Melissa Mccarthy tackles tragedy in ‘The Starling’
Melissa Mccarthy refuses to choose comedy or tragedy in her movies. She wants it all, and a nice balance of both really hits the spot.
“I don’t love when characters are just all serious all the time or when someone’s goofy all the time. I don’t know how to do a comedy without pathos,” Mccarthy says. “You have to really let a character fall and fail for you to root for them to get up.”
Mccarthy’s latest film is definitely one of those wide-ranging emotional roles: In the Netflix dramedy “The Starling” (streaming Friday), her character Lilly is still coming to grips with the sudden death of her infant daughter while also trying to maintain a connection with husband Jack (Chris O’dowd), who goes to a mental health facility in the aftermath of the loss. Lilly struggles at work and also at home, where a pesky black bird constantly dive-bombs her when she tends to her garden until she meets a veterinarian (Kevin Kline) who helps get her back on track.
“I love and understood that feeling of somebody’s got to keep it going,” Mccarthy, 51, says of Lilly. “I have two kids (daughters Vivian, 14, and Georgette, 11) and there is always that feeling of when
tough times come, it’s like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t get to have this moment. Someone has to keep it together.’ You do that out of love and out of necessity and out of fear of if you do fall apart, will you ever put it back together?”
Mccarthy, who recently spent time in Australia filming Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” as well as Netflix’s upcoming comedy “God’s Favorite Idiot” with her husband/filmmaker/frequent co-star Ben Falcone, checks in via Zoom to discuss “The Starling,” a childhood encounter with wildlife and playing the infamous Ursula in Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” (in theaters May 26, 2023).
Question: Lilly goes to war with this little bird before coming to care for it. Have you ever had a similar run-in with a critter?
Melissa Mccarthy: I grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Illinois and we had literally 35 cats outside. We did have one cat that later we were told had epilepsy and instead of a seizure, it reacted (aggressively). Its name was Sweetness – the irony – and it was OK as long as you were petting it. But if you went to walk away, it would start that like “Rrrrrrrr” and you knew you were in trouble. I was probably in third grade and I was like, I won’t engage it because usually if you didn’t engage it, it was OK. It was truly like a cartoon: It went around me, all the way up, all over my head, back down to my feet. By the time I saw my dad and one of the farmers running toward me, it had two full passes on me. So I have danced with some wildlife.
Q: Being a mom yourself, did that aspect of Lilly’s story touch you in a very real way?
Mccarthy: Absolutely. It’s having to not only think about but really make the commitment to live with the unimaginable for a long duration of time. You have to go to places that are very uncomfortable and I would also have to monitor how much she doesn’t show it. I am not a stoic person. I don’t have a great poker face in my real life. I cry at the drop of a hat. So to play someone that is going through this grief and loss but is choosing not to show it was a really
unusual challenge.
Q: Do your kids have a favorite movie with you and Ben?
Mccarthy: I don’t know. They’ve not seen all of them. They’re getting to that point now where they can, but I always feel creepy being like, “Do you want to watch one of our movies?” They really enjoyed “Thunder Force,” our last one, because that one was PG, but I’m about to let them see all of them, so we’ll see. They’ve seen parts of everything.
Our youngest never could see me being hurt. It was sweet. All of the stunts that I’m like, “I worked so hard on that!” – it was very upsetting for her. And now she’s like, “I get it, it’s a stunt.” I’m like, “OK, Ironsides.”
Q: So you falling off a ladder in “The Starling,” that’s totally fine?
Mccarthy: Yeah, now she doesn’t care at all. That one actually hurt. She’s like, “Well, you signed up for it.” She’s grizzled.
Q: How was being a villainous sea witch in the new “Little Mermaid”?
Mccarthy: Glorious. The world of Disney and (director) Rob Marshall is a world that I wish everyone could experience because it’s so creative, kind and lovely. Going to singing class every day, I was actually sad: I got to record with an orchestra, which is a mindbender for someone who is not a singer, and then they were like, “That’s it, we’ve got your song.” And I was like, “Wait, I don’t get to go to class anymore?” I was actually kind of heartbroken about it, but it was such a fun process. It’s going to be incredible.