WomenOutLoud! : Alison Brie

Alison Brie Schermerhorn is an American actress, writer, director and producer. She’s known for her roles in such shows as Mad Men (2007–2015), Community (2009–2015), and GLOW (2017–2019), in which she received nominations for two Golden Globes and two Critics’ Choice Awards. She has also graced the big screen with hugely successful films like Scream 4 (2011), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), Get Hard (2015), Sleeping with Other People (2015), How to Be Single (2016), The Little Hours (2017), The Disaster Artist (2017), The Post (2017), Promising Young Woman (2020), Horse Girl (2020), The Rental (2020), and Happiest Season (2020).

Now Alison, along with husband Dave Franco, have written, produced and directed a rom-com called ‘Somebody I Used To Know’, which made it’s debut on Amazon Prime. A few months before the world went into lockdown, Alison Brie and Dave Franco had an idea for a movie. Visiting Franco’s hometown in Northern California at the end of 2019, and walking the old path from his mother’s house to his high school, the married couple conceived a story about “going home and confronting who you used to be compared to who you are now and how you feel about all that.” During the height of Covid 19 the couple wrote this amazing film.

“We didn’t know when we would actually have time to sit down and write it, and then, a few months later, the world ended,” Franco told EW. “At the time, they were saying that lockdown was going to last two weeks, so we looked at each other and said, ‘Okay, we have two weeks to pump out this first draft.’ We were waking up very early and writing all day. We ended up writing the first draft within that timeframe, but then, of course, the world stayed shut down for much longer, so we had a long time to refine that draft.” 

It’s the second film the couple has done together, after the success of the thriller ‘The Rental’, in which Alison said to EW she enjoys working with her husband. “As actors, we would sometimes spend months apart and have very little control over when and where we would be working on other jobs,” Brie says. “So we wanted to start making stuff together partially just to be around each other more.” Brie continues, “It developed really organically. Once we were on the set of The Rental, everything went so well and I realized how much I loved being directed by Dave. I have so much respect for him, and I trust him so much. He knows me better than anyone in the world. It made for an ideal acting scenario where I knew I could take big risks as an actor and Dave was going to protect me.” 

‘Somebody I Used To Know’ simply confirms that Brie is clearly a gifted comic actress. Now she sets her sights on the upcoming ‘Community’ movie which she told avclub.com, is definitely happening.

“Well, it’s happening. We’re doing it for Peacock,” Brie confirmed. “We are allegedly shooting it this summer, is the most that I know. I saw Joel and Danny last week and I was like, ‘Joooooel, where’s the script? What’s the plan?’ And he was kind of just bouncing around. I think right now, it’s just a matter of everybody’s schedule. Most of us have all signed on to do it, everyone who’s in is in, and now everyone is kind of assessing their schedules and hoping that we can make it work to shoot it this summer.”