CraveOnline: You have The Spectacular Now coming out also and that also had a great way of dealing with emotions and using humor. Did you have a similar reaction to that script even though it was more of a supporting role than Grace?
Brie Larson: Yeah, I thought that it was such an interesting story and such an interesting depiction, and quite frankly honest depiction as far as I’m concerned, of high school life. Of that feeling of freedom and the exploration of alcohol and love and those great first times. And then the magnitude of actions and the fear. I was home schooled so I didn’t really go through this but I remember when my sister was graduating, just the fear that starts to creep up on you where you go, “Oh my gosh, I’m out of this comfort institution and now I’m headed into this next phase and I don’t really know where I’m going or what any of this means.”
The kids that have spent their entire lives in academia can have an exact plan of what they want to do and then all the other kids who are like “I’m 17, I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.” It was really the graduation scene in particular that was the scene I felt informed everything else for me about the character and about the movie. I really love that that was something that was included and that was a big moment to them. I enjoyed exploring that.
What struck me about The Spectacular Now is that Sutter is a guy who doesn’t know how to let himself be loved. Do you think Cassidy really loved him?
I think so. I think about Cassidy sometimes because it’s hard for me to understand with Cassidy what she becomes later. I think that high school is such a specific period of time where you’re kind of trying on being an adult because of the adults that you’re around but you don’t really know what it actually means to be an adult. So there’s a part of me that thinks she goes to Berkeley and wears Birkenstocks and then there’s another version of her that goes to California and wears heels while cooking and has two kids and wears nice earrings. I don’t know. It’s weird that I think about characters after you’re done playing them but you spend that much time with them, you kind of feel like you know them in a weird way, like they’re your friends, your imaginary friends.
I think in her mind at that period of time, she loved him and I think that’s why there are some scenes, like the scene in her bedroom towards the end of the film, that are so raw and charged because she has all of these feelings that she thinks are love and feels like she’s in a relationship and feels like this is something but doesn’t know to what end is this relationship. But I don’t know. Perhaps she’ll meet somebody else and realize that that was never love at all, or that was the greatest love of her life. I don’t know.
I love that image of her at Berkeley.
Yeah, I do too but sometimes it’s really hard for me as a vessel, or that weird kind of puppet master. Part of my job is to be unbiased in my opinion of them and depict them as they would and not as I would like them to do as their parent. There are times when you want things to be different, like I want Cassidy to not talk to this person ever again but that’s not what she does and that’s probably not what I would’ve done if I was her in that situation at that period of time. You have to understand what the holder that your character is living in, what their perspective is, what they don’t know how to do.
Are they by any chance going to ask you to be in 22 Jump Street?
[Laughs] I have no idea. I don’t think so. I haven’t heard anything about it.
I imagine if she graduated, they probably have to go undercover in a different school.
Personally, I don’t think it makes any sense. They’re not going to go to the same high school, and most relationships in high school don’t work out anyway.
Were you a big fan of “Community” when you did that episode? Did you audition or did they just offer you the part?
That was an offer and I feel like I finished Short Term 12 on a Friday and then the episode of “Community” started on a Monday after that weekend. I wanted to do something that I knew would for sure shake off what I had been through with Grace. I wanted to do something that was fun and silly and the goofy side of myself and something that didn’t depend on me. Just being a guest at a family dinner, where you get to have all the love and great conversation but you don’t have to do the dishes at the end of the day. [Laughs] So It was great.I just got to be part of a family that’s worked together for so many years and they all have such great rapport that I so enjoyed my time there.
It takes a special girl to make a connection with Abed.
Yeah, it does. It really does. You’ve got to have some wit.
Looking back, I was realizing “Raising Dad” has an all star cast now, doesn’t it?
Yeah, at the time, it’s funny now imagining me and Kat Dennings playing siblings but yeah, they did pretty good. WB, they were doing good. They knew how to cast.
Is this a big year for your with Short Term 12, Spectacular Now and Don Jon all coming out?
Sure, I mean I think that every moment in every year, there’s something that I find exciting and that’s why I keep hanging out on the planet. I don’t know. I don’t understand what’s happening to be honest. I show up to where they tell me to go and I really enjoy talking with people about the work that I did last year. People seem to have really interesting takes on things and I enjoy that but I don’t know what that means for a future. I don’t think anybody knows that.
What’s next for you?
Oh, I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m traveling around with Short Term 12 for a couple more months and the only thing that I’ve decided at this point is that I am not making a decision until the movie has come out, until September or whenever I feel like I’m ready to make a decision. I don’t like being forced or asked to make decisions when I’m not ready to make them. There’s something that happened that’s really special about Short Term 12 and I care about it so much. I put a lot into it and that feels right to me and the reaction that people get feels right so I want to just keep going on that path, so waiting to do something until I know that it’s absolutely the best thing to put my creative forces towards.
That’s important to know about yourself to help make the right decisions.
Yeah, and it’s going to take some quiet. Right now I’m constantly around people and talking to people. It’s a lot of people telling me what’s going on and what’s happening and imposing upon me. Compliments are nice but they’re also confusing. It’s going to take me being at home and replanting my garden and taking at least a week to just drink coffee and go to the dog park before I think I really know when I’m in tune with myself. Right now I just feel like I’m returning the ball. I’m just playing a really interesting game of tennis. I don’t even understand how people know what they want for dinner and it’s the afternoon right now, so I can’t possibly understand what I want to do in the future career wise either.
I hope I wasn’t part of the problem with compliments, but I have compliments for you too.
[Laughs] It’s not a problem, it’s just hard for me to see that as reality. My brain doesn’t know how to file those things. I haven’t created a folder for those on my desktop of my brain.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
