Alison Brie knew we were going to ask about the Community movie
Speaking with The A.V. Club, Alison Brie breaks down her new film Somebody I Used To Know and offers an update on the Community movie
Aux Features Alison Brie
Somebody I Used To Know is a rom-com… kind of. “We call it a rom-com, but that’s not totally how I would describe the movie. I think of it more as an adult coming-of-age story,” Alison Brie said during a conversation with The A.V. Club on Wednesday, before dubbing the film a “rom-com, with a heavy dose of dram.”
This assessment is more than fair; while Somebody I Used To Know doesn’t lack for romance or comedy, Brie explained that she and husband Dave Franco, who directed and co-wrote the film with her, were trying to tap into an 80s/90s/Nora Ephron feel. It wasn’t about having constant jokes so much as making the jokes that were there feel earned—just like every other emotion in the film. “When you go back and watch When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman, Sleepless In Seattle—they’re very dramatic films,” she shared. “Once you get into them, ultimately, they are relationship dramas, and then it’s a matter of peppering how much comedy you want.”
So what was it like writing a rom-com (with a heavy dose of dram) with your spouse? Brie makes it clear that while a specific scene involving her cat is based on a true story, very little of the film is pulled from their real lives. (Brie’s character has the Alison-adjacent name “Ally,” a decision she chalks up to a combination of “laziness” and a subtle nod to Julia Roberts’ “Jules” in My Best Friend’s Wedding.) As far as the writing goes, Brie called it a “natural progression” of their work together on The Disaster Artist and The Rental combined with what they thought would be a two-week “writers’ clinic” at home in March 2020.
“We were trapped at home in the same house. We would write together—we’d put on matching sweatsuits—and sit in the living room and start at our computers. And then usually, it devolved into Dave as the one who is at the computer and I’m the one who’s walking around, acting out the scene,” Brie recalled, explaining that once the outlines were done they would improvise further with each other. “I love writing dialogue with him.”
The film also sees Brie reunite with her Community co-star Danny Pudi. “We wrote the role for Danny. Danny is one of my closest friends still. We have not shot together since Community… Everybody loves Danny. I can’t think of a person who wouldn’t get along with him,” she lauded. “Dave would let the cameras roll while Danny and I were messing around, doing bits, and a lot of those would make it into the movie.”
Brie knew exactly what question was coming next: what is going on with the Community movie? “Well, it’s happening. We’re doing it for Peacock,” Brie confirmed. “We are allegedly shooting it this summer, is the most that I know. I saw Joel and Danny last week and I was like, ‘Joooooel, where’s the script? What’s the plan?’ And he was kind of just bouncing around. I think right now, it’s just a matter of everybody’s schedule. Most of us have all signed on to do it, everyone who’s in is in, and now everyone is kind of assessing their schedules and hoping that we can make it work to shoot it this summer.”
That’s great, right? “That’s great!” Brie confirms. But. “I say this with a hint of [sighs] I don’t trust it! I’m not a skeptic, I do believe that the Community movie will get made. It’s been sold—to Peacock! But because of everything we went through on that show… I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s not until I’m on set that I’ll be like, ‘We’re making it!’ In the meantime, I’ve just been having that anticipatory excitement feeling… This is the most hopeful any of us have been in a long time.”
In that meantime, Brie is happy to have made her contribution to the rom-com renaissance. “[Rom-coms] never die, they kind of just take on different forms… they went through a period of people thinking they weren’t very good or very cool or whatever, but I think everyone was still secretly watching them.” She adds, “Now, I think what’s happening is that a bunch of young, cool, interesting filmmakers are tapping into the genre and finding new, interesting ways to tell romantic stories so it feels fresh and different and people can admit that they like those movies in a respectable way again.”
For Brie, there was a period with both romantic films and studio comedies that tended to prioritize laughs-per-minute and buzzy stars over “the look and feel of the thing.” However, movies like The Big Sick, Palm Springs, Fire Island, and Bros, she says, have started to tap into the energy of those Nora Ephron/80s/90s rom-coms, which she calls “really good movies, that looked great.” She concludes, “I hope that Somebody I Used To Know fits into that.”
36 Comments
I knew somebody I used to know was going to ask about the Community movie!Did you know that?
I got a Gotye notificaiton for this?!
But I don’t have a clue what you did last summer.
I’ve been waiting for you to say that
I got an Elliott Smith notification.
I got part of an Elliott Smith notification, but it was cut off(too soon?)
Somebody, I used to know what you did last summer.
I really hate the whole “it really comes down to everyone’s schedule” excuse.
Couldn’t this be said for every film ever made? I get that people have tv obligations but at some point when you see this rolling down the road you get the production team to start telling actors when they need to block off their schedules for filming.This makes it sound like it’s just Dan Harmon calling people in his underwear with one of those big desk blotter calendars asking people if they’re available on June 8th and then moving on to the next day with a new round of calls.
This is what they say about projects that don’t pay nearly what everyone involved would make otherwise. Everything is scheduling, but this means that this movie can only be made during times when no one was able to book a job that paid properly.
I think it’s totally valid; so many casting “what-ifs” have boiled down to someone locking down a part, then having to back out because of an obligation to a different show or movie. Part of why the first Netflix season of Arrested Development was so disjointed and weird was they only had a few days where they could get everyone in the same room; it was easier to write a single episode that required Michael Cera or Jessica Walter for a week than try to have the whole ensemble available for several weeks to shoot a grip of episodes.
I think the big issue is that a lot of the cast has moved up in the Hollywood ladder and is too busy courting big roles to do a passion project for a TV show they used to be on
just because it isn’t an interesting reason doesn’t mean it’s not real. nature of the business.
This makes it sound like it’s just Dan Harmon calling people in his underwear with one of those big desk blotter calendars asking people if they’re available on June 8th and then moving on to the next day with a new round of calls.to be fair, that does sound like something Harmon would do actually
I mean, they have 6-12 parts in this that can’t be played by any other actors, depending on the script. The core group all work pretty regularly, but except maybe Glover, none of them are really in the kind of fuck you money position where they can just sit around for six months waiting for everything to line up. It’s not like, say, Tar, where you could probably have locked in Blanchett and then hired the best character actors available that month without a noticeable impact on overall quality (though obviously, the cast they did have did a great job).
I don’t think they can lock anything down until Dan turns in a script. The guy is known to be a “perfectionist” and he’ll probably take a while to get it done so it’s just an estimated start date for shooting until the script is ready and they have a director signed on.
Couldn’t this be said for every film ever made?No, because the shooting schedule for movies is typically more important than 95% of the casting. Only if it’s a big star in a lead role do they schedule production around that actor (and not necessarily even then); all the other parts are filled with actors who will be available when the movie is going to shoot. Yeah, we wanted Scott Caan for this part, or whoever, but he’s not available when we’ll be shooting, so we cast someone else.A movie like Community basically can’t* recast any of the main parts (of which there are quite a few) and as others have noted it probably isn’t paying a whole lot, so they have to keep hoping that the planets align long enough so that everyone can shoot together.*I mean the laws of physics don’t prevent it, but the fan/critical backlash for doing so would be catastrophic.
It’s a wonder The Godfather Part II was ever made then.
The fact they didn’t include the two black actors when they announced the Peacock deal -and who had already signed up—-that gives me pause. I wonder if season fives new players will be included in some way. And Bre Larson.
Larson’s character should take Abed to a comic book convention, and she cosplays as Captain Marvel (in a terrible homemade costume).
I assume they’re just waiting for Star Burn’s facial hair to grow back.
Couldn’t this be said for every film ever made?
Yes, but a low-budget project like the Community movie is likely a lower priority for everyone involved contractually, which means other projects that they’ve committed to this year have first-priority on their time, and many/most of them haven’t finalized their schedules yet. Community can’t just lock them in, they have to wait to see what days are left.
That’s what makes this different. Often times, line producers on two projects that share an actor will work together to figure it out (Alison Brie was on Community and Mad Men at the same time, and talked about how as a series regular she was promised to Community at the time, but both shows adjusted their schedules so she could do both), and that’s probably happening, too, but it’s a kindness, not a requirement.
I’d ask her questions about GLOW instead.
She has had an amazing run of being in some of the best shows ever. I wouldn’t put Glow in that category although I liked it a lot, but Mad Men, Community, BoJack Horseman, wow.
One of the more stellar TV careers of this century for sure
Maybe the gang can take a trip to Basil Fawlty’s collection of run down cabanas in the Caribbean.
There’s a really bad Fawlty Lotus SNL sketch somewhere in there.
She won’t believe it until she’s on the set shooting it? I won’t believe it until I’m actually watching it. Ruthless streamers have destroyed my innocence.
“ ‘Joooooel, where’s the script? What’s the plan?’ And he was kind of just bouncing around.”Joel McHale does a lot of cocaine! CONFIRMED!
You don’t keep a body like that into your 50s without chemical enhancement
“I saw Joel and Danny last week and I was like, ‘Joooooel, where’s the script? What’s the plan?’”I so heard that in Annie’s voice.
“We were trapped at home in the same house. We would write together—we’d put on matching sweatsuits—and sit in the living room and start at our computers. And then usually, it devolved into Dave as the one who is at the computer and I’m the one who’s walking around, acting out the scene,” Brie recalled, explaining that once the outlines were done they would improvise further with each other. “I love writing dialogue with him.”Jesus, Dave Franco’s really living the dream. You’re married to Alison Brie. You’re successful, and you and your wife have an incredibly prolific collaborative streak.Also, Brie’s got a few great additions to the rom-com archives. Sleeping with Other People is an all-timer for me. “I love you for free” is easily one of my favorite scenes of romantic longing every put on film.
Man, that was a great* movie. We need to watch that again.*And not just because of the part where she models lingerie.
I got a “Somebody That I Used To Know” notification for this?
Bring back Chevy Chase
Is Chevy Chase even still alive?Seriously, I had to google it. It was a coin flip before that.
His generation’s been dropping like flies.
She told Story+Rain last year that she was now looking for her next TV show. Really looking forward to whatever that would be because she never misses on the small screen.