It’s officially summer, and moviegoers are about to get a very wild comedy. No Hard Feelings stars Jennifer Lawrence, and to say it’s a film that’s not safe for work is an understatement. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Laura Benanti, who plays Allison in No Hard Feelings, and she talked about what fans can expect from the movie that premieres nationwide on June 23.ย
“Oh, it is a very, very, very raunchy comedy,” Benanti exclusively told PopCulture. “Starring Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence and the brilliant actor Andrew Feldman who I know from Broadway. And it is like an old school ’90s raunchy, Animal House-y sort of feel. It is not for children. I cannot stress that enough. But I think it’s really funny, audiences are laughing a lot, which is the point of a comedy.”
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In No Hard Feelings, Lawrence plays Maddie who discovers a job where she “dates” a 19-year-old man named Percy (Feldman) and brings him out of his shell before college. Maddie is hired by Percy’s parents, Allison (Benanti) and Laird (Matthew Broderick), and while the parents think they are doing the right thing, Percy proves to be more of a challenge than Maddie expected.ย
“She’s a helicopter mom,” Benanti said about her character. “She has designed their world to keep him in a safe space. He’s like Rapunzel, kind of. And so she would do absolutely anything for him, but because she sheltered him so much, now he doesn’t know how to move in the world. So now they’re in this panicked space where they’re willing to do this absolutely insane thing in order to prepare him for the reality of the outside world.”
One of the interesting things about Benanti working with Broderick is the two recently worked on a play in New York called Love Letters. “He’s awesome. He and I get along so well,” Benanti said. “We knew each other peripherally from just being in show business. But the minute, within five minutes of working with each other, I felt like I’d known him forever. We have such a … we’re so comfortable with each other, and I just adore him. He’s hilarious. He is also very grounded for someone who’s been so famous for so long. I love working with him.”
In addition to Broderick, Benanti also had nothing but great things to say about Lawrence, who is also a producer of the film. “She’s amazing,” Benanti stated. “She is a Dior model who also happens to be hilarious and grounded and down to Earth, and an awesome mom and a generous co-star. And I honestly cannot say enough nice things about her.”
