Harkins Tempe Marketplace was filled to capacity with ASU students who got the pleasure of viewing the advanced screening of Trainwreck, which was brought to us by the Programming and Activities Board. It starred and was written by standup comedian Amy Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow. The movie follows a woman set on living her life on her own terms and works for a top men’s magazine in New York. She gets assigned to write an article on nerdy sports doctor Aaron Conners, played by Bill Hader, who helps her see life beyond drunken nights and random hookups. From scene to scene the endless uproar of laughter from the audience could be heard. Various professional athletes and actors sprinkled the screen from Lebron James to John Cena. Amy’s unapologetic and provocative sense of humor was portrayed epically throughout this movie.
After the screening the floor was open to the following Question & Answer session:
Q: When you wrote this did you think you were going to be starring in it?
A: “I honestly didn’t think about it. If it did come up in my thoughts I thought that they would have like Kate Hudson- like they would have some gorgeous starlet star in it. My friends have written movies and then they cast, you know famous girls that they tell you are hilarious. I’ve auditioned for movies when I was younger. I would be like oh my god I had a great audition and then like Jessica Biel would get it, and I’d be like, well she is hilarious… If you asked Judd he would say of course you’re going to star in it.”
Q: As someone who is kicking ass in a male dominated field, what would you say is your biggest accomplishment?
A: “My biggest accomplishment is this season of my TV show Inside Amy Schumer, which starts this Tuesday, I directed and wrote the third episode which is titled 12 Angry Men. Where I basically rewrote 12 Angry Men, and it’s about whether or not I am attractive enough to be on television.”
Q: What was the biggest challenge you had in both writing and starring in this movie?
A: “I had to eat a little bit less. I had to lose 5 pounds; just because I was like oh my god the screen is so big. I’m not like a gal that that’s natural for. No but really I would say, letting myself be that vulnerable. Standup comedy is such a controlled thing and it almost becomes like science, you know when the punch line is, you know when people laugh-you figure that out. So to really air all my own baggage and deal with stuff that’s heavy to me and what makes me, me, was a big challenge. Even at the 1st table reading, we kinda like looked up at the end like oh okay, and that was just 30 people in the room. And now hopefully there will be more than that who see it. It’s a lot to put yourself out there like that, but I feel better that I did it.”
Q: Did you have a hand at picking the cast for this film?
A: “Judd Apatow and I really collaborated on that, I used some of my usual suspects from New York, who are my favorite performers. And then he wrote the people who are like so famous I couldn’t f*cking believe it, I wrote the role like the description of my boss in the movie, she’s fierce like Tilda Swinton – and then Judd’s like, ‘well why don’t we just get her?’ and I was like, ‘what?!'”
Q: As a writer, what form of writing do you find most fulfilling and the biggest challenge. Writing for an hour standup, a TV show, or a feature film?
A: “I think writing standup is the hardest because it takes, for how I like to bring it, years you know. Because you test it all out so that you know where the laughs are, it takes the most time. Whereas a scene, here’s the premise that I want him to talk dirty and he’s not understanding what that means, it’s sort of easier because you know the premise, but for stand up I’ll write 5 pages and get three seconds out of it. It’s a lot of work.”
Q: In the movie were any of those instances based on real ones that happened to you?
A: “Yeah I’d say 40% of it, even watching it now I’m like oh my god it’s so funny that this stuff totally happened to me, so yeah I’m all over this sh*t.”
Q: What really got you into your brand and style of comedy?
A: “A lot of it is the truth. For example, a couple years ago I went home with a guy and his penis was too big and I left, I was like I’m not doing that. The next day I called my sister when I was in Starbucks hung over and I was telling her what happened and we were just laughing so hard we were crying and I was like, ‘oh I should try this on stage.’ And observations that aren’t fair or just that I want to bring to light, along with one-liners that I think are funny and stupid; it’s just a combination of a bunch of sh*t.”
Q: Do you get any backlash for the jokes you tell?
A: “I get in trouble constantly. One Direction fans are mad at me for I joke I told at the MTV movie awards; they’re going to be running the world one day and then have me executed. But I just cannot worry about that stuff because it’s so arbitrary, the stuff that ends up getting picked up by the media on a slow news day and the stuff people get mad at you for. It’s like you have no control over it so I just don’t even sweat it. But yeah I’ve gotten a lot of backlash, and I think it will just kinda get worse, but my plan is to not worry about it because it’s so random and stupid. I’m never going to change my sensibilities to make other people feel comfortable, I’ve never been that way.”
Q: Is there any one you are dying to work with?
A: “I’m dying to work with so many people; I’m just dying to work again actually. My favorite actress working is Samantha Morton… Sh*t I feel like I should say some one that will make everyone clap… Vin Diesel! No – I would say out of anyone in the world Samantha Morton or Philip Seymour Hoffman, but that’s not an option. Everyone surprises me, like I wouldn’t have picked John Cena or Lebron james but they ended up being the two funniest guys I’ve ever worked with. I’d also love to work with Bill Hader again.”
“I hope what people take away from this is not to judge people immediately and you don’t know them until you really know them and why they are the way that they are,’ Schumer said.
You will completely understand her statement after watching Trainwreck, which officially comes out this summer. If you cannot wait until then to get your fix of Amy Schumer, then tune in to the premier of her third season of Inside Amy Schumer this Tuesday at 10:30/9:30c on Comedy Central.