Alison Brie stars in horror film The Rental, directed by her husband. Photo / Supplied
Alison Brie stars in horror film The Rental, directed by her husband. Photo / Supplied
Few Hollywood stars come as frank and honest as Alison Brie, who recently revealed with little more than a shrug of the shoulders that she met her husband Dave Franco during a drug-fuelled Mardi Gras weekend nine years ago.
But while the rowdy weekend was almost a decade ago now, the couple were able to somewhat recreate it in preparation for horror film The Rental, which follows two couples as their beachside getaway in an idyllic holiday home derails to terrifying effect.
Directed by her husband, 35-year-old Neighbours actor Dave Franco, in his directorial debut, the Community star, 37, told news.com.au it was "true bliss" to be working together on set – not least because it gave them the chance to reflect on their beginnings.
The film, which drops in New Zealand on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, features a pivotal scene in which Brie's character Michelle takes party drug MDMA. "Molly" as they call it in the US.
"Dave and I had sort of infamously done Molly the weekend that we met in New Orleans at Mardi Gras, but that was almost nine years ago now," Brie explained of their "sex and drug"-filled courtship, adding that The Rental's story of how her character met her on-screen husband was borrowed from real life.
Alison Brie said Dave Franco helped her pull back on her drug performance. Photo / Supplied
"There's a scene where we're eating dinner and Dan Stevens [Charlie] and I are talking about how we met, and how we were on Molly when we met, and that is very much pulled straight from our lives," she said, going on to reveal how she prepared for a later scene in which her character takes the drug alone.
"We went about it in the nerdiest of ways. We booked a hotel in Ojai [California] and we cleared our schedules, and we went there with this in mind [that] we were going film ourselves," she explained, revealing that all did not go to plan (though not quite in the same vein of the film itself, thankfully).
"[Franco] had this work emergency come up... He may have done the tiniest bit, but for the most part it was me on Molly dancing for hours in the hotel room, him taking work calls out in the courtyard and filming me … It was pretty much just me dancing to Hall & Oates," she added, laughing.
Brie said the "Molly test" ended up being perfect for her character study.
"I do really think that it did [help]," she said, explaining: "I had a nervousness about underplaying it."
Dave Franco and Alison Brie plan to release the rom-com they wrote together during the pandemic. Photo / Getty Images
She added of working with Franco, who she secretly tied the knot with in 2017, "I loved it so much, it was true bliss for both of us I think.
"I feel like it actually did bring the best work out of me because I can't bullsh*t the guy that knows me better than anyone … Dave got a really honest performance out of me."
Elsewhere, Brie – known for her roles in iconic comedy series Community and Netflix series GLOW – said she finds acting in the horror genre "a fun space to be in and then leave".
Brie as wrestler Ruth Wilder in GLOW. Photo / Netflix
"The stakes are really high and you get to play with some different stuff," she explained of her recent pivot, having also written and starred in Netflix thriller Horse Girl last year.
While The Rental wasn't the first time Franco and Brie have worked together on set, having both acted in The Disaster Artist in 2017, they're enjoying the experience of working together in a different capacity.
Throughout lockdown, they even joined forces to write their own film.
"We wrote a rom-com," Brie revealed.
"It was so fun to see what Dave did with the horror genre, I feel like his take on horror was so specific to his taste, and to me very compelling, and I just thought how fun to kind of merge Dave's style with my favourite kind of movie."
She added that this time around, their preparation for the film was a little different to the "Molly test".
"I made him watch every rom-com on the face of the earth," she said.
While Brie herself has experience directing episodes of the recently-canned series GLOW, she said Franco will likely take on the role when it comes to filming their rom-com.
"The dynamic worked so well with him directing me on The Rental, [so] that would be our plan on the rom-com as well, for him to direct and for me to act in it.
"It was just so seamless, it probably speaks to some aspect of our relationship dynamic that I'm comfortable with."
