Encounter
AnnaSophia Robb Takes A Bite Out Of Life
The Grosse Pointe Garden Society actor is as in love with New York as ever — and with reality TV.
When it comes to cake decorating, AnnaSophia Robb is a maximalist. We’ve met at the French-countryside-inspired bakery From Lucie, and as soon as our two-tiered, buttercream-layered carrot cakes are deposited in front of us, Robb gets to playing. She sticks a blush rose straight into the center, then follows it up with some lilac, and adds blue dandelion for good measure. “I think any addition of whimsy is always a good idea,” she tells me while I stare at our basket of flowers, paralyzed by the choices.
The reason why Robb has brought us to the East Village is twofold. Her new TV show, NBC’s Grosse Pointe Garden Society, recently premiered, and she’s fully embracing its floral theme. (Even the Self Portrait satin minidress she’s wearing is adorned with rose appliqués.) But she’s also eager to pay the bakery’s owner, Lucie Franc de Ferriere, a visit. The two first met in 2021 when Robb tapped Franc de Ferriere to bake her wildflower-topped, pistachio sponge wedding cake, and they’ve been friends ever since. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, but [in New York], there's always something new popping up. Like Lucie started this out of her apartment,” she says, gesturing at the line forming in the marigold storefront. “I’m so proud.”
Though the actor has now lived in New York for over 13 years, Robb remains as starry-eyed about the city as she did when she first moved from Colorado to film The Carrie Diaries in 2012. “I had no life. I was working 12 to 14 hours a day for six months. But I had all my fun at work because I got to see all these iconic New York locations,” she says of the Sex and the City prequel. (Robb starred as a teenage Carrie Bradshaw; Austin Butler played her boyfriend.) “We were filming at the Chelsea Hotel, the Odeon, the original Indochine.”
Initially, Robb planned on attending Stanford after the show wrapped. But after spending two years in Carrie’s proverbial Manolo Blahniks, Robb enrolled in NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study instead. There, she studied theater, went to as many off-Broadway shows as possible, and ended up having a straight-out-of-Vows-style meet-cute.
“I was at Toby's reading Nietzsche for a philosophy class and he was reading Harry Potter. So I roasted him on Snapchat to my cousins saying, ‘Can you believe this guy?’ Then I zoomed in on my book, all holier than thou,” says the 31-year-old. Eventually, they struck up a conversation in which Robb learned that “Harry Potter guy” was actually a law student taking a break from his textbooks, and that his name was Trevor Paul. “We ended up not exchanging numbers or anything. Then the next day I was getting off the subway and we ran into each other.”
Six years later, the pair were celebrating their wedding over a slice of Franc de Ferriere’s cake. They’re both still bookworms — Robb’s reading the Gabriel García Márquez masterpiece Love in the Time of Cholera while revisiting Angela Davis' Women, Culture & Politics — but Paul has introduced her to a new cherished pastime. “My husband loves reality TV. He watches everything, so now, I’m very much in that world watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and The Traitors,” she says, citing Gabby Windey as her favorite cast member. “That meme of her saying, ‘I don't want to take a meeting before 9 a.m.?’ She’s an icon.”
Another aspect that excites Robb about these shows is their “watercooler” effect — how in our ever-polarizing times, a good old-fashioned “whodunit” can have those everywhere from New York and Nebraska rooting for Windey and her fellow faithfuls alike. “I think that’s why people want to watch a popcorn murder mystery like Grosse Pointe right now, with everything going on in the world,” she says of the campy dark comedy that’s drawn comparisons to Desperate Housewives. “I hope people get invested in the show [and wonder], ‘Who's in the ground? Who did we bury?’”
Because she’s still filming the show, Robb herself only discovered who died a few weeks ago. It’s a secret she’s thoroughly savoring — unlike her now-dwindling culinary creation. “I have to take another big bite of this,” she says, laughing to herself. “It’s the best cake in the world!”
Photographs by Emma Howie
