Family Law’s Eden Summer Gilmore: “It’s fun to play a smart and manipulative character”

Eden Summer Gilmore first cut her acting teeth as a baby in a Gerber baby food commercial. But it wasn’t until she stepped onto the set of Riverdale, playing little Betty, when she was bitten by the acting bug.

“It was my first-ever speaking role, so I didn’t really know what to expect when I got onto the set,” Gilmore says. “I just remember the crew being so incredibly nice and it was the first time I was on-set, playing with my scene partner… getting to tap into the character made me realize that I wanted to tap into other characters too.”

Gilmore’s latest character is Sofia Bianchi, daughter to Abby (Jewel Staite) in Global’s Friday night legal drama Family Law. When viewers first meet Sofia, they witnessed a teen daughter who is not happy with her mother’s recent life choices—recovering alcoholic Abby very publicly threw up in a courtroom and has been separated from her husband, daughter and son as part of her probation, in addition to working in her father’s law office alongside her half-brother and half-sister—and is downright hostile at times.

That’s totally understandable, Gilmore says, because no part of Sofia’s life is a refuge.

“Going to school could be an escape from being at her house,” Gilmore explains. “But that’s not the case, and home isn’t safe either. Dealing with what she is, specifically, just makes it 10 times harder.”

Gilmore immediately connected with the character as soon as she read the first script, both because she and Sofia are almost the same age, and related to her so much.

“I also clicked with her because, if I saw Sofia on-screen, I would have fallen in love with her too,” she explains. “I want to be that for other girls. And it’s fun to play a smart and manipulative character.”

Family Law airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

Image courtesy of Noah Asanias.

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