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Roundtable Interview With Lake Bell And Demetri Martin On In A World…

Bell brought her extraordinary talent to the big screen once again in the quirky comedy, In A World. This is Bell's first attempt at writing and directing a feature, and I think audiences will be pleasantly surprised by the end result - her cast mates definitely seemed to be.

In A World

In A World

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Tell us about the casting. Why did you decide to direct this?

Lake Bell: I am very lucky that I have great friends who took a chance on me as a director and lent their talents, because obviously it’s difficult to in all of our lives, to take a second, and do any project that is not your own. Especially since the majority of my cast, Demetri Martin included, Michaela Watkins, Rob Corddry, Ken Marino, Tig Notaro, all people who generate their own content and have their own projects they’re trying to get up, lift off.

Demetri Martin: We’re all hustlers. We’ve got to try to find different ways to get work.

Lake Bell: Exactly!

Demetri Martin: If you’re lucky you get cast in a movie like Lake’s along the way, which is cool.

Lake Bell: But it is a community and I think that we try to, whilst you want to be supportive, but you also have your own shit going on.

Demetri Martin: For sure, but it’s cool to get to work on a movie, and you go to lunch with the cast and stuff, and people can make connections with each other in different ways and say ‘oh, you’re halfway through your script,’ or ‘you’re doing improv, how’s that going?’ It seems maybe that’s just how it is these days, or maybe that’s just being on a smaller indie film. On this one, I guess it’s more of a testament to also the people you know, and having directed Children’s Hospital, right? You got to meet some of those folks, too, directing episodes.

Lake Bell: Right, and I mean for instance, Children’s Hospital has been such a huge part of my life for the past five years and I’m so lucky being on it, obviously as an actor, but then as Demetri was saying, to direct it, definitely gave me a taste of what it’s like to direct friends, which is a challenge onto itself because you know especially with comedians there is this moment of ‘OK, now we’re really working.’ Obviously we can do bits till the cows come home, but at the end of the day we don’t have time to goof around anymore. We have to make our day.

Was there anything Demetri that you brought to the character that Lake’s words didn’t necessarily translate on the page?

Demetri Martin: I thought the character was very well-drawn, so I don’t know if I brought that much to it. What Lake did which was cool for me, and helpful, was I think she was attentive to try to figure out ‘hey, how do we have chemistry, like how is this going to work?’ and ‘what’s the arc here? Like how do these two people work if someone’s watching this story, whatever number of scenes we’re in together, does it move well?’ And then, ‘let’s cover it. Let’s shoot what’s written and then let’s see what we can fiddle with if there’s something.’ But what’s kind of fun is when the director has acting experience, because then when they’re directing you it’s as an actor, I think they’re really mindful of how to communicate. I don’t know a lot of directors, and I certainly don’t know a lot of director-actors, but it was cool working with Lake because as someones who’s both of those, she’s trying to speak your language and communicate with you and say – ‘What I’m trying to do here is this, and how do you feel about this?’ So that’s cool. Then when you’re improvising, at least it’s directed cause it’s very easily gratuitous when people improvise, what’s funny on the day is not necessarily funny to an audience who weren’t there, they don’t care. You just got to play it on the screen so the content is in the confines of being true to the story, and then find a couple of spots to fiddle with it a little.

Voice-over is mostly done by men. What are your thoughts on that?

Demetri Martin: Absolutely, which I thought was such a cool, smart thing about the script that Lake wrote and then having it directed by a woman. It was cool as a male actor to be in scenes with funny women, and scenes that are written in which women are allowed to be funny, because it just makes it better for the guy anyway. Do you know what I mean? As opposed to that kind of  insecurity, ‘I’m the guy, I’m going to be funny here,’ it’s just me. I think it’s cool when it’s balanced because you need to hear that voice, and it’s cool it’s about voice.

What do you guys want people to get from the film?

Lake Bell: At the end of the day I don’t like to be preached to, so I never want to preach to anyone else, but I think that there are naturally some messages built into the movie. At the end of the day, I want people to have a good time. It’s a comedy. You don’t have to over think it. Just go in, get some popcorn, and relax. The messages that are sort of sewn in are somewhat gently feminist in the sense that there is this, there are two things going on – the sexy baby vocal virus that is rampant in our country, is something that I want to discuss in the movie and perhaps make young ladies aware of, it is a pandemic, in my opinion, that I don’t think we would be doing this country a disservice by getting rid of it.

Demetri Martin: It’s interesting to see that evolution – that version of the valley girl in the 80s.

Lake Bell: And then hearing girls, who maybe coming from a slightly younger generation who are even just like temps or they’re interns at where ever you’re working, you’re pumping gas and hear a girl on the phone spattering away at things. It’s a really interesting trend, but it is a trend, it’s a dialect. It’s something put on. That’s what I find so interesting about it because there has to be a modicum of self-awareness there. You have to know that that’s not your real voice.

Demetri Martin: For me, as just an actor in the movie, I was grateful to be in a movie that I thought had a well thought out and structured story, and there were a few storylines woven together. So hopefully people will go to it and like it, and there will be word-of-mouth, people will say ‘hey it’s a comedy, but  it’s also a decent story.’ You know you kind of remember an actual story being told, whereas not just a bunch of bits. There are comedies that I perfectly enjoy that are  a bunch of small sketches strewn together, but it’s cool when they’re more carefully woven.

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