Dave and Alison did a one-on-one Q&A for Interview magazine. They discussed, of course, The Rental, GLOW, and so much more.The feature also highlights photos of Alison taken by Dave himself. Name a more adorable couple, we’ll wait.
DAVE FRANCO: Tell me a little bit about the movie and how you became involved.
ALISON BRIE: The movie is The Rental, written by Dave Franco and Joe Swanberg. It’s your directorial debut.
FRANCO: Interesting.
BRIE: It’s about two couples who go on a weekend away at a rental property, and things go awry. The cool thing about this project is that I got to witness you working on it and watching it evolve, while not knowing that I was going to be involved. I found it so inspiring watching you write with Joe. Every day, you would get home from writing, you’d be so excited and have all these new ideas. It inspired me to write Horse Girl with Baena [Brie], so that was a cool thing that was happening simultaneously. Getting to read all the different drafts of this script and see how you guys were honing in on the characters and sharpening them, and seeing how much care you took in creating these characters because you’re an actor. I don’t think I really gave you notes, but I think I got to give some feedback. It was very exciting when one day, you just turned to me in our living room, and you were like, “Maybe you should play Michelle.”
FRANCO: I always wanted you to play Michelle, but there was one iteration of the movie, where I was going to play one of the characters.
BRIE: Before you decided to direct it, you were writing it. You were going to act in it, but you were going to play another character or something. It was like, “Would it be weird if we’re in the same movie, and I’m playing another guy’s wife…”
FRANCO: I would’ve played your brother-in-law. Once I decided not to play the role, then obviously, you were the first choice for Michelle.
BRIE: Did you ever offer the role to anyone else? I was awake in bed last night, in the middle of the night, being like, “Did he offer this role to Kristen Bell or something, before he decided I should do it?”
FRANCO: No way.
BRIE: I remember feeling so excited and honored when you asked me to play the part. More than anything, I wanted to be with you for your first experience directing. Everything aside, obviously, the script was amazing. I think Michelle is maybe the best character. Objectively.
FRANCO: Michelle is really off on her own island for the second half of the film and gets to bring some much-needed levity to the project when things start to get dark.
BRIE: But not too much. You really wanted to keep it very grounded.
FRANCO: Speaking of, there’s a sequence in the film where your character is on drugs.
BRIE: On Molly.
FRANCO: Do you want to talk about how you prepared for that?
BRIE: Well, for the first half of the movie, she’s kind of the uptight wife and there’s a very sexy sort of love triangle happening with the other characters. She doesn’t want to party with everyone on the first night. The next night when there’s a lot of heavy shit going down, she’s on this drug. It’s a really fun aspect of her character.
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