The fighter
Alison Brie, star of new Netflix drama GLOW, tells Janet Christie how she learned to love the big hair and big slams of women’s wrestling in 1980s LA
Alison Brie tells Janet Christie about her battle to land the lead in Netflix wrestling drama, GLOW
Alison Brie is sleepy. Jetlagged from flying in from LA to promote her latest show, women’s wrestling drama GLOW, she’s just woken up from an afternoon power nap and her California drawl is punctuated by yawns and lazy laughter. It’s OK, because I’m sleepdeprived too, having stayed up into the small hours bingeing on the latest Netflix series from the creators of Orange is the New Black.
“Yeah, bingeing on Netflix, I love doing that too,” she says, pleased that GLOW appears to have that just stay-awake-and-watch-one-more-episode effect that made OITNB such a hit.
Set in 1980s Los Angeles, GLOW is all about women’s wrestling in all its big hair, big slams and tiny Lycra leotard glory. Based on the real story of the 1980s female wrestling league, it has the same executive producers, Jenji Kohan and Tara Herrmann, as OITNB and is co-created by Liz Flahive (Homeland) and Carly Mensch (OITNB).
Brie plays Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress, too meek and “real” to get a gig until she is called to audition for a new weekly professional wrestling show, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling or GLOW. Dismissive at first because she sees herself as a serious actor, when she’s rejected as not quite right again, she comes out fighting, determined to win a place in the ring, and stay there.
“Ruth is at the end of her rope but very determined and very passionate about performing. As soon as she gets told again she doesn’t have the right look, it lights a fire under her and she fights to stay part of it. Although she scoffs at first, she finds it a really creative and challenging outlet. Plus, she wants to be liked by her peers.”
Like Orange is the New Black, with its ensemble cast of female characters, GLOW is as much about the interpersonal relationships of the women as it is about the action. As it develops they learn self-awareness as well as how to execute everything from a suplex to a choke slam.
“Yeah, we’re watching these women learn how to wrestle and about their strengths and weaknesses, who they want to be. Ruth realises that how people see her is not how she’s always envisioned herself. She believes herself a great actress, but feels invisible and not respected. Now she steps forward as a leader for this group of women.”
Much of the challenge to Ruth comes from one of the few male characters in GLOW, washed up producer Sam, played by US comedian Marc Maron, who can’t decide what he likes least about her, the face or, the personality.
“Marc couldn’t have been better cast for this role, and we had very natural chemistry on set,” she says. “Sam finds Ruth grating, obnoxious and desperate, but her determination wins him over and they realise they have the same goal, which is to make a great show. Sam also hasn’t lived up to his potential and realised his dreams. This show is so off the mark of what they imagined for themselves, but they realise that it could be their thing, their legacy.”
Fighting for a role is something that Brie, born in LA, raised in a Dutch, Irish, Scottish, Jewish household and trained at the California Institute of the Arts, has experience of herself. Never more so than for the part in GLOW, in a classic case of life mirroring art.
“Oh yeah, I was told many times by my agent they don’t think you’re right for the role. So I had to work to win them over and I felt myself becoming more and more like the character every time I came in again to audition. It’s very satisfying to fight for something you really believe in and prove people wrong.”
So what was it about Brie they weren’t sure about? Now 34, she has hit shows on her CV, with eight years as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men and six seasons as Annie Edison in college sitcom Community. She’s done comedy with How To Be Single, Sleeping with Other People with Rebel Wilson, Get Hard with Will Ferrell, The Five Year Engagement and The Lego Movie. Then there’s her voicing of Diana Nguyen, a feminist Vietnamese American ghostwriter in the off-the-wall animation comedy Bojack Horseman. Brie also voices other characters in the show, including Cow Waitress, an unnamed server with a bad attitude and Vincent Adultman (three kids stacked on top of each other in a trench coat). “It’s a really fun space to be, to experiment with different voices, being silly and surprising yourself,” she says. Then there’s her physique, which is super fit with daily workouts with a personal trainer.
So was it her face, was she “too real” to play real or could the GLOW casting directors initially not see past her more polished former roles?
She laughs as she ponders the question.
“Everything is third hand, but I was told I was not quite what anyone was picturing for the role. I think there’s a grit and an edge to this show that I have not really demonstrated before. So I did physical things like going to auditions with no make-up at all, wearing workout clothes with my hair tied back, because Ruth’s a woman who doesn’t care about that kind of stuff, doesn’t know how to play the game. I think I come off maybe too polished having worked on a network show for six years and eight on Mad Men, with the costumes, the hair and make-up, and there’s just an image of me that I have honestly been looking forward to shattering. “Being told I wasn’t quite right was even more proof to me this was a role I wanted to do. They don’t think I’m right for it? That’s exactly why I want to do it.”
Going back to the 1980s meant a physical transformation for Brie, to develop the physique of a wrestler, with personal training sessions that saw her powerlifting one and a half times her bodyweight and do push ups with 50lbs of chains on her back, plus the ten hour sessions with the other wrestlers learning the moves. Then there was the even more scary prospect of an old school perm.
“Yeah, the hair was the biggest part. We cut it into a kind of crazy shag and it’s permed. A legit perm that took me back, because my mother was