Late rising star
Brooklyn comic makes ‘Incredible’ leap from ‘Daily Show’ to moviem
JESSICA Williams ( above) admitted she struggled to be prompt on the set of her upcoming Netflix film “The Incredible Jessica James.” “I was really nervous about filming because I am in almost every scene,” she said at a Rooftop Films screening in Brooklyn. “What I was worried about is, I am not a morning person. There were a lot of 6 a.m. call times.” To prep for the title role, “I had all these plans, like ‘eat clean’ and ‘exercise.’ It just didn’t happen . . . But I really had a lot of things pinned on my secret Pinterest page.”
JESSICA Williams’ new Netflix movie, “The Incredible
Jessica James,” opens with a sequence of the actress dancing to a song on her headphones, right out of her apartment and up onto her rooftop. It’s a glorious, goofy introduction to her character — only Williams admits she envisioned it slightly differently.
“We shot that scene with this really awesome choreographer,” she says, “and I was doing these leaps. When I saw it I was like, ‘No! My leaps were so much higher!’ I was Misty Copeland!”
But she does leap rom-com clichés in a single bound. “The Incredible Jessica James” was written for her by director Jim Strouse, with Williams having substantial input about her character, a playwright getting over a breakup.
“When you see the way some people write women, especially in studio movies, it’s like, ‘Sorry! Sorry for being alive!’ ” says Williams, 27. “Women are so apologetic.”
Strouse, who directed Williams in the 2015 comedy “People Places Things,” knows his leading lady has a way with words, and wisely gave her and co-star Chris O’Dowd room to improvise. This yielded zingers like Williams saying, “I would rather have my period for a thousand years than continue this conversation.”
It’s the type of line you might also hear on “2 Dope Queens,” the WNYC podcast Williams co-hosts with Phoebe Robinson, comedian, actress and author of “You Can’t Touch My Hair (And Other Things I Still Have to Explain).” The effervescent duo just wrapped the third season, which has featured guests such as Kevin Bacon, Connie Britton and Jon Stewart.
But the best part of the show is the beginning, when Williams and Robinson riff on their lives and lusts, cracking each other up in the process. Past topics include Phoebe (fictionally) breaking her hip during a tryst with The Rock and which Nicolas Cage film character each host would sleep with. Their camaraderie has struck a chord with fans.
“I love it when women are like, ‘You guys sound like me and my best friend!’ ” Williams says.
Their dream guests are the ultimate pair of female besties: “Oprah and Gayle, like, a hundred thousand percent,” Williams says, sounding optimistic. “Fingers crossed! We’ve got someome really great celebs this cominging season, but we want Oprah andnd Gayle.”
The charismatic Williams,Williams, who grew up in LA and wasas hired as the youngest-ever “Daily Show Show” correspondent, at 22, seems like the perfect candidatee to interview the queen of interviewers.wers. But even she isn’t immunene to an occa-occasional bout of being star-star-struck.
“I wasn’t prepared to be so . . . arrested by Jon Hamm,”m,” Williams says of having the “MadMad Men”Men star on the podcast. “Once you make eye contact, andd realize you’re, like, three feett away [from him], you’re like, ‘Oh God, I’m ready to go home. I justust want to go home and play ‘the Sims.’ims.’ ”
That’s not nerd hyperbole:perbole: Wil-Williams really does lovee playing ‘the Sims.’ But the way herr career’s going, she doesn’t lookok likely to have much time forr the game in the near future. ure.