In the new rom-com "Sleeping With Other People," Lainey and Jake (played by Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis) attempt to squash their mutual attraction to forge a platonic friendship.
Not the easiest thing to do for two people reunited by happenstance 12 years after a one-night stand.
“Sleeping with Other People” is produced by the company Gloria Sanchez -- that’s the women’s division of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s company, Gary Sanchez.
Producer Jessica Elbaum is heading this enterprise. She wants to offer an answer to the continuing dilemma of gender inequity in Hollywood, and “Sleeping with Other People,” directed and written by Leslye Headland, is their first release.
When the movie premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival we caught up with Headland and Elbaum between screenings.
Interview Highlights:
Many of the films screened at Sundance this year, especially the comedies, have explicit sexual themes. Is it something in the water?
Leslye Headland: I think that in comedy, sex has become more and more a subject as opposed to just a punchline. At least for me, it's becoming more and more of a part of a conversation. Especially for women filmmakers like Lena Dunham and Desiree Akhavan, they're talking about being on the spectrum, they're talking about what it's like to be messy. "Sleeping With Other People" is very different because it's about falling in love in your 30s when you actually already have all of your emotional baggage and your coupons for mistakes have been used up...but I do think for female filmmakers and writers this is a little bit of a domain that we're very interested in exploring. Not that male filmmakers don't, but I think it's something we feel like we would like to have a say on exactly what our experiences have been.
This film also has a very particular view of the difference between sex and nudity
LH: Yes. Absolutely. Look, I think there are incredible sex scenes that have nudity in them that are very astounding. There are definitely sex scenes that have that. For me, nudity takes me a little out of the story and when I see an actor nude I think about the actor just very briefly. Even if it's just for a split second, I think, "oh, the actor is naked." That's a blip I never want my audience to have. I think in order to believe they're falling in love, you absolutely have to believe that Jake and Lainey are real people and not played by actors.
Both this movie and "Bachelorette" are very funny movies and yet they're also about a very personal kind of pain that people are trying to work out. Do you think they have that unifying theme?
Jessica Elbaum: For me, every time that I've read something that Leslye's written, and we've now worked together three times, I have this chair that I read everything that she writes and it's a weird ritual that I have. I see it so clearly because I also related to it and she just writes these real deep characters.
When John Cooper, the director of Sundance, introduced you he talked about how nice but rare it was for women directors to come back to the festival. You are here, but you're also here with Gloria Sanchez Productions, the spinoff of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell's company Gary Sanchez. Talk a little bit about Gloria Sanchez and what that means to women filmmakers.
LH: I can speak to my personal experience, and I even said this to Jess before leaving the screening, so many girls need you, specifically. Why not just make movies by filmmakers, why have a specific brand and a place for those women to come and a development plan that specifically is geared toward that? Look at the numbers, look at the percentages. Look at how dire it is. We need help. It is not easy out there, it is just not easy to go in there and pitch something, especially something that is sexually explicit, something that is pushing the envelope that's starting a conversation to get top-line actors to go there and to trust the script. Jess is the one that's really talking to their people and talking with them on a regular basis. I'm in prep and doing all of my putting out fires and herding cats and it's like we absolutely need that extra level of support. People will look at it, and not just from a brand level, but look there's a place that I can go to send my material...Jess has produced my films and they are my films, you're not looking at something that I was told to recut, you're not looking at something that I was forced to compromise on. Those are my movies. I may not technically have final cut, because women are not allowed to direct films, but she has protected me to literally that level
JE: For me when I started it of course I felt very strongly, the facts and figures you cannot fight them. I did have a moment like, wow are people going to have a reaction like it's fine everybody's making stuff women are working, but no actually they're not. I can't tell you how many times I've pitched and they're like, "We love it, but we have our female comedy or we have our female show." So nothing's changing, nobody's doing anything to change it. Also to be clear, by creating a place for female writers, directors, filmmakers, but also I want to make stuff with strong female characters, so if a man would write that and come to me and it had a great female character, I'd want to make it because I can't tell you how many actresses we talk to that are just so sick of playing the best friend or the sister. This company was started out of pure frustration just to be very clear.