Lionsgate/Peter Lovino(NEW YORK) — People have been describing A Simple Favor, the new thriller starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, as an amped up Gone Girl. But Kendrick, who plays high-strung mommy vlogger Stephanie, has a better analogy for the film.
“It’s almost like if Sex and the City, like, if Samantha went missing but it’s like for real is missing,” she tells ABC Radio. “It’s not like, ‘Oh! Where’s Samantha?’ It’s like, ‘OK, but really, where’s Samantha?’”
In this case, it’s Lively’s mysterious Emily who goes MIA prompting Stephanie to become even more entangled in her friend’s life. Kendrick says she loved portraying the unlikely friendship between the two women.
“There’s an element of almost — like, not in a romantic way necessarily — but there’s a flirtation with the two of them where they don’t really understand the other,” she says. “It’s like one of those…videos of monkeys and tigers becoming friends, where it’s like, ‘What even are you? But, like, I guess this is kinda cool.’”
In her search for Emily, Stephanie tracks down Emily’s eccentric mother, played by Jean Smart.
“I always wanted to play, you know, the crazy lady in the dilapidated mansion with the cats, all the cats, and here I am,” Smart says.
Through all the plot’s twists and turns, director Paul Feig — a veteran of comedies like Bridesmaids — makes sure the film doesn’t take itself too seriously.
“It’s such a great thriller but it also has this bizarre sense of humor occasionally,” Smart explains. “You’re thinking, ‘Was I supposed to laugh at that?’ Yes, indeed you are supposed to laugh at that.”
A Simple Favor is in theaters today.
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