Blake Lively: A Simple Favor Is Her New Thriller And Dark Comedy

On the surface, there seems to be very little funny about A Simple Favor, the film that brings together Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. Certainly not the plot, which centers around Stephanie (Anna), a mommy blogger who is determined to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily’s (Blake) sudden disappearance from their small town after being asked to pick her son up from school. From there, the story includes betrayals and reversals, a dead body, and the question soon to be asked by pretty much everyone: who is duping whom?

But then, when you hear that the film is directed by Paul Feig (Ghostbusters: Answer the Call), it at least provides an explanation of why there’s plenty of dark humor here as well. “Thrillers are my favorite thing to watch, because as an audience you’re engaged, you’re being pulled along, you’re being surprised, and you’re having the rug pulled out from under you occasionally,” Paul explains in a studio-provided inerview. “That experience, being in the audience and watching those things, is something I really wanted to play with. But this is a real tonal tightrope to walk, because we’ve all seen thrillers and we’ve all seen comedies using drama, but when you try to take all those elements and mix them together, you really have to be careful with it. Hitchcock was the master of it, because in his movies you’re laughing half the time and then you’re terrified half the time. And what I liked about this, is it’s one of these kind of thriller stories, but it’s taking place in the suburbs.”

Screenwriter Jessica Sharzer, who adapted the novel by Darcey Bell, in discussing her leading ladies, comments, “I love the character of Stephanie, because she’s such a geek in certain ways. She tries to hard and she’s very sort of invisible in some ways, or mocked by the other moms at school and she knows it. In response, she has reached out into the universe through her blog to all of these moms around the country, and they have become her surrogate friends. So she’s a very lonely character, and also someone who’s really haunted by her past. That has informed her entire persona to be the perfect mom, becaus she’s making up for some sins of the past.”

“I’m fascinated by Emily,” she continues, “because she’s very enigmatic. She’s incredibly beautiful, which was important in the book and in the casting, but she’s a certain kind of beauty. I mean, there are different ways to be beautifl and I think she is a beauty that’s sort of scary to men and to women. It’s partly because she’s hard to pin down. She keeps a lot of things close to the vest, and her facade of being glamorous and fashionable and slick and smooth really hides her past. So, interestingly, she and Stephanie both have dark pasts, but they choose to hide them in different ways. One by baking healthy cookies and having this mommy blog, and the other by working in a slick fashion PR job, which is all about surfaces and all about mystique, so it’s a perfect world for her to inhabit.”

To get a taste of where things go from there, check out what Blake and Anna have to say in the following interview sections — scroll down to see!

Just what is the simple favor from the title?

ANNA KENDRICK: “The simple favor is that my best friend asks me to pick up her son from school, but then she never comes to get him. She’s kind of a mysterious person, so at first it seems like maybe she’s just getting away for a while and is just being impulsive. But then it becomes a question of, is that what’s going on or is there something darker going on? It’s just twists on twists on twists.”
BLAKE LIVELY: “So, yes, it’s a simple favor — if you intend on showing up again. But then my character goes missing.”

Blake’s view of Anna.

BLAKE LIVELY: “Anna is just a master of what she does for a living, and it’s just really cool to work alongside her. Especially because I keep talking about horror movies and the fact that this is a thriller, but director Paul Fieg was making it more comedic, so not knowing exactly what waters we should be treading in was challenging in a good way. Some scenes were very emotional, some were very funny, and some were very dangerous. And to have a partner like Anna for that to really anchor on to was so helpful, because I just wouldn’t have known what to do without her.”

Anna’s view of Blake.

ANNA KENDRICK: “When I was reading the script, I didn’t know who anybody had in mind for this character and I was worried that it could be a really unlikeable character. And then when Paul said that he wanted Blake to play it, I was, like, ‘Got it. Totally see it.’ So excited, because she’s got a real warmth to her naturally so that she can play this kind of really dark, sarcastic character in a way where you’re still drawn to her. You still understand why Sephanie becomes friends with her.”

Blake loves a mystery.

BLAKE LIVELY: “It’s always fun when you don’t know what the heck is going to happen. And it’s always fun when characters completely surprise you; where you think they’re one thing and they end up being something else. On top of that, the music is fun in this movie, and, visually, it’s really fun, too. I think the entire journey is enjoyable in and of itself, and the fact that there’s plot twists and turns just makes it worth going to the movies.”

Anna views it as a thrill ride — with laughs.

ANNA KENDRICK: “There’s definitely moments that will make you laugh, but I wouldn’t describe it as a funny movie, because it’s so dark. I think there are movies like Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang that are thrillers where there’s a smile on your face the entire time. That’s really tricky to pull off, but if you do, it’s so entertaining.”

Fashion conscious Blake.

BLAKE LIVELY: “I wanted the character to be dressed in men’s wear. Initially the conversations were, ‘Okay, she wears menswear as a woman with no shirt underneath like how women do it.’ We tried that, but I was, like, ‘I just think that really needs to be menswear.’ I know that the studio and whatnot want women to be sexy, so they were, like, ‘It’s not going to be sexy if she’s buttoned all the way up to her neck and bow ties.’ We were, like, ‘Just trust us; it’s going to be super hot. It’s gonig to be so sexy and it’s not really fitted menswear. Straight men’s suits are so sexy and fun, and then it evolves and there are different things that she does with it, because she’s so bold and daring and full of surprises. For instance, I had this one idea — which you’ll see in one of the scenes — where I was, ‘What if instead of starting with no shirt under a tuxedo, like women do, it’s a three-piece tuxedo. And then, like Chippendale’s, it starts coming off in pieces. So she looks like one thing, but you actually see that it’s this weird facade that is unexpected and exciting and strange and weird, but she treats it like it’s totally normal. So there are ways that we were actually able to tell the story of who this woman is and also ways that we’re able to convey comedy by way of fashion.”

Working with director Paul Feig.

ANNA KENDRICK: “I didn’t realize that Paul Feig was attached to this script and I’m actually really grateful for that, because it meant that the first time I read it, I wasn’t thinking about it through the lense of being a comedy — when you think of Paul, you think of comedy — and I was just looking at it like a thriller. And then as I was reading it, I thought it was kind of fun and twisted and funny. Then I started reading the actual cover letter that came with it, and I was, like, ‘So Paul definitely knows that this is a twisted, funny version of something that’s really dark and exciting and thrillery.”
The thrillery reaches theaters on Sept. 14th.