Aubrey Plaza on flirting with Robert De Niro: ‘He was terrified of me’
She unnerves co-stars with her unflinching deadpan. Now, the Parks and Recreation star is turning memories of on-set sadism into movie gold
17 April 2021 • 5:00am The female Bill Murray ? Actress Audrey Plaza, who stars in new movie Black Bear
Credit: Smallz & Raskind/Contour/Getty
Shortly after she turned 31, Aubrey Plaza received a telephone call from her agent she would never forget: she had been cast in a film opposite Robert De Niro. But a few months later, another, less happy conversation took place, in which she was warned that she was making her legendary co-star deeply uncomfortable on set.
Christopher Abbott: âItâs kind of unromantic, the Covid set.â Photograph: Michael Buckner/Deadline/Rex/Shutterstock
The actor best known for his role in Lena Dunhamâs series talks about his experimental new film Black Bear, lockdown comfort-viewing â and why his heart truly lies in theatre
Thu 15 Apr 2021 11.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 15 Apr 2021 16.07 EDT
âGabe?â asks Christopher Abbott, and for a moment across the screen he looks befuddled. Then the penny drops: âGabe, the name of the character?â He laughs. âI was like: âWhoâs Gabe!â I should know! Itâs been a while â¦â
It has, indeed, been a while since Abbott shot Black Bear, the âmeta comedy thrillerâ directed by Lawrence Michael Levine and set in the Adirondack mountains, and more than a year has passed since it premiered at Sundance. Anyway, such are Black Bearâs layers and twists that anyone â even its actors â could
We re always happy to see Aubrey Plaza starring in a new film, and
Black Bear arrives with plenty of goodwill behind it after a festival run and release in the States.
Empire has an exclusive clip from the new film.
Written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine,
Black Bear follows what happens when a filmmaker at a remote lake house plays a calculated game of desire and jealousy in the pursuit of a work of art that blurs the boundaries between autobiography and invention.
Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon co-star in the satirical comic thriller (and in the clip above), which will be available on digital platforms from 23 April.
Sight & Sound May 2021 bfi.org.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bfi.org.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sight & Sound: the May 2021 issue
Barry Jenkins tells us about reclaiming and rebuilding Americaâs history of slavery in The Underground Railroad.
Plus Promising Young Woman and the virgin/whore trope, Aubrey Plaza on Black Bear, Martin Scorseseâs discovery of Joe Pesci, Dea Kulumbegashviliâs Beginning, and a classic Satyajit Ray interview.
5 April 2021
Sight & Sound May 2021 issue
No movie or television show can really speak to what it must have been like to have been my ancestors. But it doesnât mean we canât try.
Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkinsâs adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Underground Railroad is his first foray into television, a 10-hour monument to Americaâs history of slavery and its modern day reverberations. As Devika Girish poignantly puts it in our cover feature, the series âgives thick, viscous life to stories that, while spinning a fantastical yarn, also serve to fill an absence in our cultural and cinemat