After earning herself a passionate following for her comedic abilities in Community, actor Alison Brie could have continued to pursue projects in that vein, but has instead showcased her ambition and passion for unconventional experiences. Films like The Little Hours and Horse Girl appeared to be one thing on the surface, only to offer audiences more than they bargained for, with both films coming from director Jeff Baena. The pair recently teamed up again to write the film Spin Me Round, in which Brie stars and Baena directs, and despite starring an impressive roster of comedic talents, isn’t quite the romantic comedy audiences might be expecting. Spin Me Round will be in theaters, On Demand, and streaming on AMC+ on August 19th.
“There are certain people like Molly Shannon and Aubrey Plaza who we wrote the roles for, and Jeff Baena has a longstanding working relationship with them and so do I, so that was really fun,” Brie shared with ComicBook.com of how the casting process impacted the project once it was brought to life. “But I guess a person who was a bit unexpected, I would have to say Ben Sinclair. Ben Sinclair took that character of Craig, who is the — we referred to him as the ‘camp counselor’ of the program that all of these characters are on, in such a different direction than we were expecting. Just because I feel like Ben has a very unique energy, and I’ve always been such a fan of his, I love High Maintenance. He’s such a specific person, he just infuses that whole character with a different vibe, in a way that was just a delight.”
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Inย Spin Me Round, Brie stars as the manager of an Italian restaurant chain who wins the opportunity to attend the franchise’s educational immersion program in Italy. What she thought would be a romantic getaway devolves into chaos and catastrophe.
The film also stars Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark, American Hustle), Aubrey Plaza (Ingrid Goes West,ย Parks and Recreation), Molly Shannon (The Little Hours, Other People, SNL), Zach Woods (Silicon Valley,ย The Office), Ayden Mayeri (The Afterparty,ย Homecoming), Ben Sinclair (High Maintenance), Tim Heidecker (Eastbound & Down,ย Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), Debby Ryan (Insatiable,ย Jessie), Fred Armisen (Portlandia,ย SNL), and Lil Rey Howery (Free Guy, Get Out).
While the premise sets the stage for a dream vacation, bizarre events start to unfold later in the story, which ventures into thriller territory, making not only for an engaging experience for audiences, but also for the filmmakers.
“It was a big part of what was fun to write it and get into it, was playing with these different genres and the way that the characters are the ones that are controlling what genre you’re experiencing as an audience,” Brie recalled. “As Amber, you’re following Amber’s emotions as an audience, and they take you on these different twists and turns based on what she’s feeling, what kind of movie she wants to be in at whatever moment. So it was really fun to play with that, but I think overall there’s a throughline tonally that feels like Jeff’s movies, how they always feel, which is also to say totally unique and unexpected. I don’t know quite what to call that, but I do think there’s some throughline to it all.”
To say the ending of the film is a shocking twist would be a bit of an understatement, with the writer pointing out that some versions of the script had an even more wild crescendo.
“It was always planned. In fact, when Jeff brought the idea to me, I feel like a lot of those pieces were already there as they stand in the movie,” Brie detailed of developing the film’s conclusion. “If anything, I would say earlier drafts of the script were a lot more graphic than they end up being. We actually pulled it back a little bit for what you see in the movie.”
Spin Me Roundย will be in theaters, On Demand, and streaming on AMC+ on August 19th.
Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaughย directly on Twitterย to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
