Courtney Howard // Film Critic
TRAINWRECK is something of a rare bird in cinema; it’s a incredibly smart, subversive take on the traditional romcom formula written by a woman who clearly knows what she’s doing. That woman I’m talking about it comedian Amy Schumer. Having now wrapped Season Three of her highly-acclaimed (and well publicized) Comedy Central show, Schumer has set her sights on the world of features with the Judd Apatow-directed, heart-filled romcom.
Since the film just crossed the $100 million domestic box office mark, we wanted to celebrate the triumph with a few of the film’s untold – but totally legendary – stories straight from the stars themselves. So grab a boozy beverage, sit back and read the following revelations about this summer’s biggest hit.
Amy Schumer is insanely quotable.
This season of The Amy Schumer Show has been the most quotable and talked about probably in the show’s history. It should come as no surprise that in real life she is also just as insanely quotable. When asked about the differences between speaking to the press for her TV show versus the movie, she said, “It’s therapeutic for me to say ‘Yes, I’m not going to look like a malnourished bird.’ I like speaking to that as well as speaking to my work and what I’m doing.”
Bill Hader conquered his fears and learned to ride a horse. The scene got cut.
Apatow filled us in, “Bill had to learn to ride a horse carriage for a sequence that got cut.” Hader mentioned, “I was scared of horses. We shut down Columbus Circle and most of Central Park West for a week. Me and Amy were on a horse. I had to drive a horse carriage. Jim Norton was in it. The way Barry Mendel, our producer, I said, ‘How’s that coming?’ He goes, ‘Oh. So that’s cut. So anyway…’ I was like, ‘What?! I had to learn how to..’ I was so afraid of horses too. I don’t like horses.”
“Our Week With Lebron James”
Apatow said, “Lebron was really game to have fun. He knew what he was doing. He was a good actor. He might have even prepared. He showed up – knew his stuff inside and out, had ideas. I’m just happy when anyone is nice to me.” Schumer, with perfect comedic timing, responded, “Yeah. He was nice to you – even when we asked him not to be.” Apatow continued, “We had a whole week with Lebron….” Schumer jumps in, “Our week with Lebron – it’s like OUR WEEK WITH MARILYN.” Apatow picked back up, “I think athletes, because they’re speaking and in front of the camera so much, they’re very comfortable being themselves – being funny. We just tried to take advantage of everyone’s improvisational skills.
The sex scene between Bill Hader and Amy Schumer was awkward.
Hader elucidated, “Judd was very embarrassed. He was really shy when we did the real sex scene on the couch.” Schumer added, “He was covering his eyes. There was no eye contact whatsoever.” Judd asked, “You guys don’t get uncomfortable doin’ it?” Schumer responded, “You would say ‘Action,’ and I would really try to live it out.” Hader added, “You said the word ‘Thrust! It’s like three thrusts and then you say your line Amy and maybe two more thrusts, then Bill you answer her.’ And then you’d walk out of the room, eyes to the floor.” Schumer said, “Judd would yell ‘Cut’ in that scene and I would just roll off Bill and start screaming, ‘It’s so embarrassing!’ I wasn’t grossed out – it was just embarrassing.”
There are a shed load of cameos!
You may have spotted the blink-and-you-missed-them cameos from SNL players Pete Davidson, Leslie Jones and Tim Meadows in there. Goddess of all things cool, Tilda Swinton, is almost unrecognizable as Amy’s snooty/ self-centered editor, Dianna. Apatow mentioned, “Amy wrote her in the script just as a description of the character – that the character looked like Tilda Swinton waiting at baggage claim.” And then they got her. There were also a few other sports figures in there too. Apatow clarified, “Amar’e Stoudemire was someone we saw on Letterman and he was so funny. We thought, ‘That’s a nice personality for the movie.’ He was doing some physical comedy –waking up from surgery. Tony Romo was really fun to hang out with. We always try to put in people we think are funny or think in the future it’ll be like Richard Dreyfuss in THE GRADUATE. So we have Claudia O’Doherty, who’s in the baby shower scene, and Bridget Everett, Nikki Glaser and Rachel Feinstein, is the nurse. There are so many people hidden everywhere who are our favorite comedians.”
TRAINWRECK is now playing. You can read my review here and Cole’s review here.
