Who is Alexis Bledel?
Alexis Bledel is beautiful enough to be a model or a movie star, and has been doing both for 12 years. But she is so private, hardly does interviews, and is rarely seen at parties or events, that most people who haven't seen her work, wonder just who is Alexis Bledel??
Alexis Bledel has been so guarded about her private life that even her die-hard fans don't know that she has a mostly Latino background! She surprised her co-star and friend America Ferrera by speaking in fluent Spanish during an interview with a Spanish magazine. The two actresses came together in 2005 for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; the sequel to this movie will be coming out in August this year.
Not only is Alexis Bledel fluent in Spanish, this was in fact her first language, and she only picked up English while at school! Ferrera herself, identified as a Latino actress, is comparatively weak in Spanish. Alexis Bledel on the other hand is identified as "white" because of her pale skin and clear blue eyes.
Which makes one wonder whether race/ethnicity actually matters as much as physical appearance in America. Jessica Alba has always been classed as a Latina despite her Danish and French ancestry. In this respect Alexis Bledel is like Cameron Diaz, who has mostly Hispanic ancestry, but is regarded as white because of her light skin, light eyes, and blond hair.
But at least Cameron Diaz has a Hispanic surname; Alexis Bledel's father Martin Bledel is from Argentina. Bledel is a German/Dutch surname and many German families settled down in South American countries from as far back as the 19th century. Even more interesting, Alexis Bledel's mother Nanette Blake is a Mexican national, but with French and German ancestry!
But this ain't the last word on the shy girl Alexis Bledel's private life and background. Whereas other celebrities are so open about their lives and reveal every minute detail to their hungry fans online, Alexis Bledel does not own a computer and does not follow what blogs or forums are writing about her....don't expect her to put up her own website!
The beautiful girl will not reveal much about herself: "I think people with personalities who like to talk about what's going on in their lives, they'll talk without really knowing how it's going to come back and bite them, and generally, it does. And luckily, I have the kind of personality where I am extremely private. I don't really like to tell everyone my business. I'd much rather people wonder or not know".
Curiously it was to overcome her shyness that her mother encouraged eight-year old Alexis Bledel to join theater in her native Houston. She went on to attend St. Agnes Academy in Houston and later majored in Film at the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. But much before that Alexis Bledel had entered the world of modeling, through the apparently common tale of being sighted at a mall by a modeling scout!
Alexis attended the Page Parkes Center of modeling and acting and traveled around the world for fashion assignments. With her height of 5'7" and slim body, Alexis Bledel was a natural model; but even she was asked at one modeling call to lose 2 inches off her hips!
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In the year 2000 Alexis Bledel got her first acting job as the character of Rory in the popular Gilmore Girls TV show. So at age 19 she played the part of a 16-year old daughter of a 32-year old mother (Lauren Graham)....the popular show ran for seven years (ending May 15 2007) and covered issues like teen pregnancy, single parenting, and mother-daughter relationships. Curiously Alexis Bledel became a supporter of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in 2005, "It really attracted me because it gives people the information that they need to make decisions in life. Plus, our show is based on a teen pregnancy. There is a connection with our audience. We get lots of letters from teen moms."
Gilmore Girls made Alexis Bledel a household name among female fans, but it also got the shy actress her first relationship. Alexis dated co-star Milo Ventimiglia for nearly four years, ending that relationship in 2006. And Milo's surname is from a town of the same name in Italy!
With the popularity and success of Gilmore Girls, Alexis Bledel got some movie roles. The very first was Tuck Everlasting where she got the lead role opposite such talents as Sissy Spacek, William Hurt and Ben Kingsley. In 2004 she appeared in the eight-minute film DysEnchanted and later that year in Bride and Prejudice, a modern take on the classic Pride and Prejudice, which interestingly also starred a famous Indian actor Aishwarya Rai and was released in India under a different name.
Alexis Bledel continued with her strange movie choices by appearing in the action flick Sin City in the role of a prostitute! In 2006 Alexis starred in the small budget I'm Reed Fish and turned producer with the comedy Life is Short. Apart from The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2, Alexis Bledel will be seen in The Post-Grad Survival Guide, where she stars with Carol Burnett and Michael Keaton. Alexis has the role of a girl named Ryden Malby, who graduates from college and moves back home with her eccentric family.
Alexis Bledel works with First Book, a nonprofit organization running children's literacy program, which gives books to poor families. She is also interested in politics but will not reveal her political views just yet! Alexis hates coffee, loves Wendy's 99 cent chicken nuggets, hates shellfish, enjoys hiking, and loves traveling to Europe.
Alexis Bledel was ranked by the men's magazine Maxim as 87 in their Hot 100 of 2005, but declined to pose on their cover. There are almost no pictures of Alexis Bledel even in her bikini!
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Of her own days as a teenager Alexis Bledel recalls, "My mom has always been a friend to me, but it's always awkward to talk about sex, especially if you're a teenager." And on the question of her virginity the following statement makes things clear, "I was okay with waiting until I got to college to do things my parents probably didn't want me to do."
