making more documentary student films, working in a movie rental store and shying away from any kind of commitment to friend/boyfriend Brian McBrian even thought things between them are streaming up. Amber told us that she had fun with Tibby's penchant for hiding behind wigs and strange outfits.

In New York, at a posh hotel on Park Avenue, we got to chat one-on-one with the multi-talented Amber who still writes poetry and short stories and runs her website rebelasylum.com to encourage exchanges and aid among young writers. We noticed Amber after a press conference with the other "Sisterhood" actresses, walking to the elevators with her arm protectively around castmate America Ferrera. In fact, we get a very sweet, earth mother, nurturing vibe from this warm, brainy and friendly young woman.

Wearing a patchwork Zac Posen dress in multi-shades of brown and tan and cute black flats, Amber entered a hotel suite alongside us while trying to finish up a cellphone conversation. We sit down for a great, personal chat...

Amber: That was Rachel Dratch. We did Spring Breakdown together and she's coming to the premiere tomorrow night.

TeenHollywood: She's hilarious. We'll talk about that film a little later.

Amber: Yes, on to this film...I call my role in this my "realistic Juno, the sadder side of Juno".

TeenHollywood: Yes, Tibby has a bit more serious, grown-up stuff to deal with this time around. She also wears quite the wild wardrobe. Which outfit did you think was cool?

Amber: I loved all of them and I actually kept the rope that she ties around her wrist. I love that and wear it as much as I can. Then, I loved the Clara Bow wig. At first, I went into my Marlon Brando or Katherine Hepburn space and said 'what would they do to really expose and make very obvious, the fact that she is completely uncomfortable in her own skin and has no idea how to deal with things?'. I thought, 'oh, well theatrically, she would wear tons of clothes, tons of make-up and a wig'. A wig is a great idea for someone who feels like she needs to have a completely different look every day. I think there is a lot to be said for the fact that she can't just be herself, literally.

TeenHollywood: A lot of young women feel that way. Did you make that suggestion to the filmmakers then?

Amber: I remember approaching them and saying 'Tibby should wear this black wig'. I tried it on and took all these photos of it when I was in Louisiana prior to shooting the film and they were just not into that idea at all. And Sanaa [Hamri] our director really fought for it and thought 'that's a brilliant idea. It's really interesting and it adds a weird quirk to her that's good. We'll put it in some of the scenes'. There's something really beautiful that Sanaa and I worked out; the idea of the sex scene with the boyfriend where he removes the wig in bed. That was all made up. We put that together and thought that would be a really interesting thing for him to do, take off her disguise. I loved working with that wig.

TeenHollywood: Do you have an item of clothing or jewelry that you feel is lucky for you like the pants are for the Sisterhood?

Amber: I would have to say any of the family heirlooms handed down to me by my mother. Nothing specifically but I have a necklace that was my great, great, great grandmother's from the Civil War. Her name was Diatomy Comstock and it's been passed up through the generations of women in my family. My mother's side of the family were really good at keeping all of my great, great, great grandmother and grandfather's correspondence, their letters around the Civil War and dresses and things like that and a lot of jewelry. When I was nominated for an Emmy (for "Joan) in 2005, I wore my grandmother's charm around my wrist.

TeenHollywood: This new Sisterhood film has a lot to say about relationships and fear of commitment. Your character Tibby is afraid of commitment. Do you feel that modern women are as afraid of a committed relationship as guys are?

Amber: I don't know. I would say, definitely, a lot of my girlfriends are much more afraid. But I hang out with a lot of girls who are kind of tomboyish. One of my very good friends, Mandy, has a boyfriend of seven years and some other friends just like to date and that's it. They're not super into it. I actually did model Tibby's behavior off of one specific friend who we will not name. Then, I decided to give her a quality that I often see in Parker Posey characters. So, I kind of stole from Parker Posey as an actress; quirky stuff.

TeenHollywood: Which of the four Sisterhood BFF's started the crazy cliff jump into the ocean in Greece?

Amber: I jumped first but I love heights too. We saw some other people doing it and Blake was like 'let's jump off of it too!' but was actually too scared to do it. She's not really as athletic as she is in the film but all of us were kind of scared. It was a huge cliff and we're in a foreign country. Who knows, there could be sharks! But we did it and it was really fun. I think we did it three times in a row. It was exhilarating!

TeenHollywood: Anything you did to just kick back while on location?

Amber: There were several nights where we would go up and have dinner together in Santorini. We ate amazing food. America, Blake and I did do a huge picnic for 4th of July in the park in Kent, Connecticut. It was gorgeous, the weather was beautiful and we went to a local deli and made a bunch of sandwiches and sat around on a blanket and ate and there were fireworks that evening.

TeenHollywood: Sounds very "Americana". Are you the jokester or the nurturer or what within the four "Sisterhood" actresses?

Amber: I'm the jokester! I love to joke around. A lot of Tibby's stuff was ad-libbed. A lot was just me riffing and doing whatever. Also, America has the most infectious laugh. I live and breathe and die to make her laugh. It's so fun. It's like gasoline in a car. It just revs me up and gets me going. When she starts laughing, I keep going even more and they have to separate us like children.

TeenHollywood: Sounds like fun. Is there a peacekeeper among you?

Amber: I don't know if there's been an argument but we were bickering about the moped accident [while shooting in Greece] and who ran into who and Alexis [Bledel] is like 'let's just say it was everybody's responsibility and everyone's fault'. When she talks, she's so sweet and cute that you go, 'oh, all right, fine'.

TeenHollywood: Did you give any advice to America and Blake when they started their TV shows? [Amber starred for several seasons on TV's "Joan of Arcadia"]. Did they ask you anything about working in TV?

Amber: Blake did for sure. She asked me to watch her pilot. I think she was really nervous. The thing about Blake is she's really beautiful and she's on this pop-culture show and she is constantly trying to find a deeper meaning to what she does and I love that about her, that she's always searching for that. So she was like 'come watch my pilot. What do you think of it? What should I do different?

TeenHollywood: Was it the same for America when she started "Ugly Betty"?

Amber: America is, I hate to say, 'an old soul' but she's just a person that embodies everything that's given to her. One of the most beautiful things about her is she is totally not afraid to be underestimated and, for the most part, she has been until "Betty" and she just took it and ran with it which is so amazing. The hours I know are not fun. "Joan of Arcadia" hours, I know, were really long but that's what it takes. And you get out of it a brilliant show and a great career and you love what you do.

TeenHollywood: And you get a real tune-up as an actress too, working that fast.

Amber: Yeah, absolutely, getting well-oiled. I felt that way about soap operas. They're like a condensed version of prime time television.

TeenHollywood: You worked on the upcoming comic film Spring Breakdown with a whole different bunch of creative women [Parker Posey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch]. How was that dynamic different from the 'Sisterhood' girls?

Amber: That was the second or third best shooting experience for me. My three favorite groups of people to work with are all women; the Sisterhood girls, Spring Breakdown girls and then Tilda Swinton [whom she worked with in Stephanie Daly] but Amy Poehler and I became good friends and, I was talking to Rachel when we walked in.

TeenHollywood: Is it still hard to get films with large female casts released?

Amber: It is. It's complicated. I'll say that it's very hard to convince studios and people in general that films about women work. Spring Breakdown is like a female Superbad and you don't need huge star names. I play a supporting character. I think it will find its place eventually. I took some of my most snooty comedy friends, my friends who hate everything to a screening of it and one friend, her contact fell out she was laughing so hard.

TeenHollywood: Looking forward to that one. Can you talk about your new TV pilot for ABC?

Amber: Yeah, a Peter Tollin pilot called "The Unusuals". I feel like the character was written for me. She's a sort of sarcastic, tomboyish, sardonic undercover cop who works with all men. She comes from a rich family on the upper West Side. She's hiding that she works with all these guys in Homicide down in lower East Side Chinatown. This show is kind of like "The Wire" in the sense that it's not really about what they do but who they are as cops; their quirks.

TeenHollywood: Talk a bit about your writers' website rebelasylum.com. I think a lot of our visitors will be interested. Does it invite just poetry or short stories or...?

Amber: It is a forum that's mostly for young women where they can come, ask questions, network and say 'hey, I'm 17 from Michigan and how do I get my work published'. Or "I'd like to work for a magazine'. 'I'd like to get into journalism' and/or, 'what inspired this poem for you, Amber?'. I like to bring writers in like Laurie Moore, she's a fiction writer, one of my favorite short story writers and then Beth Lissick is very funny. I've been trying to share the fanbase that I have and introduce them to these writers and these writers to them. So, the writers will come on the site and say, 'well, the first time I published an essay was in blah, blah, this year and here's how I did it'. They give advice and help these kids with their writing.

By the time you read this, Amber will have headed up a huge poetry event in L.A. on August 2nd.

Amber: I'm doing a huge annual event called "The Drums Inside Your Chest" Best Contemporary American Poetry. I'm in it and Jack Hirschman who is the poet Laureate of San Francisco, Wanda Coleman who is an NEA fellowship recipient, Guggenheim recipient as well and we have international Slam Poet champion, a guy from Trinidad, Roger Bonair-Agard, just massive literary and performance giants at the new Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown L.A. I'll be there performing as well as Derek Brown. We're showcasing six artists. Trying to bring more art and a show that puts comedy and the arts together.

Amber will also be seen soon opposite Michael Douglas in the Noir thriller re-make Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.