{"id":351793,"date":"2026-03-18T01:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351793\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:55:08","slug":"leighton-meester-adam-brodys-date-nights-led-to-her-movie-basic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/351793\/","title":{"rendered":"Leighton Meester, Adam Brody’s Date Nights Led to Her Movie ‘Basic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLeighton Meester<\/a> has long held much more than a basic understanding of the comedy movie Basic<\/a>, thanks to outings with husband Adam Brody<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tMeester and Ashley Park<\/a> star in writer-director Chelsea Devantez\u2019s feature directorial debut that premiered Monday at SXSW<\/a>. Taylor John Smith, Nelson Franklin, Kandy Muse, Ashley Nicole Black, Amber Ruffin and Jon Gabrus round out the cast for Basic, which is seeking distribution. <\/p>\n

\n\tDuring an onstage conversation about the movie that followed its screening, Devantez explained that the project originated as a three-minute short film of the same name that was accepted into SXSW in 2020. Because the event was canceled that year amid the COVID pandemic, the short never actually screened in a theater, but the festival posted it online, leading to hundreds of messages from impressed viewers. Six days after the short debuted, producer Katie McNicol from Marc Platt<\/a>\u2018s banner set up a Zoom conversation to board a feature version of Basic.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film centers on Gloria (Park), who splits from boyfriend Nick (Smith) after she starts obsessing over the social media presence of his attractive ex Kailynn (Meester). Hailing from Marc Platt Productions<\/a> and BuzzFeed Studios<\/a>, Basic counts McNicol, Platt, Adam Siegel, Nadine DeBarros, Michael Philip and Richard Alan Reid as producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeester told the crowd that she had been curious to read the script for the feature after hearing about the short when she and Brody would spend time socially with Devantez and her husband, comedian and filmmaker Yassir Lester. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLeighton Meester (left), Ashley Park, Taylor John Smith and Chelsea Devantez attend the SXSW premiere of Basic on March 16. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHutton Supancic\/SXSW Conference & Festivals\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMe and my husband go on double dates with Chelsea and her husband, Yassir,\u201d the Gossip Girl alum said. \u201cI remember Yassir being like, \u2018Chelsea\u2019s got this short film, and it\u2019s called Basic.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018I know I\u2019m biased because she\u2019s my wife, but it\u2019s genius.\u2019 She was like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going to make it into a feature film,\u2019 and just internally, I was like, \u2018I really would like to be cast in that, please.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeester continued, \u201cI heard her backstory through all the years of writing the script. One fine day, she came to me and was like, \u2018Do you want to read it?’\u201d The star added, \u201cI was like, \u2018Man, Kailynn would be such a fun, insane, different role to take.’\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFor her part, Devantez called the actress \u201ca dear friend of mine\u201d and also recalled that it was initially a challenge to land Park. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe went through so many trials and tribulations,\u201d the filmmaker said of the casting process. \u201cWhen I went to Ashley Park, she was \u2018unavailable.\u2019 We went through a bunch of stuff with the movie, and I was like, \u2018Can we please just try again?\u2019 We went back, and they\u2019re like, \u2018She read it, and she loved it.’\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tPark, known for such credits as Emily in Paris and Joy Ride, immediately connected to the script, although she initially saw herself as a fit for Kailynn. \u201cAll I knew is, when I read the script for the first time, I was like, \u2018I need to watch this movie many times, even if I don\u2019t get to be a part of it,’\u201d Park said. \u201cI need this to be happening. Her singular tone and voice and comedy, it\u2019s just so human.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn her review of Basic<\/a> for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Angie Han wrote that the film never stops \u201cbeing a blast\u201d and added, \u201cBasic\u2018s two leading ladies do much to sell the unexpected delight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leighton Meester has long held much more than a basic understanding of the comedy movie Basic, thanks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[32256,40096,160058,93,61,60,32258,160059,160060,270,39565],"class_list":["post-351793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-brody","tag-ashley-park","tag-buzzfeed-studios","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leighton-meester","tag-marc-platt","tag-marc-platt-productions","tag-movies","tag-sxsw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}