Mad Men actress back to funny roots
Will Ferrell co-star Alison Brie was ‘learning from him constantly’
On TV, Alison Brie was able to showcase her varied talents. She played the calculating housewife Trudy Campbell on the drama Mad Men and the by-the-book student Annie Edison in the sitcom Community.
As both shows end, the 32-yearold is looking forward to the next phase of her career, which focuses on film roles.
Soon, she’ll start shooting the ensemble comedy How to Be Single with Lily Collins, Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson and Damon Wayans Jr. She wrapped another comedy opposite Jason Sudeikis called Sleeping with Other People, which received positive reviews at last winter’s Sundance Film Festival, and should open later this year.
In Get Hard, Brie co-stars as the manipulative fiancée of a disgraced investor ( Will Ferrell) heading to San Quentin after being convicted of fraud. Before he does time, the businessman hires the guy (Kevin Hart) who washes his car to prepare him for prison.
Mostly, the Etan Cohen-directed farce relies on the dialogue between Ferrell and Hart, but Brie has her moments, as well.
Especially notable are the opening bedroom sequences of Get Hard, which reveals a naked Ferrell and a sexy Brie decked out in some risqué lingerie.
“Of course, it was my first few days of shooting, so it was quite an introduction,” said Brie from Los Angeles. “But I got through it and the experience wasn’t that bad.”
Committing to the brashness of her character was more exciting.
“She definitely was a break from my Community and Mad Men characters because they are both fairly conservative,” Brie said.
The actress had a more difficult time keeping a straight face during some of Ferrell’s improvised antics, but she appreciated his intentions.
“Will is so nice and easygoing and very supportive in his comedy,” Brie said. “He wants the scene to be funny, not just him, so he’s open to anything you suggest.”
In other words, Brie enjoyed her enrolment in Ferrell’s comedy school. “I felt I was learning from him constantly.”
She had fewer opportunities to exchange lines with the Ferrell-Hart team but when she did have scenes with them she marvelled at their chemistry. “In a way it was so distracting because they are really powerful and funny together,” she said. “They are so different in their approach to comedy but they worked so well together.”
Being funny was Brie’s calling card. In 2006, she introduced herself to tweens and teens as rookie hairdresser Nina on the Miley Cyrus show Hannah Montana.
The next year she won the recurring Mad Men part, which didn’t have many laughs, but two years later Community showcased her comedy talents.
On the movie front, Brie then co-starred in Scream 4 and The Five-Year Engagement and was the voice of Uni-kitty in last year’s animated hit The Lego Movie.
With Mad Men finished and Community winding down, “I have a lot more time to do more movies, so that’s a good thing.”
So is the fact that her upcoming films present comedy with a twist.
Sleeping with Other People, she noted, “has a different feel to it, and some dark facets.”
How to Be Single “is a great cast with multiple stories of navigating single life in New York.”