The Comedy Rule Bottoms Shares With Classics Like Anchorman And Zoolander
The new comedy "Bottoms" is full of breakout stars, from "The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri to Rachel Sennott of "Shiva Baby" fame to Ruby Cruz, who starred in the short-lived Disney+ adaptation of "Willow." With its zeitgeist-tapping ensemble and Zoomer characters, gay high school fight club comedy "Bottoms" feels brand new, but it also seems poised to tap into a throwback sensibility in several key ways. The poster for the film mimics the posed arrangements of classic '80s movies like "The Breakfast Club," while early responses to the movie out of South By Southwest compared it to "Heathers" and "But I'm A Cheerleader."
The cast and filmmaker behind the movie spoke about some classic comedic influences during a special roundtable event with GLAAD and GALECA that was attended by /Film's BJ Colangelo. There, writer-director Emma Seligman spoke about the tricky tone the movie was trying to maintain and the importance of actors selling their stories with straight faces no matter how ridiculous the scenario. "I think that tone is always very, very hard to navigate in a comedy. In a movie in general, but in a comedy like this," Seligman shared. She said the notes she received during the making of the movie always went back to a simple rule: "Ground the friendship, ground these characters."
'Play the performances straight'
Seligman described the characters in the film, headed up by PJ (Sennott, who also co-wrote the film) and Josie (Edebiri), as people who could be questioned for being "awkward" and "sh**ty," but notes that the two actresses make their complexities work thanks to their commitment to the parts. "I think that [it's] just as great that Rachel and Ayo both happen to be very talented actors on top of being hilarious," she said, adding, "You just believe in your characters. And I think the funniest comedies have actors that play the performances straight and buy and believe everything their characters are saying." This is a tried and true rule that informed a whole generation of comedies, especially in the aughts. Characters in "Wet Hot American Summer" or "Step Brothers" don't consider how outlandish their actions are, but instead treat every incredibly goofy scenario like it's deadly serious.
That belief helps carry the performances "when it comes to how absurd the dialogue is," Seligman noted, but "it also means that when you're having an emotional moment, you deeply care about the characters because the actors have been giving it their all the whole time. They haven't been slaying it and hamming it up." Edebiri specifically pointed to two comedic favorites that play by this rule to great effect. "You think about like 'Anchorman' or 'Zoolander,'" she observed. "Will Ferrell believes that the stakes have never been higher than this local news station. Ben Stiller is like, 'I am a male model with blue steel. My life is devastating right now.'"
Committing to the ridiculous bit is back in
Edebiri has already demonstrated her ability to approach ridiculous characters with deadpan seriousness before, including in a memorable red carpet clip where she pretends she played Jenny the donkey in "The Banshees of Inisherin," or the Gawker profile where she acts like she's never met her friend and former podcast co-host. Sennott is a pro at it too, having delivered hilarious lines like "Your parents ... are upper middle class" with grave seriousness in last year's underrated horror-comedy "Bodies Bodies Bodies." Edebiri says when it came to making "Bottoms," the commitment to that Will Ferrell-like tone came through as they first looked through the script, asking themselves questions like, "Where is Josie at? Where is PJ at? Where is their friendship at? Just what headspaces are they in right now?"
She continued: "I think Rachel and I, as comedians and I guess as actors, it's like we can always sell a joke. We'll know a joke when we see it, and how to deliver it, but you're just like, 'What is the truth of these two teens?'" Keeping track of the emotional truth of the two messy characters helped her to keep the performances grounded — and, apparently, funny as hell. I haven't seen "Bottoms" yet, but Erin Brady reviewed the movie for /Film at SXSW, praising its "whip-smart jokes" and noting that "every actor is fully committed to the film's overarching joke, whether they are playing a self-righteous meathead or a secretly-nuanced cheerleader." Watch out, mild-mannered 2020s comedies: committing to the bit is in again, and the results could get wild.
"Bottoms" is in theaters on August 25, 2023.