The director and writer/star of ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ re-team for the irreverent comedy ‘The Five-Year Engagement.’ Beginning where most romantic comedies end, the new film from director Nicholas Stoller, producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Rodney Rothman (Get Him to the Greek) looks at what happens when an engaged couple, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, keeps getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle. ‘The Five-Year Engagement’ co-stars Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Jacki Weaver, Brian Posehn, and Mindy Kaling. Look out for the film in cinemas April 27th in the US and June 22nd in the UK.

How did you get involved with ‘The Five-Year Engagement’? You got to showcase your British accent.

Alison Brie: Oh yeah! They called me up and asked me if I wanted to do a table read for the project. Then I got a frantic call a day later from my agent saying, “Wait a minute! Can you do a British accent? Because they need you to do one for the read.” Luckily, the amazing thing was that for some reason, two months prior to getting this phone call to get this table read, I had bought a British accent CD and had been working on it in my car on the way to ‘Community’ everyday.…randomly! I was sort of like, “A British accent would be a good thing to have up my sleeve?” It was totally random (laughs)! So when they called me I was like, “As a matter of fact….I can.”

I can imagine Suzie being a whole lot of fun to play? She’s a bit all over the place.

Alison Brie: Suzie is an amazing character, as soon as I read the script I was really excited because usually I play much more buttoned-up characters, very anal and retentive types, type A personalities. Suzie is totally the opposite. She’s scatterbrained, she’s all over the place, she’s a bit of a f*ck up (laughs). She wears interesting clothing, she’s got an amazing fashion sense about her. She’s just spunky, I was immediately like, “Oh, I like this girl, I would hang out with her.” (Laughs) Which was cool because it’s nice playing the character who doesn’t have it all together, and actually doesn’t really care if they do or they don’t.

Your Suzie character and Chris Pratt’s Alex have some great scenes together, they’re quite a contrast to Violet and Tom?

Alison Brie: You see Tom and Violet striving for perfection constantly, so in their heads they’re always trying to plan it out, be a step ahead of it, it’s not good enough, over analysing it. Then you see these other people who could not care less if it’s perfect or not, life is a series of mistakes and it’s just gonna happen, to them. You either go with them or you kind of fall behind. They end up continuing to go with them and it works out for them in a good way….also because they have really positive attitudes, they’re just like, “Well whoops, I guess I’m gonna have to deal with that now.” And that’s probably the reaction to them having kids (laughs).

Suzie and Violet’s sisterly relationship develops through the movie….

Alison Brie: Suzie really looks up to Violet, at the beginning of the movie too, in her tearful speech at their first engagement party, she’s super supportive of their wedding. She’s like, “You guys are such an amazing couple.” You feel that everyone’s fully onboard for this wedding. Two great people, it makes a whole lot of sense. And then it just drags on and on. Once Suzie has matured and is kind of now, at the end of the movie, looking at it through the eyes of an adult who has two kids, has been married for five years….she’s really able to give her sister some advice and be like, “Just do it!”

FlicksandBits.com

To ‘make it’ in Hollywood, young actors used to kick-start their careers in television, sharpening their skills and earning notoriety (and maybe an Emmy or two) before frolicking in the greener grass of feature films. Today, with the growing budgets, themes, and imaginations of series TV, episodes have almost become mini movies, inspiring a newer generation of stars to not only gravitate toward television, but maybe even stay there — even as their careers take off. Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs epitomize this trend, two actresses who earned their comedy stripes on NBC’s Community, a place where dreamatoriums come to life and paintball wars are aplenty. Meanwhile, the pair is also on the Tribeca Film Festival circuit this year — Jacobs with the dark indie comedy Revenge for Jolly! and Brie with tonight’s Tribeca opener, the buzzy hit-in-waiting The Five-Year Engagement.

While both actresses studied theater in college — Jacobs at Juilliard and Brie at CalArts — they began their respective careers on opposite ends of the spectrum. Jacobs spent years working on small indie films and TV roles, while Brie supported herself doing regional theater in Ventura County, never thinking twice about TV. “In my sort of young, idealistic mind, I was just like, ‘Well, it’s either theater or film for me, and that will be that!’” Brie explained. That changed after booking a surprising first TV role on Disney’s Hannah Montana, sparking an epiphany for Brie. “I realized that I love acting, no matter what I’m doing,” she said. “And it was a great time for good news, because I got Mad Men right after that, and that led to Community. I couldn’t be happier.”

Like her Community co-star Joel McHale, who also hosts E!’s weekly celeb-culture rundown The Soup, Brie still juggles two roles today: uppity, picture-perfect housewife Trudy Campbell on AMC’s Mad Men, and doe-eyed schoolgirl Annie Edison on Community. “I got lucky, and it’s amazing to be able to work on both shows and have them be so different in tone,” she said. “Working on one of the best dramas and one of the best comedies on TV has certainly opened a lot of doors for me in terms of being able to show some range and not get totally boxed into one thing [for films],” she added. “I went to college and got my degree in acting, but because it was all theater, I really consider my first couple years on Mad Men as amazing training for working in television and for acting on-camera.”

For Jacobs, Community allowed her to showcase a side of her that no one had seen before. “I had never done comedy before,” she told Movieline, “and I was desperate to break into it because it gets really tiring when you’re always playing prostitutes and strippers and rape victims.” And like Brie, Jacobs doesn’t take the opportunity or the experience for granted. “I joined a new club in the world of comedy,” she said. “And the fact that [Community] has turned into this sort of thing totally unto itself and unlike any other show on TV has just been an added bonus of the whole experience.”

Yet where contemporaries (and fellow TFF ’12 stars) like Adam Brody and Olivia Wilde only a few years ago aggressively sprung from a cult darling like The O.C. into movie careers of mixed results, neither Brie nor Jacobs feels comfortable choosing between television and film. “I feel like the kind of role that I’m getting to play on TV, I don’t know how often those come along in films,” Jacobs said. “I feel like I’ve been very fortunate in that I feel constantly creatively challenged and pushed on my show, and I don’t know if that would be the case if I were asked to play the same variation of one character in movies. No actor wants to choose — they just want all of the options available to them all the time; we tend to be pretty greedy.”

Meanwhile, Brie sounded even more resolute about the small(er) screen.

“While I love film and want to continue to pursue it 100 percent, my home is TV,” she said. “My mom and dad are Mad Men and Community, and it honestly feels like working on mini-movies every day. “The original transition was quite easy, because the caliber of writing, directing, and acting and the nuance of the performances on Mad Men are like shooting a dramatic film. I can say the same thing about Community, with our amazing writers and the caliber of acting that we’re working with in a comedic respect.”

Moreover, the unique qualities and style of the single-camera comedy have given both a leg up in the film world. “I felt like I’ve been doing three years of comedy boot camp, and when the opportunity came to do The Five-Year Engagement, I felt very prepared and confident in my comedic skills because of the training that I got on Community,” Brie told Movieline. “I also just worked on a film called Get a Job, and my character is odd — sort of inappropriately sexual and just weird — so Dylan Kidd, the director, gave me a lot of freedom to have fun and play around and try to say the weirdest things that I could come up with. I know that he is a fan of Community as well, so I think that it’s the work that I’ve done prior on the show that gave him the confidence to trust me with that kind of improvisation and input.”

Although there is some improvisation on Community, Brie noted that “you don’t have all the time in the world to improv and come up with ideas [on TV]; you’re on a much tighter schedule in terms of shooting episodes in five days or seven days.” When it comes to film, especially in Five-Year, there was a bit more leeway. “Because we have a lot of scenes where it’s like engagement party speeches or shower speeches — a lot of speeches going on! — you have the luxury of extra time to collaborate,” she said. “At one point [director Nicholas] Stoller even e-mailed us prior to the scene and was like, ‘Hey, everyone just think of funny, inappropriate speeches; just think of weird stuff to do!’ because we had all day to play with it.”

As Britta Perry on Community, the closest that Jacobs has been to putting on the red light was belting “Roxanne” in a recent episode. However, her role in Revenge for Jolly! (premiering Saturday at Tribeca) has her playing — drum roll, please — yet another prostitute.

“Filming that movie was a total return to form for me — shooting in a crappy hotel in Nyack, N.Y., dressed as a prostitute; it was down and dirty filmmaking at its finest,” she said with a laugh. “And basically, the two leads are going on a killing spree, so I think there’s a high likelihood that I’m going to get shot in that film, or die in some way!” Also on the way this summer is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, led by Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. Jacobs described her role as “small and silly, playing a waitress high on ecstasy alongside T.J. Miller,” while also noting that “the nice thing so far is that I’ve been sort of able to balance between a bunch of different worlds: bigger movies, TV, and still smaller indie films as well.”

As for the future of TV and movies, and which is inevitably the dominant medium? “It’s kind of like what I think Joel [McHale] has said before: ‘It’s the best of times and it’s the worst of times of TV,’” Brie said. “There’s the lowest of the low in terms of reality TV, and then there’s also kind of some of the best of the best on television shows like Mad Men, Community, Breaking Bad and Girls — it feels like you’re watching movies!”

Movieline.com

With every project, Alison Brie reveals new facets of the talent that is quickly making her one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood.

On television, Brie is the naive and neurotic college student Annie in NBC’s Community. On AMC’s Mad Men, she plays prim and proper Trudy, wife to Pete Campbell. Now she has a meaty role in the new Nicholas Stoller-directed comedy, The Five-Year Engagement, in which she plays Emily Blunt’s sister. And because Blunt got to keep her British accent, it meant that Brie had to learn to speak with a believable English lilt. But she didn’t just have to master English inflections — she also had to get a grasp on the monstrously cute voice of Sesame Street’s Elmo for a scene with her on-screen daughter.

“The truth is for all the work that I put into this British accent, Nick Stoller has confirmed that the Elmo voice got me this job,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere in New York City last night. “I’d quickly watched a couple of YouTube videos about Elmo just to prep, and after the table read, Nick runs up and he was just like, ‘Gosh, have you always been able to do that Elmo voice?! How about that Elmo voice!’… It’s like a new special skill I didn’t know I have.”

As for Community, Brie hinted at some of the big storylines to come as the delayed third season draws to a close.

“The episode tonight, it’s almost entirely Annie and Abed in the Dreamatorium, so things get a little freaky,” she teased. “Just a lot of big stuff — a lot of epic stuff for the year. There was the big Troy and Abed pillow fort-blanket fort battle that happened, and there are sort of more unifying things for the group where they have to battle… Chang, maybe?”

Abed shows Annie the Dreamatorium’s higher function in this sneak peek clip from tonight’s all new episode of “Community”!

Alison Brie, familiar to fans of TV’s “Community” and “Mad Men,” has been asked to do a lot of things before as an actress, but never play British. And in “The Five-Year Engagement,” the request was a bit more specific than just play British: She had to be believable as Emily Blunt’s sister. So, to prepare, Brie immersed herself in Blunt, watching everything she’d done, listening to tapes of her speaking, following her around all day — stalking, basically. Anything to nail a part, right?

Did shadowing Emily so much to get the voice right ever get weird?
It looked like I was “Single White Female”-ing her a lot of the time. (laughs) If someone had taken a picture from across the room, it would’ve been weird — like her just laughing and talking, and me next to her just [staring intently], whispering what she was saying. But it didn’t get weird, no. Not with Emily. Sometimes when we’d all be out, she’d have me do it. “She does a great me!” I was like, “Great…”

Were there moments when you’d say something and she’d ask, “Do I really sound like that?”
No, no. I think she’d more correct me, like, “I don’t sound like that.”

You have a standout scene toasting the happy couple — and weeping uncontrollably. How much of that was improvised?
It was very collaborative. I remember we got to set that day, and [director] Nick Stoller came up and he was like, “You know, we’re not totally sold with what we have in the script for this, so whatever ideas you have, we’ll all just kind of work on it today.” So there’s definitely a lot of different versions of that. There’s one with me dancing, doing the robot. It always involved me crying and sort of not being able to get through crying. Nick was like, “What other ways … try to make yourself stop crying!” And apparently the way that I make myself stop crying is talking in a creepy, low voice. Good to know about myself!

You also have a very adult conversation with Emily in which you talk like Elmo and Cookie Monster from “Sesame Street.” How long did they make you go with those voices?
Long! We did the scripted version, and then we improvised — I mean, for hours. And Emily and I definitely had the tea with honey just coming in every half an hour or so. I was losing it, and when I lose it and start laughing, I laugh to the point of crying and it’s a whole makeup reset, so everyone’s like, “Noooo!” Emily would just look at me and go, “Alison, do not cry. Do not cry!” Which would make me laugh more.

The supporting cast is full of NBC sitcom actors, like Chris Pratt, Mindy Kaling and Chris Parnell. Plus Emily is married to John Krasinski from “The Office.” Did you all ever gang up on Jason Segel, since his show is on CBS?
No! No, not at all. I think it was a ploy on his part, he kept us pretty spaced out. I didn’t have any scenes with Mindy. They didn’t have us all together to gang up on him. He kept us apart so we couldn’t.

TV updates
Alison Brie also has plenty of small screen work, appearing on the critically acclaimed “Mad Men,” which just launched its fifth season, and “Community,” which despite its extremely loyal — if small — fan-base is in danger of cancelation.

On “Mad Men”:
On creator Matt Weiner saying the show’s seventh season will be its last:
“Right, right, right. But I’ll believe that when I see it. (laughs)”

On how far ahead she knows about what’s coming up on the show:
“Not far. We’re in the dark constantly. It’s for the best. I would hate to have too many secrets.”

On increased anti-spoiler measures behind the scenes:
“People always ask us, like, ‘What do they say to you? Because none of you ever spill anything!’ And actually now there are confidentiality agreements that have to be signed, but the first few years we didn’t sign anything. I don’t remember ever signing anything. It was just Matt more would just talk to us and be like, ‘It ruins it for the fans. Why would you want to do that? To be on the show is so special and to know these things is so special, and then to watch it for the first time is a great experience, so why ruin that for anyone?’”

“Community”:
On the relief of being back on the air after near-cancellation:
“We’ve had some very dark months when ‘Community’ was on hiatus and other things were up in the air. So it’s always kind of nice to take a minute and enjoy when it’s all working out.”

On making plans with the show’s status in limbo:
“It’s kind of funny to look at the next few months of my life and it’s just so much in the air. You kind of tentatively plan everything. ‘Well, you could be doing this, but if this happens we could be doing this.’ We’re all really pulling for it. I feel pretty optimistic about it happening just because that’s how I prefer to feel about it. And since there’s no way of knowing you might as well be optimistic about it rather than feeling bad about it all the time.”

On wanting a new ratings system:
“We have such a strong fan base, if not a large one, and I just think a lot of that doesn’t translate into our ratings because a lot of our fans are watching the show online. We have to stop judging our show based on ratings. It’s so archaic, the system right now, and I don’t know why nobody wants to point that out. It’s a conspiracy. (laughs)”

On co-star Chevy Chase’s feud with boss Dan Harmon:
“It’s just not something that I’m focused on right now. I’m really more focused on getting a fourth season. When I think about the show at all, I’m more just crossing my fingers and focusing all my energy on the pickup.”

Metro.us