Co-Writer/Producer/Star Ilana Glazer, Co-Star Michele Buteau and Director Pamela Adlon talk to The Inside Reel about performance, venacular and the truth in regards to their new comedy from NEON: “Babes”.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 I'm scared of the decision I made.
00:19 But it just feels like destiny and this is destiny's trial.
00:23 [MUSIC]
00:26 Amniotine. You ready? It's a pretty big needle.
00:28 Oh, what? That's for my- Yeah?
00:32 Cool. Now cool. Okay. You ready?
00:34 Mm-hmm.
00:36 [SCREAM]
00:38 It made those moments with you two, you know, especially, you know,
00:42 where it'd be on screen, but in the house, so intimate, you know?
00:46 Or even the OBGYN office, it was that way.
00:51 Could you talk about, you know, finding the space and energy between you?
00:55 Because you each have such a unique energy, but together,
00:58 it's just like a symphony, and together, and separate,
01:01 it's like a soloist scenario.
01:03 Thank you.
01:05 When we thought of Michelle Buteau for this movie,
01:08 we couldn't let it go, Tim.
01:11 You know, there are, like, so many talented people in our industry
01:15 who, you know, genuinely want to reach out and touch their audiences
01:19 with humanity, but, I mean, Michelle is so special.
01:24 Seriously, when we thought of her, we were obsessed.
01:27 Me, Josh Rabinowitz, my co-writer, and Susie Fox, and we all produced it.
01:31 We, like, couldn't sleep until Michelle said yes.
01:35 Her energy is infectious and truly healing,
01:39 and honestly, the funny thing, what you're saying about both our energy,
01:42 it was like, "Is it going to be too much?"
01:45 [LAUGHTER]
01:46 "Is it going to explode?" You know?
01:48 And it's so interesting to hear you say that about the intimacy, too,
01:51 because I'm so glad that we had those spaces for quietness and closeness.
01:57 Like, I really cherish those moments in the movie
02:00 as much as I do the laugh-out-loud comedy.
02:02 Yeah, because when you love your friend, you love your friend hard,
02:05 and then when you guys get into an argument or something,
02:07 then it's, "Whew, it's so awkward and sad, and how do we get back to where we were?"
02:12 And so, yeah, I think we kind of dug into that,
02:15 and being friends in real life also helps.
02:17 Are you good, dude?
02:18 I need you to check my shit.
02:20 God, you're in labor.
02:21 Oh, my God.
02:22 I don't know the medical term for this, but your vagina looks like it's yawning.
02:26 Like...
02:27 [GASPS]
02:28 [SCREAMING]
02:29 I don't want to give birth and I love it!
02:31 [SCREAMING]
02:32 You all need to get out of the transmitter.
02:34 Wait, hold up.
02:35 Hey, did I ask you?
02:36 Thank you, thank you, thank you.
02:37 Today, I saw a baby being born.
02:39 [SCREAMING]
02:40 I am so proud of you.
02:41 Don't touch me!
02:42 Okay.
02:43 Oh, my hand!
02:44 [COUGHS]
02:45 I'm Edith.
02:46 Clark.
02:47 [CLEARS THROAT]
02:48 [SCREAMING]
02:50 Dawn, uh, crisis.
02:52 You've always had, you know, in terms of an artist's view,
02:55 but also in terms of a actress and a writer,
02:59 perspective and knowing how perception works.
03:02 Could you sort of talk about that and using it within babes,
03:05 taking that writing, looking at the writing,
03:08 and then transferring it into what you needed it to be in terms of performance?
03:12 Yeah, it's, uh...
03:15 There is, um...
03:19 I always want to make things feel like it's really happening, you know?
03:28 It's the way I came up.
03:30 It's like, it's the way I was shaped in documentary and photojournalism
03:37 and that kind of thing.
03:41 I want it to be like, this is really happening.
03:46 Then you add the big, broad comedy, like all of those kind of beats,
03:52 and you want to earn those moments with the intimacy,
04:02 the intimacy between all of the characters and this life that they're living.
04:08 And it's not just Dawn and Eden, it's Dawn's husband Marty and their family.
04:15 So all of these pieces, and then when the kids come into play,
04:21 and then Eden's father and his issues and struggles.
04:27 The scene on the subway when Claude and Eden are together
04:33 and making it romantic and also making it feel like a lot of time has passed.
04:42 And how can we do that?
04:45 You know, you've got what's in the script, which is the four trains.
04:51 But you really want to feel this relationship, that it is really real,
04:59 and that they've lived a whole relationship.
05:03 Like there's a movie called From Noon Till Three
05:06 with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland.
05:09 I love this movie.
05:11 And they have an entire relationship in that three hours,
05:15 and then they make a baby.
05:19 So it's those kinds of things that I was able to play with.
05:24 So if you have it on the page and you know where you're going,
05:29 then the sky's the limit.
05:31 I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, I am a pregnant person.
05:39 I'm 28 for 28. I could do a 29th.
05:42 Yeah, no. You are clearly pregnant.
05:46 Okay, I don't know how this could have happened.
05:50 I've had sex once since my last period, but it was on my period.
05:54 So?
05:55 So you can't get pregnant on your period.
05:57 Girl.
05:58 Girl?
05:59 Girl.
06:00 Girl.
06:01 Girl.
06:02 Girl.
06:03 I guess you can.
06:04 Girl, stop.
06:05 Girl, you stop. We went to the same school.
06:07 We learned the same shit.
06:09 Come on. No, you can't.
06:10 Ma'am, I'm a doctor.
06:13 You are a dentist.
06:16 But it's also about playing up the awkwardness.
06:18 It's about that vernacular, you know, that Alon we're talking about.
06:22 It's that, you know, the certain words you say are just like laugh out loud funny,
06:26 but then the heart has to be on the back of it.
06:28 It's tricky. It's a tricky tone.
06:30 Could you talk about writing it versus performing it?
06:34 Because it has to have sort of that volley scenario, but also that heart.
06:38 Come on. Are you a Somali native joke writer?
06:41 I know you better set it up from the front and the back.
06:43 Come on, Gordon Ramsay. Let's go.
06:45 Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
06:48 Tennis balls. Oh, blueberry.
06:50 I mean, if it's that precise, it can be just sort of riffing.
06:54 No, it is that precise, and that was so important to us, me, Josh, and Susie, in writing it.
07:00 This is exactly--I'm so thrilled and appreciative of your articulation of exactly what we were putting out there.
07:07 You know what I mean? You're picking up what we were putting down.
07:09 Like comedy and heart and comedy and heart.
07:11 Like if it doesn't have emotional--the heft of emotional resonance that we want, not just emotional resonance,
07:18 but as, like, thick as we want it, then the comedy is not going to be as funny.
07:23 And we wrote it that way, but I think when we were filming, like, we were very free and letting it fly either which way.
07:30 And also, like, to have that opportunity to be that dramatic and be that dramatic together in a way that we never have before was so exciting.
07:39 So that was really free, and then in the edit, I think, is where the musicality comes of the balance.
07:45 I have your back no matter what.
07:47 Truly, truly, truly. You will be there for me every step of the way no matter what choice I make.
07:54 I need to know that.
07:56 Yes.
07:59 Okay.
08:01 I am going to have...
08:07 a baby.
08:09 I'm going to have the bebe.
08:13 Mom? Yeah.
08:16 Yes! I'm going to be a mother.
08:19 I'm going to be a mommy. I like that.
08:22 Okay, mamacita. Nope, that's appropriation.
08:25 Okay, I'm having a baby, okay? Yes, dog, yeah.
08:31 But it's also, and we've talked about this before, it's empathy in the vernacular, the vernacular of how people talk.
08:37 And you can feel comfort in that space as well as the physical space.
08:42 But here it's about blending the two because of the subject matter, because it's such an intimate sort of story for Alana, for Michelle too.
08:51 Could you talk about that in using vernacular and verbiage, that notion of the word versus the motion and how that can be an irony within a scene?
09:01 What?
09:04 Basically, how they're feeling and how they're acting is different from the words they're saying sometimes because they're trying to reinvent themselves or reaffirm themselves, if you want.
09:18 You know, you have the script, as it were, and then you've got Alana and Michelle, who are two master comedians who can then enhance everything that's written.
09:37 You know, like, for example, when Alana's doing the scene where she's deciding to keep the baby, and I just said to everybody on the crew, "Just stand back. Just roll on this.
09:51 Whatever she does, this is going to be one for the books." And just literally, you know, turning a phrase that is scripted and making it elevated to the next level is something that happened in this movie.
10:11 You know, you've got somebody like John Carroll Lynch, who's playing Dr. Morris, and this part could have been just really, like, not really as impactful.
10:26 But it's just kind of this incredible experience to watch these two women in an OB/GYN's office, which is about the most vulnerable a woman can get, and the doctor is looking for validation and help.
10:44 And, like, "What do you think? How do you think?" And they're, like, sitting there going, "Okay. Go inside and look with a speculum." Anyway, I hope that answers your...
10:58 It just feels like Destiny, and this is Destiny's child.
11:02 Can you believe that? Did you hear that? Destiny's child? Oh, jumping, jumping. Whoa, okay, it's on.
11:13 Eden, are you sure about this? Because the hormones can be pretty intense.
11:20 Hormones? LOL, Mitch McConnell. I love you? What?
11:24 Eden, I just want to... I'm just trying to say...
11:29 John, you think I can do this, right?
11:31 Mama! Melanie's waiting for you!
11:37 Yeah.
11:38 Yes.
11:39 Yeah.
11:40 Yeah.
11:41 Mommy, wait!
11:43 Yes.
11:45 Is it about... And my last question is about the physical, because, you know, sometimes the physical comedy can inform the emotional elements, or vice versa, you know, because it's a very intellectual exercise, too.
11:56 But can you talk about the physical comedy and the emotional comedy?
12:00 Is it different at all?
12:04 I mean, the physical comedy in this movie is just, you know, for me at least, it's just, it's all about truth-telling.
12:15 Everybody's pregnancy story, labor story, rather, is different.
12:23 And, you know, it could have... You could give birth in five minutes, or like in five days.
12:29 Yeah, right.
12:30 And, you know, leaning into whatever that is was so important for me, for us.
12:36 And so, you know, once you understand how difficult it is to give birth, then you just sort of sprinkle it with, like, some humor, hopefully.
12:51 That restaurant scene's insane, but then your scene at the end, Alana, is out of control.
12:56 I was thinking of the restaurant, too, and that first lean, "Oh," you know, it was like so good.
13:04 It's such a beautiful question. I really appreciate it.
13:06 And it's like, I think even in the moments that seem most viscerally funny, I think that when we're coming from this aim for truth-telling, it's still vulnerable.
13:22 It's still an offering to the audience.
13:24 So, like, even I think that's also like in that sort of spiritual value is where that balance comes, too.
13:33 Ooh! Ooh, nice!
13:35 I didn't know we were going to church today. Where is my tambourine?
13:38 We gotta freeze it. You gotta do it.
13:40 You said you were gonna be at all the appointments.
13:44 I have a family. I'm Ms. Wong.
13:46 Best friends get so screwed over in adulthood. You and me, we're family.
13:50 Bitch.
13:53 Bitch.
13:54 Bitch.
13:55 Ba, ba, ba, ba!
13:56 Ow!
13:57 [Screaming]
13:58 [Screaming]
14:00 [Screaming]
14:02 [Screaming]
14:04 [Screaming]
14:05 (upbeat music)
14:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]