“If a female writer says that, no, really, this is how women think or, really, this is how women talk, I think people have to start trusting that a little bit.” |
Diehard fans of Saturday Night Live took heart when Kristen Wiig appeared in the cast in 2005. The characters she creates (a Liberace back-up singer with tiny hands and a huge forehead — where did that come from?) add the extra frisson of weirdness that only a truly original and twisted comic mind can come up with. Till now, that talent has been only partly tapped by the big screen, in such Judd Apatow films as Knocked Up and, more recently, in Greg Mottola's Paul. For Bridesmaids, however, not only does Wiig star, she also co-wrote the script, which takes the conventional premise of a wedding party in chaos and transforms it into a raucous comedy that's unafraid to combine salmonella with bridal fittings. It might be a breakthrough for women who want to make movies about what women are really like.
>> READ: "Review: Bridesmaids" by Peter Keough <<
WHEN I FIRST HEARD ABOUT THIS FILM, I MIXED IT UP WITH SOMETHING BORROWED. ARE YOU CONCERNED OTHERS MIGHT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE?
I don't know if I would call it concern, but . . . we always intended it to just be a comedy. We didn't intend to make this just for women. We don't consider it a chick flick. I hate that wording. It's a comedy.
WELL, THE TITLE — PEOPLE MIGHT BE MISLED.
They might, yeah.
WAS THAT THE ORIGINAL TITLE?
No. We had a hard time thinking of a title.
DID YOU THINK OF [SPOILER!] "BRIDE SHITS IN THE STREET," OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT?
Ah, but see, we can't put swear words in there. I had a bunch of titles that had swear words, but they wouldn't let me.
I GET THE SENSE THAT THE WOMEN IN THIS FILM BEHAVE MORE REALISTICALLY THAN THEY DO IN THE AVERAGE ROMANTIC COMEDY.
If a female writer says that, no, really, this is how women think or, really, this is how women talk, I think people have to start trusting that a little bit. Because then if it gets made and it's on screen, women will be able to relate to it and say, "Oh yeah, that's happened to me." With the Jon Hamm character [the Wiig character's crass boyfriend], a lot of women have experienced dating a guy who maybe isn't that nice to them. And with the Chris O'Dowd character [the uncrass potential boyfriend], running away from someone who's really nice to you. And there's no big story plot line behind that. It's just that most women can really relate to that.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET MOVIES LIKE THIS MADE, WHERE WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY BEING THEMSELVES?
I don't know the answer to that. Maybe a man is reading it [the script] and he doesn't understand it. I don't know. I hope that changes. I don't know why it is a struggle, if it is. You don't see that many posters with six women on it, which is a shame. And hopefully that will get better and change.
