We at Comediva.com had the opportunity to chat with the wonderful women who penned the script for Anna Faris/Chris Evans romantic-comedy “What’s Your Number?” Gabrielle Allan (“Scrubs”) & Jennifer Crittenden (“Arrested Development”) chat with us about working on a female-driven comedy post “Bridesmaids,” their own dating nightmares, and the significance of “the number.”
“What’s Your Number?” follows the misadventures of Ally Darling (Faris) a recently unemployed, single woman of indeterminate age (late twenties-early thirties), who finds herself faced with the question we all must confront at some point in our adulthood (or several points as the case may be): What the hell am I doing with my life?
At the onset of her journey, Ally comes across a magazine article that asserts that the average adult female has had 10.5 sexual partners (we assume the .5 is the Vince Vaughn “just the tip, just for a minute, just to see how it feels” variety of bed play). The article also warns that women who have had more than 20 relationships are less likely to get married.
Our heroine finds herself in a precarious position — she has had 19 partners. Ally is at the proverbial tipping point just before one falls into an abyss of cats, YA Vampire romance novels, take-out Chinese, and wilted pelvic floors. Thus begins Ally’s quest to find a mate (and maintain her number) by revisiting the ghost’s of lovers past.
Ally’s unlikely partner in boyfriend-recycling-crime is her commitment-phobe, Abercrombie abdominals flaunting neighbor, Colin (Evans). As the son of a former cop, Colin boasts that he is “good at digging things up” on people, and as a struggling musician he finds he has a wealth of daytime hours with which to do so. The two strike a deal in which Ally agrees to hide Colin from the commitment tentacles of the women he has slept with, and he agrees to help her bag and tag a husband.
The Evolution of the Project:
Allan and Crittenden were wanting to write an edgy female comedy when they were looking through the open writing assignment’s list (a list of available properties and projects that literary agents receive) and saw that producer Beau Flynn had purchased the rights to the Karyn Bosnak novel “20 Times a Lady.” The writing duo were intrigued by the idea of a woman going through her ex-boyfriends on the search for a soul mate, so they read the book, fell in love with the character, and set up a meeting with Flynn to pitch their idea.
Crittenden confessed that the initial meeting was somewhat disastrous.
“We had had separate careers in TV, and so we sort of knew the rules for television, but movies are different so we basically just spent a lot of time talking about how much we loved the book and how great it was going to be as a movie as opposed to laying out the salient plot points and things like that. So, he called our agent afterwards and said, ‘They don’t need to come back,’ and she said, ‘No, please…’ She told him how much we loved the project and we basically got a second chance. So we did end up getting the job, and then we wrote a draft, and that’s when Anna Faris came on board.”
Faris was in fact an executive producer on the project, when we asked how involved the actress was in the development of the script Allan responded:
“We were very lucky that she came on and seemed to really like the script in the shape that it was in. So she didn’t have so much to say initially. When we got to Boston we had this really charmed experience where Mark Mylod (the director) had two weeks of rehearsal with the actors and allowed us to sit in on that. So for two straight weeks we were able to talk to the actors, and fix things that weren’t working for them about the scenes and about the characters and that’s really when her involvement kicked in.”
“I think that her weight was more felt that way in terms of sort of preserving what she liked,” Crittenden continued. “That was sort of the trump card, it was, ‘if this is okay with Anna, then let’s do it.’ “
Features vs. TV:
Between them, Allan and Crittenden have worked on some of television’s most beloved and hilarious comedies, “The Simpsons,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Seinfeld,” “Arrested Development,” and “Scrubs” just to name a few. As such, it was a bit of an adjustment to move into features where the director and the studio executives have the final say, versus television, which is the writer/showrunner’s domain.
Even on a project as inclusive as “What’s Your Number?” Allan confessed that, “It is a little humbling. When we were in editing for the movie, we gave our notes and input — they asked for them, they wanted to hear them, but they didn’t necessarily input them. It was a little like, ‘Why aren’t’ they doing what we’re saying?’ But they don’t have to — it’s just a real collaborative effort.”
When You’d Rather Curl Up With 2 Buck Chuck, a Burrito, and the Five Episode Arc of “Switched At Birth” Than Go on One More Bad Date:
“What’s Your Number?” operates under the basic premise that dating in the modern world is a difficult, if not a seemingly impossible endeavor. Many a modern romantic comedy springs from the well of dating disasters in fact. It seems to be a premise that resonates with women, and just when you think there is no way one single woman dated a freakish puppeteer, a closeted politician, a 400 pound man, and a Brit — you recall that your gorgeous and talented friend just went out with a velvet-pantsuit-wearing, burning-man-loving, stilt-walker who stiffed her with the bill (true story). When we asked the ladies how many of Ally’s 20 scary ex-boyfriends were based on their own experiences, Allan shared that she had been through her own carnival ride of “hideous” encounters when she was on the market.
“I mean one of the reasons that we wanted to write this movie was to purge all of the hideous experiences. I’ve had some really hideous boyfriends and horrible dates. And I just think that they’re so funny, and so much about a certain point in your life, and I totally relate to how difficult and discouraged I was at certain times. I remember wanting to settle for the last boyfriend I had before I met my husband just because I was so tired of dating. I didn’t want to have to tell anyone my life story anymore. I remember saying to a friend, ‘If this doesn’t work out then I’m done because I can’t sit across from another person and talk about my childhood.’ And I was willing to make it work with someone that was so clearly wrong for me because I was just so tired. We took a little bit from here, and a little bit from there, and a little bit of Jen’s experience mixed with a little bit of my experience. But I would say honestly that some of the experiences that I’ve had you wouldn’t believe — it would be too broad.”
What’s Your Number… Slut?
When you see the trailer for the film, or see the synopsis, you can’t help but begin to think about your own “number” and ponder its significance. There have been several theories proposed over the last several decades which have in some ways penalized women for not getting married, blamed them for the lack, or, at the very least scared them about their prospects.
– “Women over 35 have more of a chance of getting kidnapped by a terrorist, dying in a plane crash, or [fill in the horrible outcome here] than getting married.”
– Becoming a “born-again-virgin” is the best way to secure a husband (not a bell I want to unring, myself).
– Follow “the rules” and set an emotional bear trap for your reluctant mate.
– “Women subtract from their number, males add.”
The writing duo stressed that they do not believe that people necessarily lie about their number, or that there is a reason to. The marketing team behind the film has used that notion as a part of the campaign, but the ladies do not find that to be the best indicator of the broader themes of the story.
Crittenden explained: “I think that the premise of the movie is that one of the main characters flaws is that she cares too much about this number. And her journey is that it doesn’t mean anything other than what she makes it mean for herself. So for everybody that number is different, and it only has meaning for that specific person. So, in terms of being too high or too low… hopefully at the end of the movie you’ll come to see that that’s pretty irrelevant.”
Female Comedies Post “Bridesmaids”:
There has been a significant increase in the attention that female driven comedies receive since the release of “Bridesmaids” earlier this year. The ladies feel that “Bridesmaids” did well because it is funny, and Kristen Wiig is a comedy genius (agreed). They feel that the media hoopla surrounding the film has a lot to do with the surprise factor.
“Nobody expected ‘Bridesmaids’ to be so funny and it was,” Crittenden mused. “I think it’s the same way (I mean it’s a different movie entirely) but everyone was so surprised by ‘The Blindside,’ but it was just a really good emotional story.”
“It hit a nerve,” Allan agreed.
When we asked if the additional scrutiny added pressure to the release of “What’s Your Number?” (which was originally meant to appear in theatres before “Bridesmaids”) Allan responded:
“I think that there’s a lot of pressure all of a sudden because ‘Bridesmaids’ did so well. But you know when a male comedy comes out and it makes a hundred million dollars no one goes, ‘male comedies are working!’ Or the opposite side, you know when a movie bombs it’s not like, ‘no more male comedies, sorry.’ They keep making them. But there was one a few years back with females that didn’t do well and then suddenly no one would make them — as if the problem was females in general, you know? It’s a little bit of a double-edged sword because, of course, all women in comedy are grateful that ‘Bridesmaids’ did well, because if ‘Bridesmaids’ had done badly then they wouldn’t make any more of these comedies. But the downside of that is exactly that. If this movie hadn’t done well, the idea would have been that women can’t carry a comedy. And each movie is different and it’s either good or it’s not, and it hits a nerve or it doesn’t, and I would hope that it’s not just because it’s about women or for women. It’s either a comedy that delivers, or not. If women are in it than there is a lot of pressure and male comedies do not carry this burden. They’re judged solely on the fact that either it’s good or bad, funny or not funny. They’re not going to stop making Adam Sandler movies because one does badly — they still make them.”
The writing team says that, ultimately, they just hope that there is still “room for them.”
The pair is currently developing a television series about a ‘90s girl band that has a disastrous break-up, goes their separate ways, and is now trying to get back together in their ‘40s. Of course they are continuing to work on features as well and with their talent, intelligence, humor, and grace we have no doubt that there will be plenty of room at the inn for the dynamic comedy duo. We very much look forward to seeing more from them in the future.
By the by, when we asked who their dream comedy lineup would be the women gave us a list that makes the wee funny bones in our toes curl.
Anna Faris, Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and, they hastened to add, “the resurrect Madeline Kahn she would be the ultimate — but Kristen Wiig is close.”
As for the boys they say, “Will Forte is hilarious and underrated and we would love to work with Jemaine Clements of ‘Flight of the Concords’ as well.”
Start fantasy pitching your own movie ideas for that ensemble.
