Alison Brie and Dave Franco talk about their new movie and visiting Philly for the first time
"Neither one of us has ever been to Philadelphia. It’s crazy. We’re excited," said Franco.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco will be in Philadelphia Friday to discuss their new Prime Video film Somebody I Used to Know and try some of our top restaurants.
Brie (GLOW, Mad Men) stars in the film, which she and her husband Franco (Now You See Me, The Disaster Artist) co-wrote. Franco directed. The Inquirer caught up with the couple last week via a Zoom call from Austin, Texas.
Q: Are you ready for Philadelphia two days before the Eagles play in the Super Bowl?
Franco: Neither one of us has ever been to Philadelphia. It’s crazy. We’re excited. One of our closest friends travels the world and tries the best food in every city. He said Philadelphia has incredible food — so he’s going to hook us up.
Q: What did you learn as a new director?
Franco: Nobody warned me about pre-production. The whole movie feels like it’s going to fall apart every single day. But if you do all your homework during pre-production and you get everything in place it makes the shoot itself a dream.
Q: Does working together on a film affect your marriage?
Franco: I don’t think we ever got sick of each other.
Brie: We didn’t get sick of each other.
Franco: That’s a true accomplishment, because making a movie is insane. We had no time apart.
Brie: Being on set together is where we thrive. It’s the best part of the process. The writing process is interesting and I’m very new to that, so the tricky part is setting boundaries at home — trying to have some structure to our day when we’re writing and when we’re not writing.
Franco: Whenever I get excited about an idea I can’t stop. I don’t know how to stop, and I have to keep working at all hours of the day. And she’s not like that.
Brie: I do know how to stop.
Q: How did it work writing a romcom as a couple?
Brie: For something like this, it worked to our advantage having both the male and female perspective, especially when we were workshopping dialogue. We act as a great barometer for each other.
Q: There are elements in the film of classic screwball comedy romcoms and Hallmark romcoms. What was your inspiration?
Brie: Some of our favorite romcoms from the 80s and 90s.
Franco: And using what we know and love about the genre to lead the audience down a certain path and the pull the rug out from under them every step of the way. We’re really trying to subvert these tropes and make it unique in the execution and the characters and the music choices — where you are feeling conflicted and you don’t know where this is going to go.