[IMG:L]Jennifer Westfeldt never planned to write another screenplay after Kissing Jessica Stein. “I just was so exhausted. It took five years and I think we made $1,500,” she says with a laugh. “Then an idea, I guess, just crept in.”
The premise behind Ira and Abby came to her the year she attended nine weddings and four of her friends filed for divorce. “I just tuned out during like Wedding No. 8…and listening to these vows, ‘till death do us part’ and ‘forsaking all others’ and being aware that it was just entirely a coin toss based on the statistics…I just sort of spaced out during the ceremony and imagined a couple that got married and divorced several times, where their vows actually degenerated each time into sort of promises that could be kept rather than these pie in the sky [vows].”
Westfeldt went on to write the screenplay and star in the film about two New Yorkers who fall for each other and get engaged all in one day. They marry twice, divorce twice and eventually decide that being together is all they really need. The affair between Ira’s mother and Abby’s father doesn’t help matters and neither does their many attempts at therapy.
Hollywood.com caught up with the actress to find out more about Ira and Abby, her views on marriage and more.
[IMG:R]On marriage statistics:
“I was hoping to get a conversation started, even though it is a comedy and its light and it is fun, I do not quite understand why marriage, and whether its working…why that isn’t a topic of conversation. It is not like “Oh, now 70 percent of marriages work.” It is always about 50/50. It has been that way for a very long time and yet when I was interviewing people when I was writing this film, people who were married the second time, third time I would always say “So, that must have been so interesting for you to go back and do it again. Were your vows totally different? Was the way you approached it different?” and it was “No, it was pretty much the same.” [Laughs]. No trace of irony in saying “till death do us part forsaking all others” on the second marriage. I guess I’m interested in how words don’t mean very much to people it seems to me and I’m not sure why that is.”
On getting to know someone vs. jumping right into marriage:
“I don’t have all the answers. I’ve been a serial monogamist since I was 11, but I guess one part of the film I was interested in exploring is that generally in a romantic comedy I think you see people meet cute and then there is a whole courtship…and they end up getting married in the end. So I was interested in just sort of starting at the end in a way or the beginning being the end. I do think that people are delaying marriage more and more in our generation… Maybe some of us are over correcting like if you are having the most romantic times of your relationship several years or many years before you are married I don’t know if that’s for the good.”
On working with comedic veterans:
“We got really, really lucky and we just had the most wonderful people and you know when you are making a small indie it is not for the glamour of it. They all sort of came to it with a love for the project. You know you are asking Fred Willard and Judith Light and Frances Conroy and Jason Alexander to have no trailers and to get changed in a bathroom. You know it is very bare bones. Everybody was really excited to be there which was really nice and we got really lucky.”
On therapy:
“My mom and my step dad are both therapists. [Laughs] So I kind of grew up in that world a little bit…I know my mom and my step dad are not looking forward to this being released in theaters…I hope with good fun. Obviously I think their views are incredibly important for many people in many scenarios, but I guess what I’m poking fun at more is therapy as brushing your teeth everyday. I think a lot of people get into this rhythm of go to the gym, go to the therapist. You know there is this idea that it is just something you do everyday or every week or every whatever and I guess that’s what doesn’t really make sense to me.”
[IMG:L]On art imitating life:
“The job that Abby has in the film was my actual job when I was first in New York and a struggling actress…I was the world’s worst sales consultant, and it’s just this hilarious gym. I call it ‘The Cheers Bar’ because everyone there is not working out…All the machines are constantly breaking, so people would come in and we’d just have long chats, and I would say, “It’s really not worth the money, you should just come in when I’m here, I’ll give you some guest passes, or you can get a job at the front desk once a week and get a free membership.” So it was funny to return to that spot.”
On meeting her boyfriend Jon Hamm:
“We had our first kiss in this hotel (The Four Seasons). We always come here for our anniversary. But yes, we actually met through a friend in LA, and then we were actually friends for about nine months…certainly we’ve been together nine and a half years. We’re not married, nor did we get married right away.”
On getting married:
“It is funny I’ve been thinking about it so much lately…because our 10 year anniversary is coming up. You know it is crazy. I just feel when and if we marry it would have to be really nontraditional and something very specific to us and who we are and not have any written vows. I think marriage and a wedding ceremony…obviously this society is set up to support married people and that’s a bummer. It’s a bummer that people who live together or gay unions aren’t supported the way a traditional marriage is financially and the way you are perceived.”
On being a romantic:
“I think I am. You maybe can’t tell that from this film, but I am a romantic in a lot of ways. You know what I mean and I think that part of this film could be seen as cynical or romantic. I hope it ends up being still romantic even if it’s got some darker comedy.”
[IMG:R]On pressure from her family:
“We’ve always had that pressure, but we live together and we have a dog and a house. I mean we are married you know what I mean? It is just whether or not it would ruin it. We have such a great thing right now it is better than most of the people in our lives…you don’t want to mess up a good thing.”
