Rose Byrne is having quite the year, and it just started. Her nomination for SAG’s Actor Award earlier today for Lead Female Actor in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is only the latest in a long line of honors for her performance in the A24 film that has been sweeping through the critics awards circuit. She’s had Best Actress wins at the National Board Of Review, Boston, NYFCC, LAFCA, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Florida, Kansas City, San Diego, Austin and countless other critics groups. She is nominated for Lead Actress in a Comedy or Musical for the film at this weekend’s Golden Globe Awards as well as an Indie Spirit Award, and it all started last year with her win of the Silver Bear Actress prize at Berlin for the film which, by the way, was also one of the highlights of last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Whew.
I described the film as like watching a two hour nervous breakdown through her extraordinary performance of a woman on the edge, a mother and therapist who is slowly losing control. She joins me today for my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side where we talk about what went into the making of this indie darling and how she thought it must have been a mistake when she was offered the role. Obviously, it wasn’t.
We also talk about how she discovered her comedic chops thanks to Judd Apatow and Nick Stoller in a series of films and TV shows after her dramatic Emmy-nominated success in Damages. With roles in Get Him To The Greek, Bridesmaids, SPY, Neighbors and then the TV series Physical, she proves she can do it all. She also is currently working again with her Neighbors co-star Seth Rogen in his “other” Apple series, Platonic, now in its second season. It is a very busy time for the star who has another movie coming up later this spring, Tow, where she plays a real-life homeless woman who lives in her car and experiences a bureaucratic nightmare when it is towed away one day.
We talk about all this and much more, so to watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Rose Byrne, just click on the link above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for a new episode of The Actor’s Side and every Monday for a new edition of Behind The Lens.