This was a huge year for actress Alison Brie. You may know her from Community or Mad Men, from her one shining episode on Hannah Montana in 2016 as Nina, or from her early years acting at her local JCC in South Pasadena… But regardless of how you know her, she has had a YEAR. She starred in GLOW and three (!!) hit movies. Oh, and she also got married to Dave Franco. NBD.
Alison has truly had a breakout year. Read on for 18 things about Alison’s amazing year, in her own words…
1. First and foremost: She joined Instagram on March 2 of this year (@officialalibrie) with a promo for her Netflix show GLOW. She captioned her first insta “GLOW – JUNE 23rd!!! Are you ready??” and we are here for her enthusiastic use of punctuation!!!
2. GLOW is the job she’s worked the hardest for, telling Vulture, “the fact that they didn’t think I was right for the role made me want to do it even more because I was really looking to showcase the different sides of myself and prove to the world that I can play a different type of character. It was an amazing clue that they were like, ‘We don’t’ think you’re capable of this.’ And I’m like, I’m going to prove you wrong.”
3. *And* the show helped with her body-positivity. She told The Hollywood Reporter, “I feel like I have more confidence than ever and I really learned to love my body and work with my body rather than against it, which is healthy.”
4. Training for the show also helped her relationship to food. She explained to Marie Claire, “I’ve had fucked up food issues like most women in Hollywood; my whole life I’ve had a weird relationship with food. So it was nice to be like ‘I’m thinking about what I’m eating, but not in a psychotic way.’”
5. She did all her own stunts, and being in the wrestling ring is “the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced.”
6. And she is so, so, so proud of the show, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter, “I couldn’t think of another thing that’s on right now to compare it to. Even when I watch it, the feel and look of it is more like an ‘80s movie than like anything on TV right now. I’m just so proud of the show. I’m proud of all the women on it; I think everyone shines.”
7. Along with starring in the critically acclaimed show, she got married to Dave Franco (yes, James’ little brother) in a private wedding in March!! (Before or after joining Instagram!? The people Need To Know.)
8. And her marriage is going swimmingly, as she explained to People,“Something about being married made me feel so settled, almost more free, I guess, rather than like trapped.” They met in 2011, and got engaged in August 2015. Franco explains, “when we first started dating, my birthday came up in the first three months of the relationship. She started planning a surprise party, which was very sweet. But it got out of control… Alison and I still talk about how if we can survive my surprise party, we can survive anything.”
9. She’s starring in a movie with Dave and brother-in-law James Franco called The Disaster Artist, where she plays the girlfriend of Dave’s character. 😏😏 On the set of the film, she instagrammed the Franco brothers, writing, “See what these two chickens are getting up to…*cheep cheep cheep* 🐔” Is that a reference to something Dave said earlier? In an interview, Dave said the most challenging scene to shoot was the one “where he’s naked except for the co-k sock… That was the first day my wife, Alison, came to set, so she walked in on that and was like, ‘Wow, this movie is gonna be different.’”
10. AND she also co-starred in The Little Hours, a movie with Dave, Molly Shannon, and Aubrey Plaza. The movie had no script and Brie said the experience of wearing a nun’s habit was “terrible.”
11. She really hates nun habits, which made the nudity in the film even better: “[The nun habit is] very oppressive, as it’s meant to be. You’re really robbed of a sexual identity or a femininity or feminine identity or anything like that. And the clothes themselves are very heavy, and you could only see so much of your body. I felt very depressed wearing that, and you could see why the women in this movie want to let out all of these repressed feelings underneath those things. So I feel it’s very satisfying, even watching the movie, and seeing everybody so covered up all of the time to finally see a full body in not an exploitive way, but a sort of organic way.”
12. Even though she played a debaucherous nun, she is a proud Jew. She explains that “I had no personal history with nuns or Catholicism” and that her mother “would always make sure we knew we were Jewish. I remember being 6 years old and her saying, ‘you know you guys are Jewish. If Hitler came today he would take you.’”
13. The Little Hours was based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century “The Decameron,” and is a hilarious look at sexually frustrated nuns. Alison explains to the LA Times, “What we’re sort of playing with in this movie is the idea that these women are trapped in this lifestyle that they didn’t choose, and they do have sexual desires and anger and resentment and different things, which at first we see them taking out on each other.”
14. She loves working with Dave, explaining, “More than anything it’s just nice to be together. You spend so much time apart when you’re shooting on location and in different cities, so to be able to go together to Italy for a month in the springtime was great. The same thing just even about working with friends and people that I know and love — it’s just so much more fun, you get to skip that period of time where you’re trying to get to know everyone and being polite. You just get to be intimate with each other and have a great time.”
15. The one movie she’s not in with Dave, The Post, she stars in with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks (a good trade, we think). When she was cast, Alison tweeted “In other news…(pinch me I must be dreaming…)” The Post is one of the buzziest Oscar films of the year; it tells the story of the publication of the Pentagon Papers and focuses on the importance of journalism (v timely). Alison plays Lally Graham, an American journalist and daughter of Katharine Graham (played by MERYL). She recently instagrammed, “So many icons involved in this film – and also me! I am so honored and excited to be a part of it.”
In other news…(pinch me I must be dreaming…) https://t.co/tk6zCzYVkN
— Alison Brie (@alisonbrie) June 6, 2017
16. Right now, one issue she is particularly passionate about is Planned Parenthood. In her interview in The New Potato, Alison explains, “It’s a vital resource for women in this country. Women need and deserve the right to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health.”
17. In February she made cookies and blondies for a Planned Parenthood bakesale, writing on Twitter, “Excited to support this VITAL organization. #istandwithPP”
Making cookies & blondies for a #plannedparenthood bake sale tomorrow. Excited to support this VITAL organization. #istandwithPP pic.twitter.com/jrphBhqERP
— Alison Brie (@alisonbrie) February 11, 2017
18. Last but not least, like all of us in 2017 (and beyond), Alison is obsessed with Wonder Woman. When she and Dave went to see the film because of their desire to support female directors and superheroes, she said, “I left the theater wielding a fake sword and jumping around, stabbing my husband, like ‘You have to DIE! Because of…love.”
Here’s to even more success in 2018, Alison.
