411 Movies Interview: Jenna von Oÿ of Blossom

Posted by Tony Farinella on 01.18.2009

411's Tony Farinella sits down with Jenna von Oÿ (Six) of Blossom for an exclusive interview about the DVD release of Blossom!

Jenna von Oÿ is probably best known for her role on Blossom as Six LeMeure, the fast-talking best friend of Blossom. She's also an accomplished country music artist who released her first album in 2007. Recently, I caught up with Jenna to talk about the DVD release of Blossom on January 27th. I hope you enjoy my interview with Jenna.


TONY: Have you had a chance to go back and watch this DVD set? If so, what has it been like?

Jenna von Oÿ: (laughs) It's like jumping into a time machine. You know, I haven't actually gotten a chance to see the DVD in its entirety. But I did, obviously, get to watch some of the episodes as I was doing the audio commentary prior to sitting down with everyone and doing the bonus features. It's so bizarre to watch your teenage, awkward, goofy years on tape, because it's really been a good fifteen years since I've seen any of those episodes. I didn't see most of them even when they aired, much less after that. And I've only got about a handful in my possession currently. It's just neat to go back for the reminiscing factor and to laugh at all of the silly hairstyles and the clothes and the dancing. And, at the same time, it's sort of terrifying that everybody is going to get a chance to see this glorified home video all over again. It is like having a glorified home video of your childhood.

TONY: What has it been like reuniting with everyone for this DVD release?

Jenna von Oÿ: It was really neat to get to sit down with everyone as an adult. So much time has passed, and I think everyone's got so much perspective at this point on what we all went through back then and just having been a part of such a groundbreaking show, that I believe none of us, at the time, had any idea would leave such an indelible mark on television history. So to sit down with everyone now and to view them in their adult life, to see Mayim with her kids, and Joey's got a two-year-old and everybody's in just such a different place in their life. We've got all families and all of that. It's a really kind of cathartic experience to sit down with everyone after all of that time. Everyone's sort of an old, familiar stranger. I know them so well, yet I don't know them at all. (laughs)

TONY: How do you think younger audiences are going to respond to Blossom in 2009?

Jenna von Oÿ: I don't know, that's a really good question. I don't expect people, at this point, with all of the television that's happened in between, to necessarily understand the impact that the show had when it began. But I still believe that all of the issues are current in the sense that every teenage girl is gawky and awkward and desperate to fit in and confused about her family life and hoping that her parents aren't going to get divorced or dealing with it if they do. I think all of the morals to the story, so to speak, are the same. The clothing is just a little bit dated. (laughs)

TONY: When you were working on the show as a young girl, did you understand a lot of the issues that the show was dealing with?

Jenna von Oÿ: From my recollection, I was pretty aware. Obviously, I was going through a lot of similar things. Not necessarily similar to my character, but I was a teenager when I was playing a teenager, unlike a lot of shows where you get twenty and thirty-year olds who are playing high school students. I mean, we were the age we were playing, so there was absolutely a truth to our playing those characters and the things that they went through and the trials and tribulations, because a lot of those trials and tribulations were ones we were all dealing with simultaneously.

TONY: I had a lot of fun watching this DVD and watching all of the actors who appeared on the show and went on to become big stars. Out of all of the guest stars that appeared on Blossom, who did you enjoy working with the most?

Jenna von Oÿ: I'd probably have to watch a bunch of the episodes to remember who all guested, but we had a prominent guest star in virtually every episode initially when the show began. So there were just so many to choose from. I remember being really excited that B.B. King was on the show and Will Smith. And then it's kind of neat to look back and see some of the folks who made a name for themselves later, like David Schwimmer or Giovanni Ribisi. There were some really talented people who guested on that show.

TONY: What do you remember about dealing with the fans back then? It seems like a lot has changed since then.

Jenna von Oÿ: It's funny, I'm an adult now looking back to what I went through then and what I see the young child stars are going through now. It seems like there was a little bit more of a distance between the fans and the stars, and it was kind of a neat thing to still get fan mail. Now, everybody sends an email, but there's something really intimate, I think, about getting a letter from someone who appreciates your work. I heard an actor say once that he used to get letters in both crayon and in lipstick, and I thought that was such a brilliant comment to make, because it explains the diversity of the demographic who watched the shows back then. You'd get young kids writing to you and saying, 'I love your character, and I want to be just like Six when I grow up.' Or you'd get an eighty-year old couple who watches the show and says, 'You make me reminisce about my childhood best friend and I.' And I think that it was so neat to be able to have those letters, and, in fact, I saved some of them just because they were so beautiful to read. Now, there's just so much access, such easy access to people that people almost feel like they own a piece of the celebrities who are out there as opposed to sort of respecting them and understanding that there's a level of respect for the work that someone is doing.


TONY: I interviewed Zane Buzby a couple of months ago and we talked about the rockumentary version of Blossom. What do you remember about that episode? She said it was one of her favorite episodes to direct.

Jenna von Oÿ: That's funny, because that was one of my favorite episodes that we filmed as well. Not only because there were so many funny and cool and self-depreciating people who guested on the show and I though they did it brilliantly. It was so outside of the box. The writers really colored outside of the lines on that one and I really have such an appreciation for their writing and for their ability to take a chance at that time when chances weren't really taken as frequently on television.

TONY: What do you remember about working with Bill Bixby?

Jenna von Oÿ: We were all so close to Bill. We became Bill's family. Of course, it was a very devastating experience to watch him kind of fail physically toward the end. He directed right up until he passed away, because that was his passion. And his love for his work really took over I think and he didn't want to give that up. And I understand how much his heart and soul was in his work. So it was a difficult time for all of us to experience that with him. But his laugh was contagious. He was an incredible man and also an incredibly ingenious man. He would come up with camera angles that would just blow you away. He would eat, sleep, and breathe newness, and he would come into work and go, 'OK, so here's what I thought of last night.' He always had a smile on his face, and he was a wonderful, wonderful and charming man.

TONY: What issues on Blossom did you relate to the most?

Jenna von Oÿ: That's a really good question. I don't know if I've really thought about that in so long. Obviously, we didn't really have your average high school experience. I didn't necessarily have the most conventional childhood, so to speak, because of working at the time. I think a lot of the average high school drama, it sort of took a little bit of a twisted spin because it would be high school drama glorified on a television set. I don't know if I have a really good answer for that one. Obviously, I liked boys who didn't like me back, but that's just one of those shallow teenage things that everything goes through. But I can't come up with anything. My character's parents got divorced but my parents are still together this many years later. My character was an only child, and I'm the oldest of four. So there weren't a whole lot of similarities where the family life was concerned. (laughs)

TONY: What was it like dealing with life after Blossom? Did you find it difficult?

Jenna von Oÿ: I didn't really find the transition that difficult, to be honest. It was sort of a natural progression of things. I was just graduating from high school when the show ended and I went off to college and started life on my own and it sort of seemed like the normal path to take. And I was still working on other things then too. There was a beauty to having closure to the show and being able to play other characters after spending five years playing one character, as much fun as she was.

TONY: Talk to me a little bit about your relationship on and off camera with Mayim.

Jenna von Oÿ: I feel very fortunate to have worked with everyone on the show. I think that all of us had a very neat camaraderie. I remember Mayim and I writing funny, little coded letters to each other and passing them to each other as if we were in class passing notes. It was kind of like being in a high school setting, only magnified, because there's a cute boy and there's the smart girl in class and then there are the antics and the clowns. We kind of had that with the cast and crew. I think everybody had their fun little place in the mix. Mayim is a brilliant woman and she was a brilliant little girl too, so it was really neat to see her go off and go to UCLA. She's just an incredibly brilliant woman.

TONY: Finally, what are your plans for the future and what are you currently working on?

Jenna von Oÿ: I have been traveling back and forth to Nashville from L.A. for the past ten years, working on music and writing and recording. In September of 2007, I released my debut CD, which is called Breathing Room, and I am currently finishing up an eight-song EP, which is not really a sequel to the first CD so much as it is kind of my foray into film and television music because it's just really left of center songs that I'm going to pitch to different shows and see if I can get some placement on. So I'm just working on music a lot and appreciating my quality of life back here, which is definitely slower than it was in L.A.

TONY: Alright, thank you so much for your time. It was great talking to you. I appreciate it.

Jenna von Oÿ: It was great talking to you too. No problem.