Ella Anderson Is Living Out Her ’90s Teen Dream in Song Sung Blue
For 20-year-old actress Ella Anderson, playing a teenager is familiar business. Playing a teenager in the 1990s, however? That required a bit of homework—albeit the fun kind. For her role in Craig Brewer’s biographical musical drama Song Sung Blue, which is about a Midwestern Neil Diamond tribute band, Anderson fully immersed herself in what Gen Xers affectionately call the “golden age of entertainment.” That meant listening to almost exclusively music made in the ’90s and watching a ton of footage of teens from the era. Yes, watching George Clooney in ER was required viewing.
The research clearly paid off, as Anderson is excellent in the biopic starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, which hits screens on Christmas Day. Based on a true story, the film follows Mike and Claire Sardina, two down-on-their-luck musicians in Milwaukee who fall in love and form the joyous Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder. Featuring the beloved American singer-songwriter’s hits and a few underrated deep cuts, Brewer manages a tender and nostalgic story that is both uplifting and heart-wrenching. As Claire’s teen daughter Rachel, a strong-willed young woman forced to grow up too soon, Anderson is at many times the beating heart of the film, bringing emotional depth with a standout performance that has Hollywood insiders buzzing.
Born to musician parents, Anderson has been performing since the age of 5 and made her way through the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon pipelines with roles in Liv and Maddie and Henry Danger respectively before later starting a YouTube channel and releasing her own music, including her 2021 EP Evolving. Performing, Anderson tells us, is in her DNA. As she begins this next decade, thoughtfully choosing her next projects and whether or not to release new music, one thing is certain: Anderson’s star is unwavering.
Song Sung Blue is so special. It’s fun, nostalgic, and a little heartbreaking. I loved it.
That makes me so happy. We really had such a special time creating it, so I feel like it shines through. When I watch it, I can see the skeleton of all of us and the fun we were having and, when we weren’t having fun, how devoted we were. I think that’s the word that keeps coming up every time I talk about it. It was such a deep devotion.
How did this project make its way to you, and what aspects of Rachel really intrigued you from the start?
It made its way to me the old-school way. I got an audition for it, which was wonderful. It’s a lost art for some people, but I was grateful I was able to look at the material and present what my idea and interpretation was of this character.
Right off the bat, I was so intrigued by this human, and not only was it the opportunity to play Kate’s daughter, which was amazing, but to play one that was so multidimensional and had so much responsibility and handled that so well and was resilient through a lot of superintense life stressors because she was the one who was the adult in the family in a lot of moments. I think that weighed on her, and on top of that, she had her own growing pains and experiences of being a teenage girl. I was so taken by it, and I had no idea when I read the script that it was a true story. When I read it, I was like, “This is amazing. Craig did a brilliant job, but I’m sure that there was a lot that was added for cinematic appeal,” and then I watched the documentary only to find it all happened. Even the most wild of things that you think “There’s no way,” it all really did happen. I was psyched to be a part of something that was so moving, and I think it’s powerful what these people went through, and at the end of the day, they kept their love—their love of music and performing and their commitment to this family that they created. It’s amazing.
Did you get a chance to meet with the real Rachel? If so, how did that influence your performance?
I think it influenced everything. It was really important to me from the jump. On our first day of rehearsals, I wanted to make sure that I got to speak with her, and luckily, Craig was in contact with her. First of all, she’s amazing. She’s the coolest, but also, she has a really specific dialect, and some of her As are really specific. I’ve grown up in California. Those are different As. I had her on speed dial in a way. In the part of the film where my character was experiencing pregnancy and that journey with it, I was texting Rachel in my trailer before I was going out to film. She also visited the set at one point and watched a couple scenes of mine. From the jump, I had really strong instincts on who I sensed Rachel was, and you enter those things blindly at times, but for the real person who I’m playing to say “Those things that you sensed on your own were super accurate,” that’s the best feeling. That’s really all that matters to me—that the family felt comfortable with our depiction—and they do. I’ll take it.
You’re not far off from being a teenager yourself. In what ways could you personally connect with Rachel and her story?
She was really far off from who I am and how I was raised, which I think made it intriguing in a way and made me that much more excited. I did a lot of research and watched real videos of other girls who had to play that kind of parental role at a young age. I watched a lot of footage of the ’90s and listened to almost exclusively music that was made in the 1990s. I remember… Oh my gosh, I haven’t talked to anyone about this, but there was a line. I don’t know if it’s still in there, but it was about George Clooney’s eyebrows in ER, and I had to watch an episode. I think I only watched like three episodes or something, but I just want to have an idea. There were things like that where it was my fun homework.
Despite all of those things, like the dialect and how I approached my body language, there were things that did feel familiar, like my parents are both musicians. I think Craig really captured that experience in a wonderful way. And they’re from Michigan. I was born in Michigan. I had a really strong accent up until the age of 5 because I was born there. Those things were familiar. I love mixing the things that are close to home and the things that feel really far away, and you have to go through this forest of journey to find them.
It seems like every project has that one scene that causes some nerves or anticipation in the lead-up. Did you have a scene like that?
Oh my gosh. I do find myself anticipating certain scenes, and then I try to remind myself that each moment is just as important as the other because they all service each other in a story. As someone who loves film, the medium itself, I think it’s easy for me to remind myself of that because, at the end of the day, the third act is nothing without the first act, which is nothing without the second act. I try to treat every scene equally, but I am human. … Leading up to the hospital scene, I just knew that that was gonna be intense. I was excited for it in a very sick way, though. I knew that I had to use the defibrillator, which I had never used before. I was a little worried about whether I was going to be good at that, but YouTube was my best friend. Throughout the entire shoot, I was watching so many videos on pregnancy, on changing your oil, and [patching] a leaky car radiator.
So it’s safe to say you can change your own oil now?
Oh, totally! I offer to change people’s oil, and they’re like no. But I swear. You can ask Craig. You can ask Kate. You can ask Hugh. I was under that car, and I discovered something about myself. I was like, “Whoa, I really like this a lot. This is a part of myself I just unlocked. Maybe I can be a car mechanic on the side.” All that to say, there were a lot of scenes that I was really looking forward to. Even the deepest of darkest of things, I was just excited because I knew that it was such a safe environment to explore and to go there and to be protected.
We have to talk about your on-screen mom, Kate Hudson. How was it working with her and building that very real mother-daughter dynamic we see on-screen?
It was a very whirlwind situation. I was on my first trip without family to Europe, and the second I got home, I left to go to the camera test. But fortunately, Kate made it so easy. She is just naturally really nurturing. She’s so much fun to be around, and she’s so considerate. She’s a really lovely human being. She would FaceTime her kids on breaks that she had on set. I think the fact that she’s a mother in real life shines through not only on film, but just with the fact that I was playing her daughter, she took me under her wing and made it super effortless. And then getting to spend time with her and getting to know her was such a treat.
She was just tapping into all of those superintense moments with the flip of a dime. It was amazing to watch, and the best is when you have actors that you’re working with who allow you to be so immersed in this world, and that’s exactly what Kate did.
Rachel pretty quickly becomes friends with Mike’s daughter, Angelina, played by the singer King Princess, who is newer to the acting world. How was it working with her?
I had no idea that it was going to be her, and I showed up, and I was like, “No fucking way!” She’s so cool, and I love her music, and I think that she knows that now. But I was amazed by how easily she was able to step into it all, and her approach brought the best of who she is in real life and that effortless nature that she has about her, and that was so much fun to act with. She’s so much fun to hang with and is a deeply funny person.
Being set in the ’90s, there is a lot of nostalgia in the film, especially with the fashion. Rachel has some great looks throughout, like her Pearl Jam concert outfit. Do you have a favorite moment of hers?
That might have been my favorite. I think another is the first time that she goes to Mike’s house. The fact that she chose neon fishnets with the grungy [look of the] rest of her outfit was so great. That was another one of my favorite parts of working on this was my opportunity to express Rachel’s arc [through fashion]. These are two years, just about, through her life and really important, pivotal moments in her maturation. I loved collaborating with Ernesto [Martinez], who was the head of costumes, and we took the time before we even started filming saying, “Okay, what do we want this physical reflection of all the things that she goes through to look like?”
That starts with this really cool, grungy ’90s vibe, where she’s following certain trends but not adhering to one specific thing. And then [there’s] her experience looking after more people and the stress that goes with that and pregnancy and life after that and managing Mike’s health issues and her mother’s battle with mental health and all of those things. … That allows her to take on this feminine side in contrast with the strength that she has. I think she’s so strong, but in my mind, she was leaning into the softer blues and the lighter colors as a way of that being her one thing. And then finally, I don’t think many people notice this, but Rachel’s wearing Mike’s coveralls at the very end, which was such a beautiful ode to him. I just thought that was so special because [Mike and Rachel] didn’t necessarily click from the jump. He made such a massive imprint on her. He was her papa, and we were able to mirror so many of those things with clothing and our beauty choices.
Everyone loves “Sweet Caroline,” but do you have a favorite Neil Diamond deep cut?
I really am a fan of “Forever in Blue Jeans,” and because of the film, “Soolaimon” is such a banger. I think it’s an “if you know, you know.”
Your parents are both musicians, and you are also a singer and released music a few years ago. Did doing this film reignite your passion for music and performing?
It’s so deeply in my bones. My bones are made of music and film and art. It’s one of those things that it’s in my DNA, and you can’t remove it. It’ll always be there. I’m really intuitive with my timing of when I gravitate toward different mediums because I think they all complement each other, so I’m just being really thoughtful about everything. I’m being thoughtful about the scripts that I read and listening to my gut instinct on what I’m drawn toward. … I’m always writing songs, but [I’m being thoughtful about] whether or not I share those or whether or not I flesh those out with certain people. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, though. [King Princess] touched on this a little bit because, of course, she’s the craziest musician, the coolest voice, but she didn’t sing in this, and I didn’t, and it was nice to just watch Hugh and Kate soar. And Kate’s voice… Every time she opens her mouth, it’s so beautiful. Getting to just lay back was really wonderful and just get a crazy good show. But I will say it would be cool to do a project that has some musical elements for myself. I’m open to it all. I have a lot of life to live. I’m open to anything.
Song Sung Blue is in theaters Christmas Day.
Photographer: Kendra Frankle
Stylist: Enrique Melendez
Hairstylist: Arbana Dollani
Makeup Artist: Allan Avendaño
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