For those of you who primarily know Rose Bryne as a comedic actress, then you probably were introduced to her with her very funny performances in GET HIM TO THE GREEK or BRIDESMAIDS (followed by THE INTERNSHIP, NEIGHBORS, or THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU). She’s also quite good in the upcoming action-comedy SPY from her BRIDESMAIDS director Paul Feig. There might also be those of more familiar with her genre work is such films as SUNSHINE, 28 WEEKS LATER, KNOWING, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (and the upcoming X-MEN: APOCALYPSE) or the two INSIDIOUS movies.
But for her long-time fans, Byrne began her acting career as a dramatic actor, and occasionally returns to that realm. I first remember seeing her in a film from her native Australia, THE GODDESS of 1967, followed by I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, WICKER PARK, MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE DEAD GIRL, ADAM, and most recently in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES. The bottom line is, the woman is about as diverse as they come in the acting world, which definitely makes a difference in her latest work, ADULT BEGINNERS, a film that walk the line between comedy and drama, with Byrne playing the pregnant sister of a failed business entrepreneur played by Nick Kroll, whom he comes to live with after a massive product launch fails and he loses all of his money. Byrne’s character is married to her real-life significant other, Bobby Cannavale (the pair also worked together in ANNIE and SPY), and the characters have a young son that Kroll (who has a story credit) must take care of to earn his keep around the house while he stays with them.
ADULT BEGINNERS sounds like it’s the set up of a wacky comedy, but in fact it’s a mostly serious look at a guy trying to be less self-centered in order to get his life back together and take on more family-oriented, grown-up responsibilities. And Byrne is a big reason the film works as well as it does. ADULT BEGINNERS is directed by Ross Katz, primarily know as a producer (MARIE ANTOINETE, LOST IN TRANSLATION, IN THE BEDROOM), and he directed the great 2009 HBO movie TAKING CHANCE, starring Kevin Bacon. And he’s already shot his next film, an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks book THE CHOICE, starring Alexandra Daddario; Teresa Palmer; Maggie Grace, Tom Welling, and Tom Wilkinson.
I had a chance to sit down with Byrne and Katz at SXSW Film Festival to briefly chat about ADULT BEGINNERS and what it takes to walk the emotional tightrope between comedy and drama. Please enjoy this quick conversation with Rose Bryne and Ross Katz…
Capone: I’m familiar with your work both as a producer and the film you directed for HBO, and most of it is quite a bit heavier than this film.
Ross Katz: Kind of, yeah.
Capone: Did someone say, “TAKING CHANCE. Oh, that’s a hilarious movie. Let’s get this guy.”
Rose Byrne: That was the running joke [laughs].
RK: I said to Rose, when I met Bobby, he was very kind but direct. He said, “Dude, I saw your movie TAKING CHANCE. It’s not funny.” I have been very lucky working as a PA and assistant. Two of the directors that I worked for were Sydney Pollack and Ang Lee. I worked with Sydney Pollack for three years. This guy did THE WAY WE WERE and also THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. Ang Lee did BROKEBACK MOUNTAI and also CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, and LIFE OF PI. I’d always hoped that I could be a really versatile filmmaker, and I have a lot of interest in a lot of different genres. I’m exploring possibly doing a horror movie next, and I’ve never gotten to play in that sandbox.
Yeah, directing. So for me, ADULT BEGINNERS was an antidote to the sadness of TAKING CHANCE. It was an amazing experience making that movie. But it was real people, real lives, real grief, real loss. It was emotionally really grueling. I read ADULT BEGINNERS and I just felt I really connected and I really laughed. And I wanted to laugh, I wanted to be on a funny set.
Capone: But you also found ways to darken the waters too and make it serious at times and not funny.
RK: Yeah, it’s got drama.
Capone: I was going crazy because I was really excited to see Nick really dig into something as an actor.
RK: He’s wonderful.
Capone: I just saw a movie where people in their 30s were talking about how they feel like they’re kids pretending to be adults. Their minds still work like they did when they were in their teens. And this film is about finally becoming an adult—thus the title I guess. Talk about that phenomenon, because I think people of a certain age know what that feels like.
RK: One of the things I loved so much about this script and about this world was it felt so authentic to me. I’ve never seen myself as terribly grown up, but then I have all these grown-up responsibilities. I think that’s an interesting dilemma when you’re hanging onto your youth, at the same time you have grown up responsibilities that you’re maybe not ready for.
Capone: With this brother coming in, the cracks in this marriage are revealed and perhaps deepened. What is it like acting with Bobby as a married couple whose union is not healthy. What is that experience like when the day is done?
RB: It’s not as hard as it seems, weirdly, for us, anyway. What’s great is you have such a shorthand with a person, so I think that’s lovely to see on screen. There’s a real genuine couple there, which I think is sometimes hard to recreate. But, I’m talking in a different voice, I’ve got different clothes on, we’re surrounded by people; it’s all obviously very fabricated, too. So that, I think, really is the separation. But it’s lovely to have an experience with somebody like that. I’ve always admired him as an actor, so it was great to actually work on this. It was very organic working with him these three films in a row—all very different and all very separate in terms of their genesis.
Capone: Very different.
RB: So different.
Capone: In this and NEIGHBORS, you’re playing a young mother who is still to a certain degree missing the life she had before. These films are two very different takes on that idea. Why do people feel that way? You get the feeling people sign up for something, maybe without realizing how tough it’s going to be to completely give their lives over to it.
RB: I don’t have kids, so this is all from talking to my girlfriends who have them. I think it’s something people don’t really want to hear, because it’s like “Women are born to be mothers; they should never complain; they shouldn’t suffer postnatal depression, or postpartum depression.” I think that’s such a myth. It’s really complicated becoming a mother.
RK: I have a really close friend who’s a parent and who confides in me that it’s really tough, and sometimes he gets upset, sometimes he feels like he’s missing other parts of his life and giving them up. We tried to explore some of the complexities of that in a fun and unique way.
Capone: The last question I had was, whose idea was Nick’s SHINING ringtone? Every time you hear it, it just sucks the air out of the room.
RK: Totall. Isn’t that great? That was our writers, Liz Flahive and Jeff Cox—just fantastic writers. We laughed out loud when we saw it was going to be THE SHINING.
Capone: Thank you both so much. Best of luck with this.
