Known best for gracing and enhancing a multiplicity of episodic comedies with her patented improvisational comedy stylings, not to mention her work as a writer for SNL, JILLIAN BELL has also had more than her fair share of big-screen appearances with everything from being an unnamed girl at a bridal shower in “Bridesmaids” to a more serious turn in “The Master” and the sizzling neo-noir “Inherent Vice”. But it’s that gift of comedy that is on full display right now with not one, but two, big-screen films in which Jillian is no longer “an unnamed girl”, but rather, the lead. The first, Lynn Shelton’s “Sword of Trust.” The second, “Brittany Runs A Marathon.” And right around the corner is her role in “Bill & Ted Face the Music”, the long-awaited sequel in the “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures” franchise starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. Jillian Bell is on a roll!
Shelton’s “Sword of Trust” is custom-made for an actor/comedienne like Bell as Shelton prepared only what she calls a “scriptment” and leaves it to the actors to essentially create dialogue and build story in a natural manner within the given situation as they feed off of one another. Describing Shelton as “brilliant” and “ridiculously talented”, Bell co-stars with Michaela Watkins, Marc Maron, and Jon Bass. She is a standout creating the character of Cynthia, a woman left a potentially historically impactful Civil War artifact, and then fueling the funny thanks to not only interactions with her co-stars but her physical comedic talents in this situational improv work. The result is comedy gold.
With Paul Downs Colaizzo’s “Brittany Runs A Marathon”, the story is heavily scripted as it is based on the real-life story of Colaizzo’s best friend, also named Brittany, with Bell playing the title role of “Brittany Forgler”. Motivational and inspirational, the film explores the journey of this overweight, somewhat of a loser woman on a road to self-improvement. And while a big part of that self-improvement is physical exercise through running, the bigger part of the journey is the internal one, the emotional one, as to how Brittany views herself and others. Filled with self-deprecating and rapier comedy, Bell again gets to play with Watkins in addition to Micah Stock, and most notably Utkarsh Ambudkar. The chemistry between Bell and Ambudkar is off the charts and the film leaves you wanting to see more of them. They are magic. Whereas “Sword of Trust” is situational in its comedy, “Brittany Runs A Marathon” relies on character and particularly the character of Brittany, giving Bell a chance to stretch her acting chops.
Enthusiastic, affable, engaging, and upbeat during our conversation, Jillian Bell is the opposite of the Brittany we see on film. Amy Schumer lookalike Bell is perfect at bringing the self-absorbed, wallowing in self-pity and misery Brittany to life. You don’t feel sorry for Brittany. In fact, you quickly get exasperated by her. The more weight she loses, the meaner she gets. The rudeness and disdain that Brittany has for everyone are extremely off-putting but Bell still finds a way to connect with the audience, to tap into something that is resonant, redemptive, and hopeful.
Speaking exclusively with JILLIAN BELL, we hit the high notes of both films, working with Michaela Watkins, playing a real-life person, and the pursuit for nuance . . .
I’m so excited to talk to you because you are on an incredible roll here. Not only with “Brittany Runs A Marathon”, but “Sword of Trust.”
Oh, thank you so much! Thank you! These are my first indies and they’re doing all right. [Shelton] is brilliant. Ridiculously talented.
And then to see you follow-up to that with “Brittany”, which I get the impression it’s not, it’s more scripted than anything of Lynn’s, but you’re also re-teamed with Michaela Watkins again.
Honestly, I’m going to say it here. I would do anything with Michaela Watkins. She is one of my most favorite actresses and most favorite people on this planet. She just shines in whatever she does. She just is such a strong actress. There were scenes in this movie where I had to remember to say my lines when I was off camera because I was just staring at her and the performances that she gave. I’m still blown away.
The two of you together are such, your chemistry is incredible. Seeing you in these two films with two different dynamics, the way you feed off of each other, particularly here in “Brittany” because we really get to see this great arc of the two characters of Catherine and Brittany becoming friends, is fabulous.
Thank you! They’re both in these transitional places in their lives, going through totally different things. That’s kind of the point of the movie is that every person has their version of this marathon, right? It’s very interesting and it’s so cool because I think people will be able to come to this movie and see that for them, it could be a difficult phone call to a parent, or breaking off a relationship that doesn’t quite feed them anymore. There’s a lot of themes in this movie that I think people will resonate with. I’m hoping.
I think that’s it right there, in a nutshell, the commonality, the resonance of this film with a very large demographic. Something that I really love that you do very well is while Brittany is really annoying as can be at times with her cynicism towards other people and closing herself off, you strike this incredible balance where humor is more or less being used as a shield and you walk a very fine line in finding that balance, and you do it so succinctly.
Thank you so much. What a great compliment! Thank you. I think it’s very important because normally in films we see a lot of people just being straightforward hateful to people or hateful to themselves. There’s not a sense of just how many layers we all have. This film to me, it grabbed me right from the first read and I was sort of like, “I know who this person is. I’ve been different parts of, different versions of this person throughout my life.” There’s just some really raw moments in there that are hard to take in. Then with that we also have in the next scene, a bit of levity. I think Paul [Colaizzo] is just a really brilliant writer and director, but it’s specifically with his writing. He has this ability to make you really feel something for a character and then in the next moment go, “Wait, am I on her side? I didn’t like what she just did there, but it’s a part of real life.” You know? Sometimes even with our own families we’ll have a blow-up and they love us still because they know that’s not who we really are at the heart of it. But that’s what happens with real human stories. I think Paul has really put forth a truly beautiful human story.
I completely agree because we get Micah Stock’s character of Seth in there. We really get this eclectic mix of people from different demographics, different lifestyles, different age groups.
Right. Micah was sort of loosely based on Paul. That’s who he relates to in the film and kind of who he was for the real Brittany. It was based on Brittany O’Neil who is one of Paul’s best friends. They’ve known each other forever and he wrote this as sort of a love letter to her. He relates most to that character. We have a bit of everybody in there, and really what it’s like to live in New York City.
I’m curious, because this is the first time that you’ve played a real living, breathing, person, does that put any kind of onus or trepidation on you and in you in tackling this performance because this is a real person who’s going to be watching this and seeing how you interpret her?
I hear what you’re saying. I definitely – I was very anxious. I wanted to make sure that the real-life Brittany felt like I was doing the parts of the story that are inspired by her real life, I was hoping that she would feel I was doing it justice. It’s very difficult when you’re playing someone who’s really experienced some of these real-life moments and these emotions. It’s a very vulnerable thing to allow someone else to take your life and try to portray that in a film. She was nothing but gracious and lovely and so supportive. We just wanted to make sure that throughout, she was happy with everything. I know Paul leaned on her and showed her drafts before we even started shooting, and she gave the thumbs up. Then after she saw the movie, I was like, “What did you think?” She was very pleased it seemed. To me, that’s all I needed to hear after the movie was done. That she was happy with it.
Absolutely. In addition to going on Brittany’s emotional journey, and in discovering who she is from inside, she goes on a very physical journey. We see this play out. You’re running. We see the posture, your whole body, transforms in this film.
It was very important to me, more so just to connect me to the real Brittany and to even just the lines on the page, to do the actual transformation, the physical transformation she did. I lost 40 pounds for the movie. They didn’t ask me to do that, but I wanted to experience it. I thought it would inform me of some of the more emotional moments of the film and what she was feeling. Certain things I would say, “Why is she struggling in this moment?” Because I’ve never really done the moment where she’s had, she’s plateaued, you know? She’s pushing herself so hard and then you can’t make it to the next step. All of that was super informative and helpful in fully creating this character.
Was there ever a moment while you were actually running and subjecting yourself to physical endurance that you wanted to just throw yourself down in the ground and say, “No more, no more”?
Oh, 100%!! When I was running back in LA near my home, like around my neighborhood, I had a moment where I called my friend Lindsay and I said, “I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck.” I’m repeating lines from the movie, but I was like, “I’m stuck. I feel like I can’t move forward. Can you just come over and be with me?” She came over and she meal prepped me. She made me all these meals and encouraged me. She does female bodybuilding competitions. She’s amazing. She is such a strong person all around as a human being. She’s so beautiful and wonderful and it was really nice. I had a lot of support from my family and friends during the whole process. I couldn’t have done it without them. That was very telling when I was reading the script, and Brittany didn’t have a strong base around her besides Lil Rel [Howery]’s character, in how she was pushing away people who wanted to help her and letting in people who wanted to take her down. That’s a big theme that we explore in the movie.
Another theme that you explore in here is as Brittany finds herself, and gets her own self-esteem, she also falls in love. This chemistry, watching you and Utkarsh together on screen, is magical. It is lightning in a bottle.
Oh, that’s so wonderful to hear! I love Utkarsh. He’s so talented. He told me recently that one career he really respects and he would love to follow along the footsteps of is Hugh Grant. I think that’s so cool. He such a good romantic lead. I mean, he’s a great lead, in general, but also, we had such great chemistry and he’s just a joy to be around.
The two of you just leap off the page and the whole movie, the minute you meet, you feel the sparks. You feel the sparks between the two of you. That was for me, that was one of my favorite elements of this film, was the emotional growth. You really, you brought that home from beginning to end, Jillian.
Oh, I love that! I really appreciate you saying that. That means so much.
You are such a comedy veteran. You’ve done everything. You go in and out of roles. You’re very chameleonic. You’ve got your background as a comedy writer, writing for SNL. You’re jumping into”Bill and Ted”. What is it about a role that speaks to you, because of your own inherent comedy abilities? Your standard has to be, I would think, higher than people without a comedy background. What is it that speaks to you, that draws you in?
I would say what draws me in is when something is nuanced, when it’s a little different than the things that you see over and over again. I feel like it sort of happens in this town where you do one thing and then people send you a bunch of scripts, so that one thing that you’ve done, it’s just a different name. I don’t blame them. They’ve seen you do that one thing, and it’s wonderful that someone thinks you did an okay job at it. I think for me, I’m always just trying to see what’s something different to play. I’ve gotten a chance to do a lot of different fun roles in my career thus far. When someone sees you as the girlfriend, I’m like, “Well, what about the pimp role in this Christmas party?” They’re like, “Let’s do it!” I’m always just looking for something that seems out of the box and different. If it’s written for a man, I think, I don’t want to be mean to men, but I think I’ve taken three parts away from men. They’re fun parts, so getting to play something I’ve never done before. I would desperately love to play a witch or someone that saves the world. You know, just making it interesting. Hopefully, I get to keep making interesting choices, because I’ve been so lucky and fortunate so far to do so.
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 07/25/2019
