Get ready for a full on Kristen Wiig assault. The SNL alum and Bridesmaids writer is back this year with three new movies—but don’t expect Bridesmaids 2 to be one of them. Surprising everyone in Hollywood, the actress happily passed on revisiting the blockbuster hit.
Talking to The Daily Beast about her post-blockbuster career, the 39-year old actress reveals her non-Hollywood approach. “When something does well at the box office, people assume that there’s going to be a second one, so when you don’t, it doesn’t make sense to them,”; she says. “But I approach things in my career a different way, and creatively, it’s just not something I’m interested in doing. That’s kind of it, and should be it.”
In her first leading role since the huge success, Kristen stars in Girl Most Likely playing the role of Imogene—a struggling playwright who moves back home to the Jersey Shore after a bad breakup with her wealthy ex-boyfriend. She takes on the comedic role along alongside Annette Bening, Matt Dillon and Glee’s Darren Criss. The indie script, which she discovered before filming began on Bridesmaids, is not considered to be the same blockbuster. What inspired Kristen to pick up the project? “People just expect you to do big things always—meaning big studio movies. I don’t really think of movies as big or small. Personally, even as a moviegoer, I tend to watch smaller films.”;
“And ultimately, it’s just the script. I got this script before we even shot Bridesmaids and loved it, and the writer and I started putting the movie together, got the financiers, got the directors.”
Feeling the full weight of her post-Bridesmaids expectations, Kristen acknowledges to The Daily Beast, the pressure she feels from the industry. “There are more expectations, and once you do something that’s perceived in a positive way, people are like, ‘OK, well, now what?,'”; she admits. “So you do feel that pressure, and you do know that people are going to compare the next thing you do to the thing you did last, so you can’t really think about it.”
In addition to Girl Most Likely, Kristen also hits the big screen later this year in Anchorman 2 and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty—both hitting theatres in December. A third movie, Hateship, Loveship, makes its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
And after all that, Kristen reveals she’s already working on her next project. “The thing I’m writing right now by myself isn’t even a comedy, so who knows what people are going to think about that.”
Catch Kristen in her return as the leading lady when Girl Most Likely hits theatres July 19th.
