Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The new film "I Smile Back" features actress Sarah Silverman taking on a role that is a dramatic departure from her usual, comic turns.
She plays Laney Brooks, a suburban mom with two kids. On the surface, Laney's got it all: big beautiful house, cute kids, successful husband.
But behind closed doors, she is utterly falling apart. She drinks, she does drugs, she sleeps around and she's incredibly reckless.
The film is based on the novel of the same name, and Silverman does share a few things with the central character, as the actress has struggled with depression throughout her life.
"It was really hard to shake," said Silverman about playing Laney. "I had told myself that... we'd joke around and be fun [between takes] and that probably is the case for old salts who have gotten their 10,000 hours in of dramatic acting in..."
But it wasn't for Silverman.
"It's very hard for me to access my emotions. It took a lot of digging. They were very tightly packed and very compartmentalized. And so once I had access to them they were just on my lap between scenes, so I wasn't the life of the party. I was just sitting there with this hand full of stuff and I felt like a toddler that was acting out that didn't know what to do with her emotions..."
"It wasn't fun, but I'm so glad I didn't know that because... I would've tried to get out of it and I wouldn't have had this experience that has really been life changing and exhilarating."
The film is in theaters Friday.
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of the post.