Melissa McCarthy

Melissa McCarthy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Tapping into her criminal side with Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BY MIKE FLEMING JR.

MELISSA MCCARTHY LANDED AN OSCAR NOMINATION for her breakout turn in Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids, which started a string a comedy blockbusters for the pair. Now she’s back in the conversation with Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which may be considered one of her first dramatic turns, but only to those who have failed to catch the deftness of her talent on display even in the most outrageous comedies. She plays Lee Israel, a respected biographer struggling to pay the bills who turns to a new form of writing: meticulously forging letters from famous writers like Hemingway, Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward.

You play Lee Israel as an ornery, hard to-like woman with a total lack of vanity.But you make it hard to walk way without some sympathy for her.

Well, I just loved her. From probably 20-some pages into the script, when I didn’t even exactly have a tangible reason for why I liked her so much, I saw myself rooting for her. I realize she hasn’t really done anything that I should be rooting for. It didn’t make things easier for her at all, being caustic and tricky, but I thought especially in today’s world where everybody needs so much validation from other people on social media, I just loved the thought of Lee being like, “I don’t need you to like me, I don’t even really want you to like me.” It’s an amazing way to go through the world. And I thought she was so talented. There were turns of phrase she would use in some of the letters that I just thought, god she’s good and yet she’s being told she was obsolete, and, we don’t need you to do what you do best anymore.What would any of us do in that situation, if you can’t survive?

She died in 2014. Were you able to find out what drove her?

I could only conjure what I thought it was for her. Being so talented, and wanting to just let her writing stand for her. She didn’t want to become this show pony, a celebrity writer.

How did you find her?

I started by reading everything I could, but while Lee was a great biography writer who could live through other people, she didn’t put herself into her book. She didn’t want people to know about her. I got very lucky with two of our producers, David Yarnell and Anne Carey. Anne knew Lee very well for 10 years, and David knew her for 40 years. He’s the big reason she finally wrote her autobiography. Listening to their stories about Lee was incredibly helpful to me. And there was a wonderful character written into that script. Between all of that,I felt like I certainly knew how I wanted to play her and how she cocooned herself, I suppose, to protect herself. Which it really didn’t; it made her life much more difficult.

The whole market for letters by famous writers seems very sketchy. Lee committed felonies, but did you view her crimes as worthy of jail time?

Me? I’d let Lee walk in a minute. In terms of all the terrible, hurtful things you can do in the world, I don’t think this even gets put on the list. I do realize it was wrong, but I still think, god, those letters were good. I’m a little biased because I kind of fell in love with Lee along the way. I wouldn’t have even put her on house arrest. But maybe it’s good that they did, because she probably wrote more because of it.

Did you get any of her forgeries?

I’m still trying, still looking for one. I want one really badly. I’m still trying to figure out how I find one and where are they and who has them. I’d love to have one. I haven’t been able to figure out yet who actually has them, and then just as a point of interest, I’m also so curious to know what they’re worth. Wouldn’t Lee get a kick out of this, if her Dorothy Parker is perhaps worth more than a real Dorothy Parker? I just wonder.

Didn’t this character—the felon who’s flawed—used to be played by men? Maybe I’m generalizing.

I think you’re right. I’ve been lucky. I’ve played challenging women in ways that people are not used to seeing. You’re supposed to be cleaned up and perfect and pleasant and I don’t really know how to play pleasant. If they say, “Play blonde,”I can change my hair color, but I don’t understand the rest. Identity Thief, the role was originally written for a man. I was always reading scripts going, “Well, I don’t know how to play the female part, she has no point of view. But this part...”

It’s why I write a lot of my own stuff. I get asked, “Why are they always so aggressive or unlikeable?” or whatever the adjective may be and I think, well that’s what real people are. I have no interest in playing beige. It’s not fun to play andI don’t think it’s very fun to watch. If you want to tell a good story you’ve got to love the character at one moment. Sometimes you’re going to hate them, sometimes you root for them. All those complicated things that make it worthwhile.

But you’re right. And it is changing, inch by inch. We’re certainly not over the hump, but more women are demanding, “Give me more character, give me something relatable to play.” ★