‘No Hard Feelings’ Interview: Andrew Barth Feldman

Who is within the solid of ‘No Hard Feelings’?

‘No Hard Feelings’ stars Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence (‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ ‘The Hunger Games’) as Maddie Barker, Andrew Barth Feldman (‘A Tourist’s Guide to Love’) as Percy, Matthew Broderick (‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’) as Laird, Laura Benanti (‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’) as Allison, Natalie Morales (‘I’m Totally Fine’) as Sarah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (‘Tesla’) as Gary, Hasan Minhaj (‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’) as Doug, Kyle Mooney (‘Zoolander 2’) as Jody, and Alysia Joy Powell (‘The Sitter’) as Fern.

Moviefone just lately had the pleasure of talking with Andrew Barth Feldman about his work on ‘No Hard Feelings,’ his response to the R-rated screenplay, Percy and Maddie’s friendship, working with Jennifer Lawrence, performing Hall & Oats’ “Maneater,” and collaborating with director Gene Stupnitsky.

Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

Moviefone: To start with, what was your first response while you learn screenplay for this the R-rated comedy?

Andrew Barth Feldman: I could not consider how humorous it was. I used to be rolling round laughing virtually upon studying it for the primary time and feeling like I had gold in my palms. It’s additionally so humorous not simply due to how sensible the jokes are, how intelligent the phrases are, however how deep the emotional depths are. That’s why it is so humorous. Every loopy state of affairs these characters discover themselves in comes from a spot of emotional reality. You perceive precisely the place they’re coming from always, and that could be a outstanding excessive wire act.

(L to R) Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: Can you speak about Percy and Maddie’s uncommon relationship and the actually lovely friendship that sort of emerges from that?

ABF: It clearly is a relationship that’s born out of a really unusual state of affairs that seems to be one which adjustments each of their lives in a approach that no one within the movie might have anticipated after they orchestrated the state of affairs that they are in. I feel Jen and I’ve a fairly comparable relationship. We got here right here as coworkers, and we left this film as very particular individuals in each other’s lives. I feel she’ll at all times be part of my life, and there are issues I can speak to her about that I can not speak to anyone else about. So I’m actually grateful that I bought to do that together with her. That relationship that you just see between the 2 of us, it is actual.

Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: What was your expertise like working with Jennifer Lawrence? Was it completely different than what you had been anticipating?

ABF: I feel I used to be anticipating to be considerably extra intimidated by Jen than I used to be. I used to be so nervous. She is such a power on display, and she or he’s any individual I’ve admired for thus lengthy. But she’s a very fantastic, grounded, and beneficiant human being, and from the start was desirous to get to know me simply as a lot as I used to be to get to know her. That kindness that she embodied on set, even on the stage that she’s at, it begins from the highest. She was the highest, and she or he knew that, and that was an unimaginable mannequin to set for me.

(L to R) Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: You carry out Hall & Oats’ “Maneater” within the film. Did you create the association and may you speak about rehearsing for that sequence?

ABF: Yeah, the association is all mine truly. I performed it myself. I despatched Gene and John Phillips, he co-wrote it with Gene, and he is an unimaginable pianist in his personal proper, so he was capable of give actually particular music notes as properly. But we had a ton of backwards and forwards about what we needed this second to be, how we needed Percy to have this enormous sort of breakout second as only a particular person in Maddie’s eyes and the viewers’s eyes, and his personal eyes. The proven fact that it was Maneater, that track, I’m an enormous Hall & Oates fan. I’m an enormous yacht rock fan typically, so I used to be floored that it was going to be a “down” association of this in any other case very poppy Hall & Oates tune. It was magical. Jen and I each fought actually laborious for it to be sung dwell on the day, which is rather like 100 instances more durable to do. But we knew that if there was any potential for this second to be as particular as we knew it could possibly be, it needed to be dwell, it needed to be within the room that day, and we bought to try this. I’m exceptionally grateful. I feel it really works out.

(L to R) Jennifer Lawrence and Director Gene Stupnitsky on the set of Columbia Pictures’ ‘No Hard Feelings.’

MF: Finally, what was it like collaborating with director Gene Stupnitsky on set?

ABF: I imply, he was so open to me speaking about what was genuine for me on this character, what was genuine for me as an adolescent on this 12 months, somebody who’s round Percy’s age. What do they sound like? Of course, Gene would not know. He’s not one, and he, from the very starting, informed me that I needed to communicate up and speak about it. I truly wrote an essay on the very starting about Percy and his intentions and all these things, and he would quote it again to me in route. He was so extremely collaborative and giving us concepts, and taking ours. He’s a particular, particular breed of director.

Director Gene Stupnitsky’s ‘No Hard Feelings’ is scheduled for launch on June 23, 2023.

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‘No Hard Feelings’ is produced by Excellent Cadaver and Sony Pictures. It is ready to launch in theaters on June twenty third, 2023.