Paul Feig Breaks Down the ‘Best Way’ to Do Comedy
Paul Feig has directed some of the most beloved comedies of the last decade, including “Bridesmaids,” “Spy,” several classic episodes of “The Office” and more. So take it from the filmmaker when he explains there’s one key to creating comedy in “the best way” — finding the perfect pair.
It’s something he’s proven skillful at, even when the project falls under a different genre. He brought together Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy on the buddy cop comedy “The Heat,” Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke in the weepy rom-com “Last Christmas,” Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick for the genre-defying “A Simple Favor” — and its impending sequel — and now his new film “Jackpot!” pairs up John Cena and Awkwafina.
Now streaming on Prime Video, “Jackpot!” tells the story of Katie Kim (Awkwafina), an aspiring actress who unwittingly enters the lottery in LA. When she wins, she literally has to run for her life because, in this near-future California, the lottery works differently. Those without a winning ticket are legally allowed to murder the winner and take over their jackpot.
Enter Noel (John Cena), an independent bodyguard who is willing to protect Katie, in exchange for a portion of her winnings. Together, the two embark on a journey to survive until sundown (once the sun sets, the winner gets their full prize if they’re still alive, all murder illegal again).
As TheWrap noted in our review, Cena and Awkwafina shine as a team, playing off each other physically and verbally. And that’s exactly what Feig strives for in his films — a dynamic duo.
“To me, it’s the best way to do comedy, because you have two different personalities and so much comedy comes from conflict and them discovering each other, not getting along,” he explained to TheWrap. “So you have the fun of kind of putting each other down and figuring out their thing. But then when the friendship forms, it’s so wonderful, because you love both these characters.”
That dynamic paves the way for a comedic journey, Feig said, and he approaches his job as a director from the point of view as an audience member.
“I mean, all I do as a director is I’m just kind of an audience member who gets to watch. When I’m on the set, I’m watching the movie, I just have the ability to go in and actually change things if I want. Or hopefully make it a little better, or just give them something different to do so they can be at their best.”
On “Jackpot!”, the comedy dynamic between Awkwafina and Cena became clear pretty quickly. But there was an added bonus on this particular project.
“I have to say, the nice thing that worked out with this, which you don’t normally get on movies, is we kind of shot pretty close to being in order of the script,” Feig said. “So their relationship got to kind of grow on camera, and I watched them get more comfortable with each other as they went along.”
Of course, Feig is no stranger to ensemble films too. He directed both “Bridesmaids” and “Ghostbusters” (2016). But, even with a bigger group, the director said nailing the comedy still comes down to just two strong anchors.
“If you look at ‘Bridesmaids,’ I mean, that’s really either Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph], or it’s Kristen and Rose [Byrne], and then the other ones around them are adding in,” he said.
“It becomes a little bit more math when you have a bigger group, because you want to make sure you service everybody fairly. But you tend to want make sure that that core relationship is good, and then everybody else provides a counterpoint to them.”
“Jackpot!” is now streaming on Prime Video.
The post Paul Feig Breaks Down the ‘Best Way’ to Do Comedy appeared first on TheWrap.
