I was invited/hosted by 20th Century Fox to preview the movie and interview the cast, all opinions are my own.
Snatched is a comedy coming out this mother’s day featuring Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer with fun characters, big laughs, and an even bigger heart. The film is a tale of Emily Middleton, played by Amy Schumer, a social media privy twenty-something with a below average work ethic but an optimist’s’ outlook on life and people. Goldie Hawn plays her mother, Linda, who despite being adventurous in her youth, now resides in upstate New York with her cats, her numerous locks on her front door, and her agoraphobic son Jeffery, played by Ike Barinholtz. When Emily’s boyfriend dumps her with their South American vacation rapidly approaching, she is lovelorn and looking everywhere to find someone to accompany her on this trip. In a strange twist of love and a need for adventure, Emily finds herself asking her mother to join her on this trip to paradise and Linda reluctantly agrees. What ensues is an adventure filled with ex-special ops soldier, a very intimidating drug lord, an expeditionist, and a test on a mother and daughter’s relationship that they never expected.
Meeting the Talent Behind ‘Snatched’ Movie
It was a beautiful day as I drove up to the The Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows to meet and chat with some of the talent from this film. I had the opportunity to speak with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn first. When asked about why Amy had fought so hard to bring Goldie Hawn into this with her she spoke to how when she first read the script the only person she could imagine was Goldie. With two very famous comediennes as the leads of this film, the question came up of how much the script was improvised. Schumer answered saying that,
“We both got the script to a place where we felt real ready to go in, you know, but then we were free ‘cause we really knew who we were and what our characters wanted and so we had the freedom to play a little bit.”
Schumer and Hawn really capture the ins and outs of a mother daughter relationship in the film and when asked how the bond between them formed, Hawn answered with this heartfelt monologue on mothers and daughters.
“You know, there are certain things that mothers do automatically. You’ve got eyes in the back of your head and you don’t want your kids to fall in potholes and so what happens is is that when they’re little, I think that’s who you should be (Linda) as a mother, right? But unfortunately there’s no transition that’s made. As they get older, they’re gonna have to fall in their own potholes and that’s when you have to remember to let go.”
Hawn then proceeded to retell the Myth of Daphne and Persephone and talk to how it feels to be a mother and what that means once your daughter has left the nest. She then spoke more to how important mother-daughter relationships are on screen as well as in everyday life.
“So, mother daughter relationships have huge implications of ‘Who are you?’, ‘How have you lost your power?’, ‘How do you regain your power?’, and you don’t regain it by telling your kids what to do…you regain it by becoming a friend. So I think it’s our job to allow our children to breathe and then they come back.” Schumer chimed in after saying, “For us to have the humility to look at ourselves as a mother, as a daughter, and [ask] ‘Could I do better in this role?’ And I really connect to how she (Goldie) says first, she’s a daughter and that really inspired me.”
When asked how she formed her character and whether it was based on personal experience, Schumer answered,
“Katie (Dippold) did a great job of writing this girl I related to and also someone that I would like to be more like in a weird way because she’s really optimistic and really believes things are gonna work out! A lot of my girlfriends from home, the ones I’m still close to, just sort of her mannerisms and stuff I would say I definitely thought about them.”
We talked for a few more minutes on the film and then took some pictures and said our goodbyes.
The Comedy Behind the Jokes
Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, and Christopher Meloni were the next to enter and chat with us. Once they entered the jokes started flying and they had us all laughing up a storm. When asked about one of his particular mannerisms from the film, Barinholtz, who plays Emily’s agoraphobic brother Jeffery, answered saying, “That line actually comes from my daughter. My four year old daughter who for some reason even though she was born and raised in California, she sounds like Madeleine” Christopher Meloni plays Roger Simmons, an adventurous expeditionist who helps Emily and Linda through frightening terrain and gives them a sense of comfort on their trek. On his character, Meloni said, “When you have a guy who’s spirit is so positive and so blind, I think he’s gonna win the day.” With these comedic actors, once again the question of improvisation popped up. Wanda Sykes, who plays Ruth, partner to Barb the ex-special ops soldier, began to answer saying,
“The script was solid so once we got what was on the paper, we got that down, then we just opened it up and let us play around a little bit.” Barinholtz chimed in saying, “Yeah, you wanna be at a position where you can improvise a little but you don’t need to and that’s where we were.”
Each actor chimed in with notes of agreement throughout the conversation. When asked what drew them to this project, Sykes began to answer by saying, “Well, when you say Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, you go, ‘I can work with this, I’m sure we can figure this out.’” Barinholtz answered saying, “Well, the original draft was written by an amazing writer named Katie Dippold, who’s a dear friend, and I remember her telling me about the premise years ago and I thought that is a great movie. A mom and daughter, it makes sense on an adventure. So I was already interested and then when I heard it was Amy and Goldie I was like aggressively telling my people I would like to come over.” Meloni chimed in and explained how he became involved in this film.
“I had the same experience, and I realize that what went through my mind was this: I got the thumbnail sketch of what it’s about and I thought, ‘that’s good! That’s a needed thing in the marketplace.’ I know the players, Amy and Goldie, and then you read the thing and from soup to nuts, from the beginning to the end, great, structurally great and then every character has a purpose, has a meaning, has a view. You have a deeply true three dimensional character and so you put it in the hands of capable people, you know, you really have a great thing going. It really was one of the few times I’ve ever gotten a project where the whole thing just fit.”
Snatched comes out this mother’s day weekend. In fact, you can Snatch your tickets now, and BYOM (Bring Your Own Mom) to see Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in theaters this Mother’s Day weekend: http://www.snatchedmovietickets.com/
