COVER STORY
Melissa McCarthy tells us why she plans to keep putting ‘real women’ in movies, what’s next for her and why there’s no chance of getting above herself in her crazy household!
The irrepressible Melissa McCarthy – bottled sunshine!
Melissa McCarthy is seriously funny. But we all know that – the actress has more than proven that over the years, from her roles as lovable chef Sookie in Gilmore Girls to straight-talking Megan in Bridesmaids and gutsy detective Shannon Mullins in The Heat. More interestingly, what we’ve come to realise is that she’s as adept in dramatic roles. Earlier this year, the comedy queen was nominated for a best actress Academy Award for her role in the biographical drama
Can You Ever Forgive Me? She portrays real-life author Lee Israel, who had success in the ’70s and ’80s before falling on hard times in the ’90s. Months behind with rent payments, Lee started faking and selling letters by great writers – until she was caught by the FBI and convicted of forgery.
This isn’t the first time Melissa has played a con artist, as her role as Diana in Identity Thief shows. So what is it about her that seems to inspire filmmakers to cast her as a scammer? ‘I think I’m pretty shifty,’ Melissa quips. ‘I don’t know, but it’s really fun to do… It’s the fun of getting to be an actor: you get to walk around in someone else’s shoes – especially to get to be Lee, and just say anything that
All the people you love, you love because of their eccentricities, quirks and tics.
comes to your brain. And she’s so unapologetic about it! That’s a very cathartic [experience]. [It] allows me to be very mellow in real life.’
Mellow is an understatement. According to her good friend actress Maya Rudolph, Melissa is a living, breathing ray of light. ‘If there were an actual bottled ray of sunshine it might be [Melissa],’ says Maya. Ironically playing characters such as Lee Israel is one of Melissa’s favourite things.
‘When people ask me, “Why would you want to play someone unlikeable?” I say: “Because we’re all unlikeable at times!” All the people you love, you love because of their eccentricities, their quirks and their tics. We all have them. To play someone without those things… well, I wouldn’t know how to do it.’
As an actress famous for her comedic work (a genre often neglected at the oh-so-serious Oscars), Melissa did not expect to be standing alongside the rest of the 2019 Academy Award nominees. When she received the call from her agent, she was gobsmacked. ‘I ran downstairs and immediately called [my co-star] Richard E Grant. Then my kids came downstairs and asked, “Is my toast ready?” There is no possible way of getting too overly impressed with myself in my house,’ she says with a laugh.
She says she often finds herself reading scripts for auditions and wondering, ‘Where’s the [female] part? Why is the guy so interesting? Why is the guy so flawed and complicated?’ Her solution? To create her own roles. ‘I like seeing more women behind the camera as well as in front of it,’ Melissa says. ‘I like seeing more real women being portrayed.’
She’d also like to see the women playing them to be paid fairly. In an interview with Trevor Noah, The Daily Show host noted that Melissa
was one of the first women he’d met who wasn’t afraid to talk about salary discrepancies. ‘I think if you’re doing the same work, there should be the same benefit,’ said Melissa firmly. ‘You have to ask for what you want!’
By producing and acting in her own work, the actress has afforded control over her art. ‘I want to put real women into movies – funny, dramatic, whatever it is. Unless you take that control, [films] often present you with a version of “the real woman”, yet it’s no one we would recognise as a real human.’
Melissa relishes the challenge this represents.
‘I want to be a part of it all: I want the workload, the fun of it, the challenge, the nerves. The whole thing is part of the joy of what I get to do.’ She produces, writes and stars in many of her own films, often collaborating with her husband of 13 years, Ben Falcone. ‘It’s wonderful. It’s like you get to go to work with your best friend – it’s a dream.’ Ben agrees. ‘It’s the best thing I could ever imagine,’ he says.
The comedic power couple has been together for 20 years and they have two kids: Vivian (11) and Georgie (9). ‘Viv is definitely Ben,’ says Melissa. ‘She looks exactly like me and is Ben, and Georgie looks just like Ben, but is me.’ As you can well imagine, their home is filled with laughter. ‘[T] hey’re just so funny,’ she says of her daughters. ‘The bigger they get, the weirder and the funnier they are. Their true personalities come out; they surprise me every day.’
As for drama, The Kitchen, released earlier this year, gave Melissa another opportunity to show off her acting ability outside the comedy genre. Set in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen in New York, she and her co-stars, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss, play the wives of Irish mafia bosses. When the men are locked away, the women take charge or risk losing everything. The trio soon takes over and becomes the ‘most powerful, ruthless gangsters of Manhattan’s West Side’.
And there’s more to look forward to. Next up Melissa stars in action-comedy Superintelligence with Bobby Cannavale, Brian Tyree Henry and James Corden; it’s directed by Ben Falcone. Melissa portrays Carol Peters, whose life is turned upside down when she is selected for observation by a form of artificial intelligence that may or may not take over the world.
We can’t wait!