Remember that scene where Alison Brie streaks naked across a golf course in Somebody I Used to Know? Well, director Dave Franco says that the scene was inspired by something that Brie, who co-wrote the movie with her actor-director husband, actually used to do in real life during her college days at California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita.
Franco’s second turn in the director’s chair following The Rental, Somebody I Used to Know follows Alison Brie as Ally, a reality TV showrunner who runs into her most serious ex-boyfriend while visiting her mom in her quaint hometown. Questioning her decision to leave Sean (Jay Ellis) all those years ago only gets more complex when she meets his new fiancée Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons).
The Streaking Scene in Somebody I Used to Know
In an interview with MovieMaker, Dave Franco explained that the inspiration for that scene where Brie and Clemons run around naked — and also the one where Brie serenades her cat with a made-up song — were both inspired by real life.
“There will be at least one instance a day where I will hear her across the house serenading our cats with an improvised ditty. And so we felt compelled to kind of infuse that into her character in this movie,” Franco told MovieMaker. “And then on top of that, she went to a very liberal arts college where there was a rule that clothing was optional everywhere except the cafeteria. And so she would streak across campus just to make her friends laugh. So we felt like that was a fun character quirk.”
Also Read: Barry Jenkins and Dave Franco Talk The Rental: ‘Dave Franco Is F—ing With People’
If you haven’t seen it yet, Somebody I Used to Know is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. And without spoiling too much, nudity becomes a bit of a theme in the heartwarming rom-com — and Franco told us why.
“We really expanded upon it, where we realized, Oh, no, there’s actually a really beautiful metaphor here where at the beginning of the movie she starts off very buttoned up and a little more rigid, and by the end of the film, she’s naked and it’s all out for the world to see. It’s essentially like this is the purest version of who she is. She’s not hiding behind anything anymore,” he said.
Some of Franco’s life also found its way into the movie, considering that it was actually inspired by a visit to his own hometown.
“We were actually walking around my hometown of Palo Alto in Northern California where we were going from my high school to my mom’s house. And I think just being in that setting brought about these ideas of going home and reconnecting with your roots and confronting who you used to be compared to who you are now and how you feel about all of that,” Franco said. “And so all of those themes just found their way into the story.”
Dave Franco on Working With His Wife, Alison Brie
Franco said he and Brie, who married in 2017, have a great creative partnership.
“This is the fourth time we’ve worked together. The first two times were as actors, and then she’s acted in both the movies I have directed now. And a lot of people ask us, How is that working with your significant other? And they say it with kind of a skeptical tone, which I think is more indicative of how they imagine it would be like working with their own partner. But for whatever reason, it just works with us,” he said.
“I think part of it is that I genuinely believe that she’s one of the best actors on the planet, where she has such a unique ability to navigate back and forth between comedy and drama. It’s so seamless, and it is not easy. So she makes my job really easy in that sense. And on top of that, it’s just amazing to have her as a support system throughout the process. Directing can be true insanity — like, there are moments where you can lose your mind. And so to have someone there to just center you and ease your mind and remind you that everything’s going great and there’s no need to spin out — it was invaluable.”
Somebody I Used to Know is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Main Image: Alison Brie behind the scenes of Somebody I Used to Know – Photo Credit: Scott Patrick Green/Prime Video
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