[Editor’s note: The following interview contains some spoilers for “Another Simple Favor.”]
No one has ever seen Paul Feig — not even on an airplane — in anything less than formalwear, whether a three-piece suit or a dandyish necktie or pinstripes, sometimes cutting a classy silhouette with a martini in hand. The filmmaker and head of Feigco Entertainment also has his own Artingstall’s London dry gin brand, so of course it made sense to meet up with the writer/director and his “Another Simple Favor” star Elizabeth Perkins for drinks at Columbus Circle’s Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York.
Feig’s sequel “Another Simple Favor,” now streaming on Prime Video, is the follow-up to his 2018 box-office hit about neighboring mothers on edge (Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick) whose suburban ennui drives them to murder and mayhem. The latest film flings us to Italy’s island of Capri, with Emily (Lively) out from behind bars for the alleged murder of her twin sister and now marrying into Italian mafia royalty, and she’s asked true-crime podcaster Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) to be her maid of honor.
It’s a fun and frothy affair that also introduces a few new characters into the mix (like Elena Sofia Ricci as Emily’s imperious mother-in-law-to-be) and reacquaints us with some old ones (Henry Golding as Emily’s bitter, hard-drinking ex-husband). And one character is a bit of both, as the great comedic chameleon Elizabeth Perkins steps in to take over as Emily’s memory-impaired and permanently soused mother, Margaret, after Jean Smart passed on the sequel due to scheduling issues.
Perkins steals the scene in “Another Simple Favor” alongside her co-star Allison Janney, playing Emily’s aunt Linda, who has schemes of her own and also has to keep Margaret in check and on an even keel and, at times, literally walking straight. It’s disappointing this film is heading straight to streaming, as the original grossed more than $97 million worldwide. Lively, meanwhile, is a headline-grabbing star for reasons good and bad, thanks not only to the success of “It Ends with Us” last year but also to her ongoing litigious feud with that film’s director, Justin Baldoni. Meanwhile, Lively’s hair, as in “It Ends With Us,” is a special effect of its own. Needless to say, theatrical earnings were left on the table here.
Plus, the press has mounted rumors of a supposed feud between Kendrick and Lively that director Feig has vehemently denied. These are not the reasons to see the movie, of course, but they’re all attention-getting factors regardless, ripped from the pagebook of dishy Hollywood classics of supposed offscreen drama that here would’ve likely brought new audiences to theaters. This time, they’ll just have to tune in from home to check in on the latest conniving (and eventually truth-serum-laced) days and ways of two characters born from what’s become a 21st-century cult favorite.
IndieWire spoke to Feig and Perkins about their new film, those rumors, while lingering into discussions of the great ’70s movies they love, and a little bit about Feig’s upcoming thriller “The Housemaid.” That film will mark his return to theaters after three consecutive direct-to-streaming offerings (including “The School for Good and Evil” and “Jackpot!”) since COVID.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.
IndieWire: Elizabeth, you’re always playing boozy characters, whether in “Weeds” or “Sharp Objects.” You were the draw for me to see this movie! Why do people keep coming to you for this kind of part?
Elizabeth Perkins: Well, I come from a long line of heavy drinkers, so I’ve got it in my bones. I don’t know, I think it started on the show “Weeds.” My character was consistently drunk. So people saw me do that, and thought, “We know she can play a drinker really well.” My drama teacher in college said that the key to playing drunk is to act like you’re not drunk, so you play against it, like, “I really am sober.” [Slurs words.] That’s what everyone who’s drunk does: They try to convince you that they’re not.
There’s a quote from your character on “Weeds” that’s one of my favorites, and you’re holding a martini: “I don’t vomit from drinking — I vomit when I think about my life.”
Perkins: Oh, I love that line. That whole scene. I had so much fun on “Weeds.” Actually, Paul worked on that.
Paul Feig: That’s where we met. I directed three episodes.
Perkins: They actually were talking about doing a remake of it, and I was sort of like, I don’t know what you would replace marijuana with. I thought maybe mushrooms.
Feig: When they first announced “Breaking Bad,” I thought, “that’s ‘Weeds!’ They just took ‘Weeds’ and made it meth.”
Perkins: Actually, Mike White, who’s of “White Lotus” fame now, I’ve known him for years, wrote a play — god, it’s got to be like the early ’90s — called “Pot Mom.” It was sort of making the rounds of small L.A. theaters, and it starred Laurie Metcalf before she did “Roseanne.” So when I got the script for “Weeds,” I was like, “Isn’t this Mike White’s play?”
Feig: Everything is inspired by everything.
Elizabeth, you were also stepping into the shoes of Jean Smart. Is that surreal somehow?
Perkins: Paul was like, “Make it your own. Feel free to make it your own.” But the one throughline was the wig. Paul, was that something you gave to Jean, or was it in the script?
Feig: I think it was in the script, yeah. She wears these terrible wigs.
Perkins: And then it kind of moves and doesn’t stay on her head. But if you have to follow someone, you follow the queen. I mean, I’ve always been just in love with Jean Smart. She just makes the boldest choices, and she can get away with it, because she’s so committed all the time.
The wig is like one of Celia Hodes’ cancer wigs on “Weeds.”
Perkins: It reminded me [of that]. When they first put it on, I was like, “Can we make it not quite like…” The first one was really stiff, so we tried to loosen it up a bit. I hated that Celia Hodes cancer wig so much. She wouldn’t let me change it, [“Weeds” creator] Jenji Kohan. I was like, “Can we just change it? Why would she just have this really ugly wig?” She’s Celia. She’s way too vain. Anyway, not judging.
Paul, you’ve long had an aversion to making sequels and, of course, have a number of films like “Bridesmaids” where people are always asking, “Where’s the sequel?” Why did you break your no-sequel rule this time?
Feig: Just the timing just felt right. It was during the pandemic. The first movie really took off being on streaming, and then when it went to Netflix, a year or two later, it went through the roof, but we had already been talking about it then at that point. And I love these characters. I love Blake and Anna. I really, really love them. It was fun doing the first movie, and I thought, yeah, why not? There’s more to explore with them. It just felt like we could get away with it. But then it was terrifying, because it was like, we’ve got to make it really good, because it’s one of my favorite movies I’ve done, it’s the first one. So I was like, if you make something not as good, it’s going to back-poison the original one.
Perkins: I personally love seeing these two women together. Blake and Anna together, especially when you just see them standing next to each other… I mean, Blake is so, “Hi, I’m a giant goddess,” and Anna’s like a little mouse driving a race car. [Also] I think I just spit across the table.
Feig: I can think of worse things.
It’s fine. “Elizabeth Perkins just spit on me.” I’ll take it. It’s like Faye Dunaway’s gay assistant she supposedly threw a salad at. I’d be grateful to have that salad thrown at me.
Perkins: I want to know what precipitated the throw. I want to hear the lead-up.
I’m sure someone just told her no.
Perkins: Or it could be like — oh, what’s that moment with Sharon Stone, that great movie. This is such a long story, I’m not going to go into it, but she goes, “My Diet Coke is warm, mother.” Her mother is her assistant running around.
Feig: [Faye Dunaway] auditioned for a show, a pilot that I was directing back in 2005, and she came in, and she didn’t want to read with the casting director. In fairness, sometimes that’s always like a thing. Actually, it wasn’t even the casting director. It was somebody who was just reading robotically. And so I was like, “Can I read with you?” So I had to read with her. I acted with Faye Dunaway. She’s done all the seminal movies. Just blew my mind.
Perkins: She was on the pulse of that great ’70s resurgence.
Feig: Totally. “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Network.”
Perkins: And “Chinatown.” And I’m sorry, but “Mommie Dearest.” That was the ’80s though, right?
It’s funny they had Faye Dunaway auditioning in 2005. I’m sure she loved that.
Feig: Oh, I know. I heard a few phone calls of her with the people at the front desk. She could have thrown a salad through the phone.
Paul, why set and shoot the movie in Capri?
Feig: I know it like the back of my hand. I’ve been going there for 30 years, my wife and I every year. Hardly any movies have been shot there. The one with Clark Gable and Sophia Loren, I think. [“It Started in Naples.”] It’s just hard to get around. The logistics are horrendous there. But I got inspired by Giovanna Battaglia, who’s the fashion editor of French Vogue, got married to some rich hedge fund guy there. They took over the whole island. And I was like, “I want to recreate that wedding.” And so we did. And actually, where Blake gets married in our movie, that’s where Giovanna got married. We hired the same people to build that deck out.
Elizabeth, what about Allison Janney? Had you crossed paths before as co-stars?
Perkins: Well, as actors, we’ve never crossed paths. We’ve been friends for like 25 years. We just have the same circle of friends. I see her all the time. And she had a small part in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street.” She played a lady asking about a toy at the department store where I worked, but we didn’t work together, and it’s been like this for years and years and years. Like, oh, she’s doing that and I’m over here and she’s doing that. I adore her. To me, she’s just iconic, and she’s so super talented.
When I saw you were both in this movie together, I knew you’d be playing someone insane.
Perkins: We didn’t even talk about the relationship or what either one of us were going to do. We just kind of showed up, and she became the overbearing older sister, and I was kind of like the quiet one. I was just confused.
Feig: Tell the story about the lemon.
Perkins: When we walk into the wedding, we’re doing all these takes playing around. Right before he yelled, “Action,” Allison handed me a lemon. She goes, “Hold that.” And so I’m holding this lemon, and we start walking in, and she grabs the lemon out of my hand. She goes, “Put that back.” And that’s what it’s like to work with Allison. To throw me off. The weirder, the better.
There’s this “twincest” moment in the movie where Blake Lively’s character Emily is basically molested by her other twin sister, Charity. How did you pull that off, with either a body double or post-production effects?
Feig: It was a face replacement. We found this great body double for her who could act, and so we acted against her, but it was fun watching Blake. Blake had to work with her to say, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that.” And we had to find somebody who was in Italy. Italians speak with their hands, and so we had to make sure that she moved like Blake, and the woman was a dancer also. She was an actress and a dancer, and so she was great. And so, we just really did face replacement for that bed scene.
Perkins: The differences between the twins are so subtle. That’s so definitive. She committed to those subtleties.
Feig: She’s a very underappreciated actor.
She’s appreciated as a star but not as an actor, and those two aren’t always inextricable.
Feig: This character comes out, and you’re like, wow, that’s so not Blake. Blake’s just this earth mother, kind of lovely, the best mom I’ve ever met.
Perkins: Doting around four kids, literally with her mom.
Feig: She doesn’t dump them with the nanny. The press keeps wanting to create this feud with Anna and Blake. It does not exist. It does not exist. It makes me crazy. That is pure misogyny. Pure misogyny. Two women together, they’re going to fight. It’s like, are you kidding me? And I get in trouble when I try to knock those rumors down online, because people are like, “Oh, don’t get involved.” It’s like, I want to get involved, because I see these people. They’re my friends. And I literally will come from something where they’re having fun and joking, getting along, and then someone comes out, “Oh, they’re fighting.” And it’s like, I think I know better than you guys.
Perkins: No one would ever say that about two guys on a show. No one would ever say, “Ryan and Josh Brolin hate each other.”
Feig: Even if they are, they won’t say anything. They’d be fighting in the street like, oh, they’re just having fun. I’ve been in the middle of those things. It’s so uncomfortable.
Paul, including “Another Simple Favor,” your last three movies have gone straight to streaming. Are you excited to get back to theaters with “The Housemaid,” and was the streaming movie wrought out of the pandemic?
Feig: It was definitely COVID. It was also who was buying the movies that I wanted to do. And the movies, the last few movies I did, the streamers wanted them, and studios didn’t necessarily want them.
Perkins: Watching a movie with an audience is just so different. Whenever you can pause the movie to go make a snack, you’re gone.
Feig: Or just get up and go make a snack and leave the movie running. “I didn’t understand that part.” It’s like, because you were in fucking the kitchen.
Not to encourage second-screen viewing, but one thing working in this film’s favor is that if people don’t remember or didn’t see the original, they can look up the plot on their phone.
Feig: That is the joy of streaming. It’s so just, “I heard about that. I’m going to watch it now,” versus get in your car…
Perkins: My husband, who’s a cinematographer, when we’re watching a movie, we draw the shades, we turn off the phones. He’s a real stickler about that. And we have the largest TV that you can ever have in your home, and we try to turn it into an event, because that’s what I miss about it. That’s why I love to go to live theater again. You make a plan. You buy the ticket, you go, it becomes something you’re invested in. So it’s more of an experience.
Feig: The scary thing about streaming is it’s very easy to turn it off after a minute. If you go to a theater, for at least 10 minutes, you hung in.
Perkins: I have walked out of a couple movies. I walked out of “Blue Velvet.” At the time, I don’t know if it was the mood I was in that day, but I was like, come on. I was with a friend of mine, and he was enjoying it […] then I went and saw it again. I think it was maybe 10 years later, and maybe I was hormonal. Maybe I was in a mood that day, because it’s actually a brilliant film. I was not ready for it.
David Lynch’s death early this year was a devastating one. Normally, when a celebrity dies, I’m sad, but go, “OK.” It was different this time.
Perkins: For me, it was Norman Jewison. The whole ’70s. I was born in 1960, so in 1978 when these great movies were happening, I was 18 years old. The actresses I grew up with, the filmmakers I grew up with.
Feig: Some of the ’70s movies are so good. That was the last decade when movies were made basically for adults.
Perkins: The first film I ever saw, other than “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” was “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I saw it at the Waverly. I must have been, I don’t know, 13.
Feig: Were you high?
Perkins: No, my dad wanted to see it, so he took me, being a good dad. My parents were divorced. He was trying to be a good dad: “I know! I’ll take her to the movies for the movie I want to see.”
Feig: My parents took me to see it, but everybody in the theater was high except my parents.
Perkins: At the end, I was like, “I want to be in the movies.”
Feig: I was so wigged out by that movie; it freaked me. I love spaceships. So I was like, “Oh, cool.” And then by the end, I was like, “Oh, that’s a giant baby. What’s happening?” When I was in film school, they were showing it on the big screen at USC Film School. The Norris Theatre was fantastic, and I went to see it, and I watched it twice in a row. I couldn’t believe how great it was.
Perkins: That happened to me with “McCabe and Mrs. Miller.” My favorite film of all time. It was a moment. I sat there twice, and I got popcorn, and came back. When I look at where the industry is right now, and all these great filmmakers going — because it all happened so fast — streaming and this and that, and theaters shutting down and nobody really knowing what’s going on… I’m hoping for that great indie renaissance that happened in the ’70s. It happened in the ’90s. It’s what we need right now.
A lot of movies lately tell you how to feel, in a way they didn’t necessarily in the 1970s.
Feig: That’s what we always call studio notes. You go like, OK, “I see the studio note. People aren’t getting this, and I’m susceptible to it too.” I test-screen the hell out of my movies just to make sure the majority of the audience gets it. But sometimes you go like, we have to explain this thing, because they’re not getting it, even though the smartest people in the audience get it. But when you’re making a commercial film, it’s kind of got to hit a wide swath of the audience.
Perkins: Say you’re going to make a film for the 15-year-old audience, but then you also have this other audience, which is a larger demographic and has more money. Why aren’t we making films for adult audiences? I don’t mean adult films, I mean for adult audiences. Maybe we could go see “Coming Home,” or you could go see “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Feig: That’s where I do think streaming is filling a void, because they can be a little more niche that way. So that’s the good thing. [The studios are] still a little scared.
Perkins: But I wish that the studios wouldn’t be scared, because those movies then become classics.
Paul, what can you say about your next movie, “The Housemaid” with Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney? You’re adapting a novel I still haven’t read.
Feig: It’s a very, very dark thriller, but it’s still very fun. Let’s just say that. The problem when you’re a filmmaker and you do a book adaptation, and people always go like, “Oh, I got to read the book first.” It’s like, “No, don’t read the book.” I know, but if you haven’t read the book, they’re like, “See the movie first and then read the book.”
Perkins: I love that Paul always makes films that to me feel very female-centric and features women in the protagonist’s roles. I really appreciate them.
They’ve certainly never been male-centric as far as I can recall.
Feig: No, I have no interest in that. I think guys are doing OK.
“Another Simple Favor” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
