Premiering November 18th on Prime Video is the new wedding comedy ‘The People We Hate at the Wedding,’ from director Claire Scanlon (‘The Wrecking Crew’).
The movie stars Kristen Bell (‘Frozen’) and Ben Platt (‘Pitch Perfect’) as Alice and Paul, respectively, who reluctantly attend their half-sister Eloise’s (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) wedding in England.
While attending with their mother (Allison Janney), Ben’s boyfriend (Karan Soni), and a man Alice meets on the plane (Dustin Milligan), they disrupt Eloise’s dream of a perfect wedding with their family drama.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Bell and Ben Platt about their work on ‘The People We Hate at the Wedding,’ the film’s family dynamics, Paul’s difficult relationship with his mother, and Alice’s estranged relationship with her sister.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Kristen Bell, Ben Platt, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Dustin Milligan.
Moviefone: To begin with, Kristen, can you talk about Alice’s relationship with her family and could you relate to the family dynamics we see in the movie?
Kristen Bell: My family is very different. I would say that my family is definitely what keeps me grounded. The cool thing about my family is that there’s a few of them, and I’m talking close family members that haven’t seen anything I’ve been in because that is not my relevance to them. I am the little sister. I am not in ‘Frozen’ or in ‘The Good Place.’ They’re like, “Well, you don’t come watch me at work.” It’s not that they don’t love me, that’s not why I’m important to them. So, my family is very different, and I love that about my family.
But what I found so interesting is playing someone that has such a dysfunctional relationship with everyone because of a trauma that she’s experienced, and the fact that she just cannot seem to make her life what she thinks she wants it to be. I think that is very relatable to a lot of people, that stagnancy, that like, “Oh, why did I do that?”
Because the first 20 minutes of this movie, you’re just yelling at my character, “Why would you do that? That’s going to be terrible for you.” There’s something really entertaining, just to put it bluntly, about watching someone make terrible decisions. But we have 90 minutes, so we’re able to give everyone a beautiful arc to be able to realize why family is important.
MF: Ben, can you talk about Paul’s issues with his mother and how that affects his relationship with his boyfriend?
Ben Platt: I think something that a lot of queer people deal with is judging others before they are judged because I think we’re used to a lack of acceptance. I know that many people aren’t as privileged as I have been to have a family that has been fully, openly accepting of who I am.
Unfortunately, in the case of Paul and his mother, it’s such a misplaced anger and a distance that does not need to be there. Thankfully, spoiler alert, but you could probably tell by the vibe of the film, it does turn out okay and they can find each other again.
But I think it almost bonds him to his sister Alice, that Kristen plays, even more so. They have such a special kind of shared language and they really exist on the same wavelength, and theirs is my favorite relationship in the film.
But I think even more so when he feels on the outs with his mother, for the reasons that thankfully he finds are not true, I think he even burrows further into his connection with Alice as his lifeline and someone to commiserate with about it.
MF: Finally, Kristen, can you talk about the relationship between Alice and her sister Eloise, and why they aren’t as close as they were when they were younger?
KB: I think in a family dynamic it’s very easy, especially when there are three siblings. I come from a family of three siblings and it always seems to be that two have teamed up and one is on the outskirts. Again, like Ben was saying, there’s this misplaced jealousy because of years and years of a lack of communication or miscommunications. I think the overall lesson of this movie was you have to be able to communicate clearly and be vulnerable.
Because there was a lack of vulnerability between these two sisters for such a long time that harbored all this animosity, and so they’re coming at their conflict from two completely different places. It’s just interesting to watch unfold, especially to play the sister that is so jealous of her older sister who seemingly has this perfect life, and everything put together, and everything is so easy.
That’s low hanging fruit to be able to be angry at. But if you really look at the older sister’s life, you realize it might not have been as easy. But those kinds of conversations are hard and thankfully we have them in this movie.
