I’m truly utterly delighted by every single episode ofCollider Ladies Nightthat I’m lucky enough to do, butAlison Briehas to get some sort of bonus points for the downright adorable cat cameos and ranking theScreammovies with me. And to think, that only covered a small fraction of our chat!
Brie’s accomplished quite a bit since making her TV debut inHannah Montanaback in 2006, enjoying many seasons withCommunityandMad Men, scoring two Screen Actors Guild nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her work on Netflix’sGLOW, and appearing in a slew of stellar films, personal favorites beingScream 4,The Kings of Summerand now Hulu’sHappiest Season, just to name a few. She truly never slowed down since the moment she started and that was by design. Here’s how Brie described her plan of attack in the earlier years of her career:
“We were shootingMad MenandCommunitysimultaneously and I still always felt a real need to book my hiatuses full of movies. I feel like with my old manager we had a two movie rule. And the hiatuses were not very long. ForCommunity, it would be like, ‘If we could fit in two movies, it doesn’t matter what they are!” What would happen every time inevitably is, I would attempt to be picky and hold off on stuff and sort of pass on auditioning for certain things and try to be choosy, and then I’d feel the clock ticking and then whatever the next thing was that I read, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go in for that!’ It wasn’t a total free-for-all and it’s not to say that I’m not proud of a lot of the work that I was doing during that time. I think I just had a different priority. I just wanted to build a career, get as much experience as possible. And, like you’re saying, because I love working so much, I think [I] always was able to be like, ‘I mean, the script isn’t great, but those actors are so funny so that would be good. I think I could bring something to that character [that] would be fun,’ any little nugget that I think I could find.”
When did that mentality change a bit? Brie gives that credit toGLOW:
“And then there was a distinct turning point I think becauseGLOWto me was such a great show and I was really coming into my own as an actress and I felt likeGLOWon its own set the bar really high. And then I got to do some movies likeThe Disaster ArtistandThe Little Hours, which I’m really proud of both of those. It was probably one season intoGLOW, where I was like, ‘Okay, let me slow down a little bit. I don’t want to have things that I’m not proud of anymore on my resume.' And again, there’s nothing I’m ashamed of, but at a certain point you’re like, ‘Okay, I’ve done a lot of this type of movie,’ and, ‘Let me try to do something a little bit different and try to grow as an actor and just change it up a little.’”
As we always stress on Collider Ladies Night, everyone’s path is different, but in Brie’s case, she seems to have chosen the best one for herself. While there’s certainly loads to love from the earlier portion of her career, it’s been quite exciting watching her embrace all of the experience she already had and apply it to new opportunities like writing, directing, producing and headlining a show. If the last few years are any indication, I have absolutely no doubt that Brie will continue doing that, and that kind of creative growth could signal boundless potential.
If you’d like to hear more about her journey from theater school toHappiest Season, you can check out our full Ladies Night chat at the top of this article! Also, be sure to check outHappiest Season, which is a huge charmer and now available to stream on Hulu.
