‘No Hard Feelings’ Interview: Andrew Barth Feldman

Who is within the forged of ‘No Hard Feelings’?

‘No Hard Feelings’ stars Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence (‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ ‘The Hunger Games’) as Maddie Barker, Andrew Barth Feldman (‘A Tourist’s Guide to Love’) as Percy, Matthew Broderick (‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’) as Laird, Laura Benanti (‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’) as Allison, Natalie Morales (‘I’m Totally Fine’) as Sarah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (‘Tesla’) as Gary, Hasan Minhaj (‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’) as Doug, Kyle Mooney (‘Zoolander 2’) as Jody, and Alysia Joy Powell (‘The Sitter’) as Fern.

ECinema News not too long ago had the pleasure of talking with Andrew Barth Feldman about his work on ‘No Hard Feelings,’ his response to the R-rated screenplay, Percy and Maddie’s friendship, working with Jennifer Lawrence, performing Hall & Oats’ “Maneater,” and collaborating with director Gene Stupnitsky.

Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

ECinema News: To start with, what was your first response whenever you learn screenplay for this the R-rated comedy?

Andrew Barth Feldman: I could not imagine how humorous it was. I used to be rolling round laughing virtually upon studying it for the primary time and feeling like I had gold in my arms. It’s additionally so humorous not simply due to how good the jokes are, how intelligent the phrases are, however how deep the emotional depths are. That’s why it is so humorous. Every loopy state of affairs these characters discover themselves in comes from a spot of emotional reality. You perceive precisely the place they’re coming from in any respect times, and that may be a exceptional excessive wire act.

(L to R) Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: Can you speak about Percy and Maddie’s uncommon relationship and the actually lovely friendship that form of emerges from that?

ABF: It clearly is a relationship that’s born out of a really unusual state of affairs that seems to be one which modifications each of their lives in a approach that no one within the movie might have anticipated after they orchestrated the state of affairs that they are in. I believe Jen and I’ve a reasonably related relationship. We got here right here as coworkers, and we left this movie as very particular folks in each other’s lives. I believe she’ll all the time be part of my life, and there are issues I can discuss to her about that I am unable to discuss to anyone else about. So I’m actually grateful that I bought to do that together with her. That relationship that you simply see between the 2 of us, it is actual.

Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: What was your expertise like working with Jennifer Lawrence? Was it completely different than what you had been anticipating?

ABF: I believe I used to be anticipating to be considerably extra intimidated by Jen than I used to be. I used to be so nervous. She is such a drive on display screen, and he or she’s any person I’ve admired for thus lengthy. But she’s a extremely fantastic, grounded, and beneficiant human being, and from the start was desperate to get to know me simply as a lot as I used to be to get to know her. That kindness that she embodied on set, even on the stage that she’s at, it begins from the highest. She was the highest, and he or she knew that, and that was an unimaginable mannequin to set for me.

(L to R) Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: You carry out Hall & Oats’ “Maneater” within the movie. Did you create the association and may you speak about rehearsing for that sequence?

ABF: Yeah, the association is all mine really. I performed it myself. I despatched Gene and John Phillips, he co-wrote it with Gene, and he is an unimaginable pianist in his personal proper, so he was in a position to give actually particular music notes as nicely. But we had a ton of forwards and backwards about what we needed this second to be, how we needed Percy to have this big form of breakout second as only a particular person in Maddie’s eyes and the viewers’s eyes, and his personal eyes. The undeniable fact that it was Maneater, that music, I’m an enormous Hall & Oates fan. I’m an enormous yacht rock fan usually, so I used to be floored that it was going to be a “down” association of this in any other case very poppy Hall & Oates tune. It was magical. Jen and I each fought actually onerous for it to be sung stay on the day, which is rather like 100 times tougher to do. But we knew that if there was any potential for this second to be as particular as we knew it might be, it needed to be stay, it needed to be within the room that day, and we bought to try this. I’m exceptionally grateful. I believe it really works out.

(L to R) Jennifer Lawrence and Director Gene Stupnitsky on the set of Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: Finally, what was it like collaborating with director Gene Stupnitsky on set?

ABF: I imply, he was so open to me speaking about what was genuine for me on this character, what was genuine for me as an adolescent on this yr, somebody who’s round Percy’s age. What do they sound like? Of course, Gene does not know. He’s not one, and he, from the very starting, advised me that I needed to communicate up and speak about it. I really wrote an essay on the very starting about Percy and his intentions and all these items, and he would quote it again to me in path. He was so extremely collaborative and giving us concepts, and taking ours. He’s a particular, particular breed of director.

Director Gene Stupnitsky’s ‘No Hard Feelings’ is scheduled for launch on June 23, 2023.

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‘No Hard Feelings’ is produced by Excellent Cadaver and Sony Pictures. It is ready to launch in theaters on June twenty third, 2023.