Posted by LACMA | 16 Sep 2014
Bill Hader and Krisin Wiig Photo: filmindependent.org
Last night, the fourth season of the Film Independent at LACMA Series kicked off with a screening of The Skeleton Twins, followed by a lively Q&A with co-writer/director Craig Johnson and stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. Series curator Elvis Mitchell introduced the film, a darkly comic drama which premiered at Sundance this January, as being not your typical “Sundance movie,” and claimed that Hader and Wiig walk the line—which he described as “not actually a line, but a chasm”—between sketch comedy and dramatic acting incredibly well.
Hader and Wiig play twins Milo and Maggie, reunited by twin crises after a ten-year estrangement: Maggie is contemplating a handful of ominous-looking pills when she gets a phone call from the hospital where Milo is recovering from his own interrupted suicide attempt. When Milo is released from the hospital, he goes to stay with Maggie and her husband (Luke Wilson) in their hometown, where the siblings find both comfort in their childhood bond and fresh grief in their troubled history.
In one memorable, hilarious scene, Milo puts on Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” and dances and lip-syncs along to the schmaltzy ballad in an animated effort to cheer up his sister. Johnson’s original plan for the scene was a bit different: Wilson Phillips’s “Hold On” was the song written in the script. “But if you all remember a movie called Bridesmaids,” Johnson sighed, “that song is prominently featured.” Johnson’s producer called him after seeing that film and told him to choose a different song. “I took a day in my apartment,” Johnson recalled, “lip-syncing to every mid-80s cheesy ballad—I did Tiffany, I did the Bangles, I did Debbie Gibson, I did Gloria Estefan…” Hader dissolved in giggles at the mention of Gloria Estefan, and then he and Wiig improvised what Johnson’s neighbors’ reaction might have been to his lip-sync day.
As in that moment, the whole Q&A—not to mention the film itself—was characterized by the chemistry and quick wit of the film’s famously funny stars. “I won the lottery in terms of their chemistry,” Johnson said, “because there is so much embedded history between these two, that made my job easier. I had so much to work with.” Hader and Wiig had known each other for almost ten years and worked together on Saturday Night Live for seven when they made The Skeleton Twins, and they agreed that their existing relationship deeply informed their onscreen dynamic. “My performance wouldn’t have been the same if Kristen wasn’t in the movie,” Hader said. “I have two younger sisters, and people would ask, ‘oh, you put that into the movie—your relationship with your sisters?’ No, this is my relationship with Kristen. That’s the movie.”