She made her professional acting debut on the
soap opera Guiding Light in 1997, where she played spoiled rich girl Drew Jacobs. Her first scene was with
Taye Diggs, who briefly played a record producer on the show. The character of Drew became more prominent over the years, and by the time of her departure in 2000, had become an audience favorite. Soon after leaving
GL, Blanchard was cast as the younger version of
Judy Davis's
Judy Garland in the 2001 ABC television docudrama
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. She received glowing reviews for her performance and earned an
Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She played Marianne Mulvaney in the Lifetime television film
We Were the Mulvaneys (2002), and was noted for her "fragile strength" by
The New York Times reviewer. In 2004, she played Sally Reid in the CBS made-for-television film
When Angels Come to Town, with
Peter Falk. Blanchard earned a
Tony Award nomination and a Theatre World Award for her work in her
Broadway debut in the 2003 revival of the musical
Gypsy, in which she played the title role opposite
Bernadette Peters. Blanchard's film roles include
The Good Shepherd (2006), starring as the deaf lover of
Matt Damon's character;
Bella (2006), which took the top prize at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival; and
The Ramen Girl (2008) and
Deadline (2009), both working with
Brittany Murphy. She co-starred with
Jessica Lange in the
CBS television remake of the 1976 television film
Sybil, in which she portrays a woman with
dissociative identity disorder (DID). In 2008, she appeared in the multi-star cast of the television docudrama
Living Proof as the first woman to have been treated with the breast cancer drug Herceptin. In 2010, Blanchard played Amy Roberts, the widow of a murderer, in the made-for-television film
Amish Grace, which first aired on the
Lifetime Movie Network. The movie is based on the
West Nickel Mines School shooting.
The Huffington Post noted that "This is an amazing young actress and she deserves to get better and better roles." The
Hollywood Reporter noted that Blanchard gives "a moving turn". The same year, she appeared in the film
Rabbit Hole, alongside
Nicole Kidman and
Aaron Eckhart, as Kidman's sister. Blanchard played the role of "office bombshell Hedy La Rue" in the Broadway revival of
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which opened on March 27, 2011, and closed on May 20, 2012. For this role, Blanchard received her second Tony Award nomination for
Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Blanchard starred in the film
Union Square, co-written and directed by the
Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award Winner,
Nancy Savoca, which premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, and was screened in New York City in July 2012. In 2014, Blanchard appeared as Florinda in director
Rob Marshall's film,
Into the Woods, an adaptation of the popular stage
musical. In 2015, she portrayed Eden in
Karyn Kusama's thriller film
The Invitation, and in 2016, she appeared in the film
Tallulah, which debuted on Netflix. She appeared in the Broadway production of
The Iceman Cometh as Cora, which started on March 23, 2018, and she played Audrey in the Off Broadway revival of
Little Shop of Horrors, which opened at the
Westside Theatre on October 17, 2019. For this performance, she received a
Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and a
Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. ==Personal life==