How ‘Apples Never Fall’ allowed Alison Brie to mine ‘my own emotional pool’ in a new way

How ‘Apples Never Fall’ allowed Alison Brie to mine ‘my own emotional pool’ in a new way

[Music] Alison Bri I know you hadn’t read apples never fall the book before reading the scripts so what about the scripts made you want to read the book gosh well it was Amy it was Amy Delaney it was love at first sight I was um very taken if I’m being totally honest by the third episode Amy’s episode and kind of the history of the character and what everything she had been through emotionally and and then it sort of and you start to realize that every episode was that way really fleshing out these characters and this family and nothing was what it seemed or things were what they seemed but much more complicated and detailed and of course the juicy mystery of it all I think the mystery of it made me want to read the book and everything I’m saying about the writing in those episodes made me want to do the show that’s a good balance right because you want to see like what happened to Joy right and it’s like I also care about my character yeah you notice I said nothing about Joy at all but definitely care about she dead what happened to her yeah yeah it cared about what happened to her but really I mean reading it is the family Dynamic I think that’s the Crux of the whole show is that you’re like tune in to this mystery but stay for the you know effed up am I allowed to curse on this podcast for the the effed up family dynamic because we can all relate to that you know yeah for sure well I feel like Amy is also so unlike most of the characters that fans know you for cuz you know she’s not very goal oriented or very focused or determined on anything really um and you know she’s just very Breezy casual very spiritual so as an actor how did that stretch you or tap into muscles you haven’t used in a while it was exciting I think it was the emotional depth that was really fun for me to tap into in a new way and and because Amy as a character and Amy as a you know as a person is so in the moment and of the moment and she is driven by her emotions in a way that is so different from any character I’ve played before every other character I’ve played seems to have a I mean every other character that exists probably has better control over their emotions than Amy does and I sort of really ex uh respect that about her um so that was part of the challenge I mean those two things I think it was like constant mining of my my own emotional pool to see how deep those Waters ran and then the flip side was just being very present and trying to kind of experience the things that were happening the way that the character would be yeah she is definitely someone who seems like she wants to be in touch with her emotions but she doesn’t really have to tools because of the way she was brought up like that family did not talk about feelings definitely I know no one in the Delaney family takes Amy seriously but I do think that is like close to being one of the healthiest people in the family like I actually think it’s really admirable the amount that she wants to talk about things this is something that nobody in the family does and um and yeah no she doesn’t she has no control over uh her emotions she’s sort of like Guided by the every whim that she feels um but that said I she seems to have a lot more joy in her life I mean no pun intended uh than than a lot of her siblings do by nature of rebelling against the way she was raised um I think you know the competition factor is such a big part of this family Dynamic when your father is your coach um so much of his love seems dependent on winning and not losing you know uh so I think that sort of like has been the uphill battle for all of the Delaney children and a big part of the process of the show was all of us discussing together kind of the different experience that each Delaney child had with their father and with their mother how all of those relationships are different how the relationship between all the siblings are different I that was really fun just exploring the Nuance of all of that yeah because like everyone like especially with siblings like you all have a different uh perspective on your childhood like and different relationship on your parents like you might have like a great relationship with your dad but your sibling might not definitely definitely and and that we especially we would talk about kind of the difference between the Elder siblings and the younger siblings like Jake Lacy and I I think those characters Troy and Amy also genuinely experienced a different father than Logan and Brook in a lot of ways because Stan was minimally evolving and changing a little bit in his life and also those kids were just they were just younger they blocked more out you know the older they had easier of memory yeah I I feel like you know maybe like you know at first blush you might not call her brave but like you know like you were just saying like you know she was rebelling against the family like the family business of tennis I feel like that is a brave act for her like she’s defying what her family or her dad especially wants her to do like she she definitely felt like she gave tennis like the the least like amount of time than the other siblings did definitely Amy does not play tennis anymore I feel like she plays the family but she is is does not play for fun I I do think she’s Brave and and I stand by I mean some of my early discussions with Melanie Mar our our showrunner Creator um were about how Amy is the biggest Rebel in the family because the family is so goal oriented these kids have been raised that way in constant competition with one another Amy at this moment where we meet her in her life seems all about release releasing goals releasing expectations she’s living with a bunch of 20 year olds she doesn’t seem to have a job you know in some ways it’s it’s it’s a lot of privilege you know she has a rich brother who seems to be bankrolling a lot of her lifestyle but there’s a bravery in her sincerity you know there’s a bravery in the unabashed way that she expresses herself and her spirituality knowing that the family is going to constantly berate her and make fun of it she’s still going to host a hope Circle because she genuinely believes that it might help find her mother I think that’s great yeah she’s eternally optimistic so she she she’s optimistic and she also like fears the worst like my mom is dead let me call every well I’m glad that you said that because I always say Amy’s an optimist she’s an optimist and then people are like she’s a catastrophist she freaks out the most I was like as Brooke would say yeah but two things can be true yeah I do think it’s one of those things that’s just like doesn’t that push and pull exist in all of us in different ways like these contradictory things you know we talk about it a lot in terms of I feel like now I’m like on a weird tangent but in terms of like how people are extroverts or intro I’m an introverted extrovert you know you can be both like in certain circumstances yeah yeah yes I think that in life Amy strives for positivity and has taken all these steps through meditation and therapy and yoga um and just her way of living to to maintain positivity and optimism and the reason she does that is because she jumps to the worst places she does catastrophize things and that’s just sort of like another facet of her personality um well yes so the third episode is Amy’s big episode we learn a lot about her and it opens with a flashback to 2008 after she has just dropped out of college and it’s such a lovely scene between you and Anette Benning like Joy is comforting her and you know she’s the first one to know about this what was I like shooting that scene and also just wearing that wig it was incredible it was incredible shooting that scene I have admired Annette as an actress for as long as I can remember and you know she couldn’t have been more generous and giving as an actor to actor you know when you’re shooting emotional scenes it’s like it’s so important to be able to take the space you need to get wherever you need to get emotionally and um it was really beautiful the process and doing that was really beautiful with Annette and also with our director Don shadforth who had Annette and I come in um weeks before we shot that scene before we started shooting that episode and we came in and did some rehearsals where you know we like played out the beat before that scene we played out the night before of like um Amy calling Joy from the hospital and what that conversation would be like this is such a luxury I feel like in the world of Television I have never had rehearsal time like this it reminded me more of theater school and where we really could play and kind of like work through the emotional process of the scenes and the fact that like Annette sir sir is game to do something like that too and like it was really beautiful and it was really helpful and useful and then when we got there on the day Dawn was so respectful and wonderful too and also being like let’s not rehearse this to death let’s just talk about anything we feel like we want to talk about then you guys will get in the car and go um and I loved wearing the wig I loved it I cut bangs right after we finished for I cut them for another project okay but I was trying on that long still you’re still retaining Amy yeah the I’m tapping into younger Amy well at the end of that episode is also really great for you we have another Revelation about Amy and the suicide note um and that a way you process that Revelation too when everyone thinks it’s the no is from Joy um and this is right after Brooke calls her an emotional chaos sinko so how did you prepare for that scene that scene I feel like it was my Touchstone throughout the filming of the whole series I would reread that scene constantly just to T I felt like because it really is um the most vulnerable that we see Amy maybe in the whole show in front of her whole family these things have been revealed about her not by choice you know and she has to sort of make the decision in that moment to own up to that and she’s very raw emotionally she’s had this whole other emotional Journey that sort of doesn’t even have to do with her you know in thinking in thinking that her mother was dead and in in in uh you know feeling remorse for another family who’s very empathetic character um but yeah that scene you know we blockshot the show and I just feel like I had that scene for like two months before we shot it and I would just read it every night and even after we shot it I would often recall it and think about certain things that Amy Says in the scene because they’re just it’s telling you everything you need to know about who that character is how she feels about her family where she thinks she fits into the family so a lot of the time there’s actually like a line from that scene that got cut from the final uh version but but there was a line that Dawn would come up and we would she would sort of like say it to me as our little Touchstone for the character in shooting scenes beyond that it was really helpful oh why did they get cut I don’t know probably that monologue was too long went on and on like when line about Amy about Amy feeling like a manate in a sea of sharks you know and it’s like hearkening to like a maybe it was too funny I have no idea why that Mama got cut but it it’s like that’s that is Amy like she loves the manatees she’s a manate her family are sharks they got to keep moving they want to get ahead they’re all teeth like and she just wants to Bob along you know may maybe the metaphor was too much for for them it was too much for them but it was spot on for me for character work it was very helpful I mean I do like you know the Simplicity in what Amy says because she she just she’s so defined when she finally speaks and she says I’m not an emotional sinkhole I’m different and I’m honest I’m doing everything I can to find our mom which is more than you can do which is like pretty much a mik drop moment for her totally well again even though everyone questions her methods and they are a little she’s well-intentioned she is well-intentioned she actually is the only one who’s like actively trying to do anything everybody else is sort of like I guess we’ll just wait and see so she is active in that way it’s it’s interesting yeah versus the siblings who are not doing anything but they want to kind of point to Amy’s life in general as a disaster which is fair yeah that this is why she’s The Brave One you see they all think she’s a joke and she’s not doing anything so well I I talked to Jake Lacy a couple weeks ago I asked him this so I’ll I’ll ask you too but I asked him when it’s another characters episode if he played Troy any differently like um if he treated him from like that character’s uh subjective view of Troy and he said he didn’t cuz he felt like that was more in the editing so did you play Amy any differently in another characters episode like lean into her flakiness a little bit more or anything no I don’t think I played the character differently um I agree with Jake that that’s sort of like that’s one of those things that you have to sort of know it in your actor brain but then not play it I guess I mean but I will say I do think in terms of um in terms of well we’re talking about actor brain I do think that there was uh a a way that we sort of moved as this amorphous blob and like all the actors in the show I was aware that there was this way that we were sort of like giving one character the spotlight then us taking the spotlight like I I it was subconscious sort of or even in a conscious way but just as actors in the way that we were supporting each other as actors that day that we were shooting in the hospital everybody was like I don’t know giving me you know what I mean they’re sort of like today’s your day like you know it’s kind of like giving you space or helping with this like and it was just as fun to have days like in episode five where we shot the scene that’s a big blowout fight between Sam and Jake and Annette gets involved and I mean Essie and I are basically Spectators in that in the corner the whole time and we were honestly we had chills and we were just holding each other the whole time and like tearing up it was so fun to watch the other actors act but it was I I thought it was a really beautiful it is a really beautiful part of working with an ensemble that sometimes it’s your moment to take the spotlight and other times it’s your moment to support the other actors and that came very naturally to all of us as a group which I thought and I think the the format of the show really lends itself to that because every character gets their own Spotlight and you get the the two timelines too like even though Joy is not around in the present you get the past moments with her and family together yeah yeah definitely it was a lot to keep track of what is this the present is this the past like if Jo it’s not that much of a long time so between past and yeah it’s not like should we have totally different hair styles it’s not 2008 yeah exactly ex well I know you I think we played the character the same way throughout because how do you play someone else’s perspective you know yeah because you have to be true who she is but like so like they like like broke might see her as like a joke and a flake so they’ll they’ll cut around that yeah yeah but it’s sort of like yeah exactly you have to just be true to the character at all times and whatever glimps you’re catching you’re going to see from that character’s point of view their reaction to it and that colors what you think of the other characters I think more than us sort of trying to play them differently yeah for sure uh well I know you took tennis lessons but you have said you you were not very good so how not very good were you you know I honestly think I was a little hard on myself like I was pretty good I’m certainly so much better now at doing anything physical than I was when I was a kid a teenager in my 20s pretty much anything preow I was worse I know because I was like I felt like glow should have prepped you for this totally and it does cuz I because I more just have a a openness and a confidence where like in the past I would have been like I’m not athletic and I don’t know how to do that and now I’m sort of like I actually can pick things up i’ I’ve learned um that I do have the ability so I went into it super confident and it was fun it just it’s a it’s a tough sport it does just take time so I actually think I picked it up sort of naturally but as you get into the nitty-gritty of it you’re like could I in in four weeks could I learn how to be a pro tennis player like at the level of the Delany like actually playing a match no I couldn’t I could I could certainly run and hit the ball over the net but it was very hard to hit the ball to an exact destination that was tricky so for filming that was problematic but it’s kind of fitting I did have to learn choreography but it was less about like I was so terrible and more just that like we had a long way to go with with me having never played tennis ever like trying to look yeah to to like be able to like play a full match and like look like you know you were like a junior pro um but it’s also fitting for Amy because her heart was never in tennis so totally totally there’s this is where the book also came in handy I mean not with tennis but um there are so many details about the characters in the book that you just don’t have time to get into every inch of that uh in the span of a television show but but Amy choked a lot in tennis that’s her thing and they talk about it a lot in the book so like that’s something that I can just fold in internally and also be like that’s now yeah I could be better at tennis but I’m sort of choking the way that Amy’s choking you know exactly it’s an actor Choice there you go it was an actor Choice exactly I didn’t want it I didn’t want to be good ex yeah um well lastly uh last time we talked I asked about the commun in movie and a lot of happened between then um so what’s the update now Donald Glover said a couple weeks ago that it’s not his schedule holding it up I don’t think it’s Donald’s schedule holding it up no it’s not it’s it’s other people’s schedules um we’re not joking I know that because the media does really make it they put every time there’s a comment it’s like headline headline news I know I know but it really is unfair because we’re all working you guys everybody’s working I mean so yes there are there’s just a lot of schedules to handle and there’s some other stuff that needs to be figured out it somehow feels I thought we were getting close and now it feels further than ever again but maybe we’ll shoot it soon I have no idea we’ll see well can’t wait to see that yes fingers crossed um it was great speaking with you again thanks so much for your time and congratulations on the show again thank you great to see you too thank you so much [Music]

How ‘Apples Never Fall’ allowed Alison Brie to mine ‘my own emotional pool’ in a new way. Plus: The Golden Globe nominee reveals a line that was cut during Amy’s big moment. Gold Derby editor Joyce Eng hosts this webchat.

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