~ by joel martens ~
Being the brunt of a joke is a trope that the media industry has relied upon for a very long time. The “Nellie” gay guy, the ditzy, dumb blonde or the funny fat girl are all characters we all know and have laughed at. Outliers who don’t always get that they’re the brunt of the joke—maybe they do and in this not always kind world—they strike first, an “I’ll make you laugh first” kind of thing.
We place them in an “other” status, far enough away from any kind of relatable emotional experience. Sadly, we’re not done with such tropes, though thankfully we are seeing work that look beyond those lazy characterizations and delve in a little more deeply. What a character looks like or what category they live in, be it man, woman, queer or straight, is just a part of what makes them who they are.
Brittany Runs A Marathon is a film that does just that. It’s a love letter to Director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s college best friend and her “compelling, painful, hilarious and inspiring journey she took in her late 20s.” It’s a look at a woman grappling with her life choices. Colaizzo turns the camera squarely in her direction, giving her the dignity she deserves and asking: What’s her human story? What does she want? What does she struggle with? How is her story everyone’s story?
He sat down with The Rage Monthly to dig even a little deeper.
Tell us a little about how you caught the creative writing bug.
When I was a kid I had terrible ADD. It affected my reading comprehension, so whenever we had a reading assignment I would immediately turn it over and start writing my own story. I guess that’s basically still what’s going on today! (Laughs)
The gift and curse of a creative brain.
Exactly. It’s at times awful and always exciting.
I love knowing what the roots are for creative people. It’s always so interesting to me how often it’s borne out of some sort of challenge.
Yes. I think all art is just mental trauma of some sort. (Laughs) So, enjoy this heartwarming comedy!
When did you write your first play, or was it something you had been doing since you were young?
No, the first play I ever wrote was Really Really, which was produced in New York. It was first produced in D.C. at the Signature Theatre and then went to New York in 2013. Basically that was the first play I had ever written.
I haven’t seen Really Really, but from what I’ve read it sounds like a fascinating production. I sense a farce, but at the same time it covers deeply serious topics as well.
I had just graduated college and the Duke Lacrosse rape case was going on. I was also doing a lot of research on the millennial generation, my own generation, and at the time I was trying to figure out “Are we exceptionally selfish or are we just 20 somethings?” I was interesting in exploring that transition from college to independence where suddenly your cavalier actions can have consequences.
A reckless night that could have been terribly abusive and can have terrible repercussions… That transition from time out to jail. Also at the heart of Really Really, is a complicated female character who—actually I’ve never thought about it this way—she is similar to Brittany is the kind of person we have been taught to judge. I wanted to create this idea that we shouldn’t be looking at her with such a black and white eye. Even though she comes from a challenging upbringing and can make questionable moral choices, she is someone who can still be a victim. I wanted to explore an audience reaction to that and see how it would play out.
I found it interesting that Really Really and your other play Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill and even Brittany Runs A Marathon have a sort of similar underlying theme around looking beyond the surface to see what’s driving the choices your characters are making. Is that something you consciously choose when you write?
I follow my inspiration and am typically inspired by things that are challenging or complicated and there is no clear good or bad. I like to feel for the bad guys, and I like the good guys aren’t always all good, because in the end I think that is how we all are. I am interested in complicated character dynamics where nobody is taking on an arch-nemesis. The idea is that we are our own worst enemies in a lot of ways.
That concept of quick judgment and the tendency to see things in black and white terms makes for interesting stories. Do you feel that reality is partially driven by the fact that everything is a sound bite because of social media?
Yes and no. When Really Really was first produced, I was exploring the Millenial Generation as a whole. What this idea of ruthless selfishness means for loyalty and our futures in general. I just saw a recent production of it this year and even though it was the exact same script, it totally wasn’t about that anymore. It now, in this day and age, was all about truth and what truth really is: The concept of how we define gray areas in a time when there is only yes and no and black and white.
It’s very hard to create story about self-examination without attaching some sort of judgment. I definitely noticed that in Brittany Runs A Marathon and get that sense from your other plays as well.
Ultimately yes. I wanted to make an entertaining, fun, funny, cathartic, emotional, inspirational story, and also wanted to present observations of reality in this world without commenting on them. There’s a scene in the film where the man holds the subway door for the main character; that was a moment where I had to make sure that the film wasn’t good or bad, but purely a reality of the world we live in. The idea that men treat women who look a certain way differently than women who look another way. I didn’t want to put any upbeat music or sad music behind that moment because it would telegraph to the audience what they were supposed to feel. Instead, I wanted them to experience the character’s raw reality.
There are many traps you could have fallen into with this film: the funny fat girl trope, for example. Was that something you thought about and if so, how did you work to avoid it?
I never wanted to laugh at her. I wanted to respect her and give her dignity and put her at the center of a story with love, kindness, admiration and empathy. That’s where the character came from; I never wanted to exploit her. Luckily, Jillian [Bell], who is amazing in the movie, didn’t want to either. We both wanted to protect her and deliver an actual beating heart to the audience, not a punch line.
That moment when you understand the world really does work differently, based on how you look or how you present yourself, is one I think everyone can relate to on some level. There are so many applications this film’s storyline has in the LGBTQ world, because we are so image driven.
Oh girl… I could go on about that for days! I think anyone who finds themselves objectified by any version of the male gaze is going to have to confront a whole set of self-esteem and validation issues that other people won’t. I can’t tell what is generational and what isn’t. We have a found family, it’s a necessity and you hope that those relationships are pure.
Great writing for film, television and other media resources helps us to examine and understand who we were historically and who we are in the context of today’s world… and how it changes. Tell me a little about what you hoped to show your audiences with Brittany’s character.
I was really focused on creating a character who was three-dimensional and showed us an archetype in a way that we’re not traditionally asked to look at that type of person. Getting her as vulnerable, real and accessible as possible with the audience, so that this character could become the everyman or the hero. Enough so, that anyone who would be watching the film—man, woman, gay, straight, any body size or any age—could relate to this character and go on the journey with her.
I get the idea that no one has a corner on struggle and pain, or that our lives are predestined to be a specific way. We are all challenged by something and suffering isn’t exclusive.
Yes. Suffering isn’t exclusive, but neither is dreaming. Hoping isn’t exclusive and self-respect isn’t exclusive either.
Isn’t it fascinating how we so often try to separate ourselves from someone else’s struggles. Rather than relating to a story, be it male, female, gay, or straight-based, we so often try to remove ourselves from the experience of it
Yes. There is this conventional wisdom that male audiences will only pay attention to or relate to a male hero, and female audiences will relate to and pay attention to either a male or female. What’s been incredible about the reaction to this film, is that straight men have a very emotional reaction to the end of this film… a lot of them. I can’t speak for all of them, but many come up to me after the screening and tell me how they related to Brittany emotionally. I think it’s because we all believe there is a role assigned for us, and we are sort of living that out. The movie’s idea is that that’s bullshit. We have the right to be the lead in any story we want to create and live in.
Jillian Bell, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery, Micah Stock and Alice Lee star in Brittany Runs A Marathon opening Friday, August 23. Check your local listings for theatres and showtimes.