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Mamie Gummer in Evening Photo by Gene Page ©2006 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Mamie Gummer's features would have had her crowned a classic beauty in a long bygone era. Her straight blonde hair frames an oval face with porcelain skin and high cheekbones, and she has a poise that echoes the Old-World patrician grace and casual modernity that defined women of the 1920s. She shares, say some, an undeniable likeness to her mother, renowned actress Meryl Streep, but Gummer lacks Streep's more angular features. By now, Gummer is accustomed to remarks about her disarming physical resemblance to her mom (best known as the most nominated actor in Academy Award history) But it was not until she saw herself on screen in Evening, her first major screen performance, that she conceded that there is a degree of similitude.

"Right after I saw the film for the first time, I was like: 'Well, okay, yeah, we do look alike,'" she says. "I do look a lot like my dad. A bit of both."

Her dad is renowned sculptor Don Gummer, best known for his large public art pieces of bronze, stainless steel, and glass. And even though she must have been acutely aware of the perils of choosing to walk in her mother's overarching shadow, following in her father's footsteps was never an option.

"My youngest sister has an eye for that, sort of an artistic hand," explains Gummer, who is one of four children. "But it's sort of eluded the rest of us. My father's profession is a very solitary one. I love acting because I love people, and I don't know that I could spend every day alone like he does.

"I've always loved acting. I've done it since I was little. I did it all throughout school. I studied it in college. Both my parents have been really supportive of the decision to pursue it professionally."

The Streep-Gummer home in Connecticut was not host to the kind of Hollywood soirées that would find celebs hanging out being fabulous — that is, of course, aside from her A-list mom. Gummer is, however, cautious not to align herself too closely with her mother's fame and is dismissive of the notion that she may feel pressure to live up to any lofty expectations.