A return to Italy for Alison Brie, Jeff Baena in the SXSW premiere ‘Spin Me Round’

Of their fourth collaboration, “Spin Me Spherical,” which premieres on the SXSW Movie Competition right this moment, actor Alison Brie and director Jeff Baena observe the supervisor of an Olive Backyard-esque restaurant in Bakersfield on an immersive retreat to Italy.

As soon as once more co-writing the screenplay, as they did for the 2020 Netflix movie “Horse Lady,” “Spin Me Spherical” marks a return journey to the European nation, the place Baena made the 2017 movie “The Little Hours,” which additionally starred Brie.

Brie and Baena obtained collectively on Zoom for a current dialog about their ongoing work collectively, which was born partially from happening hikes collectively to speak out story concepts. Baena was calling in from his residence in Los Angeles, whereas Brie was in Colombia, the place she is capturing the upcoming motion comedy “Freelance” with John Cena.

Leaning extra towards standard comedy than Baena’s earlier movies, “Spin Me Spherical” does proceed his skillful exploration of tones, at instances feeling like a rom-com, a intercourse farce or a thriller, all with an undercurrent of self-discovery for Brie’s character. The actress, identified for her TV roles together with “Mad Males,” “Group” and “Glow,” says her collaborations with Baena enable her to discover options to her high-strung onscreen personas.

“Truthfully, I really feel like all my motion pictures are regular. I imply, clearly that isn’t the case, however in my thoughts I feel that strangeness or weirdness is simply private style,” Baena stated. “For me it’s ensuring the characters observe and that there’s depth to them, and that even the villains in a narrative are sympathetic, and that everybody form of has their second and we’re in a position to connect with them … Regardless of the story is and the way these characters interaction has to really feel comparatively natural and really feel motivated and never compelled — that’s [what] I deal with.”

As with “The Little Hours,” taking a big ensemble forged to Italy on a decent price range presents its personal challenges. The “Spin Me Spherical” ensemble consists of Alessandro Nivola, Aubrey Plaza, Molly Shannon, Ego Nwodim, Zach Woods, Ayden Mayeri, Ben Sinclair, Debby Ryan, Fred Armisen and Tim Heidecker.

Baena provides Plaza — the 2 are married — particular credit score for serving to to carry issues collectively.

“She and I spent a whole lot of time too simply hanging out with the complete forged, ensuring that they had been taken care of,” Baena stated. “They usually had been in heaven… It felt like a visit for them, which I feel was actually necessary.

“Regardless of the state of affairs is, so long as the expertise is type of steady and glad and feeling taken care of … they will type of be extra susceptible and open and offer you a efficiency that’s more true and coming from a calmer place,” stated Baena. “Productions are typically frantic and loopy and I feel shielding the expertise from that as a lot as attainable actually advantages the efficiency.”

For Brie, taking up further obligations as a co-writer and producer on her collaborations with Baena have been extraordinarily fulfilling. “You actually glean what a small a part of filmmaking the appearing portion is,” she stated. “A lot of filmmaking is collaboration. It’s been actually enjoyable to get to really feel like I’m stretching totally different elements of my creativeness and simply attending to work in several methods creatively. It’s new and thrilling for me once more.”

Alison Brie in “Spin Me Spherical”

(Sean McElwee)

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“Spin Me Spherical” had a extra totally written script than Baena and Brie’s beforehand collaborations, which had been rooted in improvisations from the actors. That permits the film to really feel extra exact because it shifts gears and displays the unsure realities of life.

“The comedy that occurs in these motion pictures, the awkwardness, is as a result of everybody’s committing to who they’re and grounded in these eventualities,” stated Baena. “After which when their character is interacting with one other character, who’s type of dug into that place and so they’re in battle, that’s the place the comedy comes up. So it’s much less about humorous traces and throwaway jokes and extra concerning the dynamics … the place everybody’s coming from and the way that’s at odds with one another — that’s what you mine for the comedy.”

“We simply at all times need all actors to be so grounded of their character and their very own character’s private stakes, that’s bouncing off of each other,” stated Brie. “And nobody’s ever making an attempt to steal the highlight with a humorous joke, it’s extra about simply enjoying out these human moments.”

The movie additionally surprises with its lush rating by Pino Donaggio, the Italian composer greatest identified for his collaborations with Brian De Palma on movies together with “Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Physique Double.” For a tax credit score, it was essential to have a key Italian crew member, and Baena was an enormous fan of what he referred to as the “classiness and sleaziness” of Donaggio’s work, so he figured it was price asking. When it turned out Donaggio was , Baena, Brie and Plaza drove to Venice after they completed capturing to satisfy the composer. He gave them a whirlwind view of town, together with an extended night on the famed Harry’s Bar.

Baena referred to as the collaboration “a as soon as in a lifetime factor” and returned to Italy for the scoring periods. “I went to Rome to satisfy him on the studio the place all of the Italian greats labored, it’s mainly this one studio that the legends recorded at,” Baena stated. “And it was like my dream to mainly spend per week with Pino Donaggio and simply hang around with him. And he’s like this cute, wonderful previous man who’s so on the extent and is so sharp and humorous and so down.

“And his music is unbelievable,” added Baena. “It’s laborious to mainly say, ‘I wanna do one thing like your previous work,’ however I didn’t actually wanna push that. I would like him to go to a brand new place. And I feel he discovered this center floor the place it’s harking back to a few of his older stuff, however it feels utterly new and recent. So it has a well-known, but additionally distinctive feeling, which is what I would like the film to really feel like.”