MonogamyAn Interview with Rashida Jones and Chris Messina
By Brad Balfour
March 11, 2011
In Monogamy, actors Rashida Jones and Chris Messina portray a couple, Nat and Theo, grappling with the very meaning of that word. Interfering with their relationship is an obsession with a woman that wedding photographer Theo has been stalking from a distance. In trying to spice up his career he starts a business of photographically stalking people and finds the woman (Meital Dohan) who engages in sexually compromised situations. Though framed as a suspense story, the film really about what coheres or destroys a long-term relationship.
Jones, known for both ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks And Recreation,’ and Messina who played Julie’s hubby in the Meryl Streep film, ‘Julie and Julia,’ and had a reoccurring role in ‘Six Feet Under,’ do some of their most interesting work in this subtle almost documentary like indie film by director Dana Adam Shapiro (the Oscar-nominated ‘Murderball’).
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, both actors spoke about working together on this film.
You get offered lots of independent films. What did you think was important about making this film?
Chris Messina: I’m from New York and did a bunch of New York Theater where I got to play delinquents and drug addicts and amazing characters. And then Adam Ball cast me as a Republican lawyer in “Six Feet Under” and all my friends in New York thought that was funny and interesting.
But then Woody cast me as a Republican and then Nora cast me as a nice guy husband, and although those experiences were phenomenal and I would never change them I was longing to play something more complicated and darker.
Rashida Jones: Less Republican.
CM: And less Republican.
RJ: Understandable.
CM: So when Dana called about this movie and said he wanted to do a documentary about these two characters that completely sold me. We immediately went after Rashida and said I don’t know if we can get her, and we were lucky enough to get her.
Did you know each other prior to the film?
RJ: Chris’ girlfriend is one of my oldest friends in the world, and so we knew each other socially and all that. And I’ve always admired him as an actor and really wanted to work with him and see him in this part and be apart of that part. And I also just liked the idea that we were going to be telling the story that was almost allegorical.
It’s like a heightened version of what I think is kind of endemic right now culturally in relationships with people this age, which is like you’re supposed to get married, you’re supposed to be together, you’re supposed to be committed, but do you really want that and what does that mean for you and your future?
If you don’t want that how do you react to that? Are you able to communicate that to each other? What do you find as a distraction away from that? Are you ready? And I think that interested me. And it also interested me to play these characters in a way that felt dynamic enough that you didn’t fully hate him and you didn’t fully think I was a doormat.
You guys have great chemistry. How was it to get into character and keep that chemistry while having in the back of your head that you’re friends?
RJ: Making out with my friend’s boyfriend? Awesome.
CM: It’s actually safer because my girlfriend was like she’s never, ever going to want to be with you in a real way.
RJ: She never said that to you.
CM: She trusts Rashida so it’s less dangerous in a way. I was excited to kiss Rashida and more nervous to play the intimacy of the downward spiral of the relationship.
RJ: In a way you can’t know if that’s going to work or not, because in a way that could have been a hindrance for us to be friends and to know each other that well and for me to know your kids and your girlfriend and all that. But I will say I think the thing that made that not happen is you.
Chris is a very committed, genuine actor in a way that I don’t get to come across that often. I deal with people who are flippant all the time because I work in comedy, which is great, which is awesome.
By the way, Paul Rudd is incredibly talented and committed. But there was something specifically about Chris where I felt really, really safe; and this is not really my forte. And he takes a lot of chances and is willing to experiment and do a lot of crap to figure out what works and what’s right and what feels truthful, and I felt very protected being around him.
Did you know anybody in the situation that you are portraying? Did you draw it from anything?
CM: I drew from myself. I drew from my friends and the stories they’ve told me and the breakups that I’ve had and the relationships that just kind of missed.
What I wanted to do with this movie is I didn’t want to leave anything not on the table. I wanted to bring it all, all the shit, whatever I had, I wanted to put it on the table. That was the requirement of me doing it.
RJ: Similarly, I definitely relate a lot. I think when we shot that breakup scene Chris and I both, I had a really hard time recovering from that. I don’t do as much drama as I do comedy and you can’t really tell your body that you’re not breaking up.
I felt like I was breaking up and it felt so real and so painful. But I feel really grateful to have had that experience because I’m not sure every actor gets to have that kind of experience.
Why does comedy comes to you so well because it’s like a release from that background in some way?
RJ: I don’t know. Maybe. More and more as I get older I believe in nature more than nurture and I feel like I’ve always been the same person, I’ve always liked crossword puzzles and reading books and wry comedy and sensible clothes. That’s just always been how I’ve been, and my parents are not those people. They did what they could to just nurture me and love me through that and let me be who I am.
This movie is it’s a study on obsession too. Have you guys ever been obsessed by anything or have an obsessive nature or quality? Did you find it to be that too?
CM: Not to the extent of this character. I think the obsession in this movie, if there wasn’t this girl or this obsession it would have been something else. This relationship probably would have broken somehow or blown up somehow.
But for me in my life I’ve pathetically always been obsessed with actors, which his kind of boring I guess. But I’ve always been obsessed with everybody that you probably think, from Robert De Niro to Dustin Hoffman.
RJ: I’m a pretty moderate person. I’m pretty level headed. I had teen obsessions. All the normal ‘80s like Kurt Cameron, Ricky Schroeder.
Duran Duran?
RJ: Oh my god Duran Duran, yeah. I actually hung out with them and had dinner with Nick Rhodes a couple of months ago and it was probably one of the best nights of my life. It was the same week that I got to make out with Rob Lowe on my television show and it was like ‘80s fantasy week. It was like make your obsessions come true week. Make out with Rob Lowe, what? I don’t even understand. I still don’t understand. I don’t get it.
Is it hard to juggle all these things? With TV, I know you still like to write…
CM: And she’s writing a lot. She’s got a bunch of scripts.
It is hard to juggle? Do you focus on doing this now or doing this later or is it just go at it whenever you can?
RJ: It’s interesting that you say that because I’m trying to figure out how to balance those things. I’m slightly exhausted because I’m trying to optimize every opportunity, and you can’t do that because you’ll just burn out. I’m realizing that I have to find a way to take care of myself.
But I’ve been very lucky in the sense that I’ve been able to pursue those things so I’m trying to meet that luck with some gratitude and hard work, and hopefully at some point I’ll take a break.
Could you talk a little bit about what you’ve encountered as a woman of color?
RJ: It’s such a complicated issue. I’m so proud of all of my heritages, and I’ve got lots, and I’m so happy to be a part of the history or people of color in film in any way that I can be. It definitely bums me out that it’s not more represented, but I also feel like at a certain point everybody’s going to kind of look like me and we’re not going to be able to judge each other based on the way that we look.
Whatever discrimination people have faced, or I’ve even faced – “You’re not white enough. You’re not black enough” – everybody’s going to get over it. I’m proud to be black, I’m proud to be Jewish, I’m proud to be all these things, but I don’t ever want people to feel like they can take ownership of me and use it as a fight against the other side. I just feel like we’re kind of past that. I feel like it’s not postmodern to think that way.
Are you leaning towards comedy or are you doing more serious?
RJ: For writing? I write with a partner and we’re sort of in the middle where we do write comedy but it comes out of relationship stuff. We don’t write straightforward, broad comedy, it’s more situational.
So each of you have a passion project that you’d like to bring forward?
CM: I have a bunch of projects right now.
RJ: You’re working on a lot of stuff right now.
CM: I don’t write. I have a film that I did with this actor, Matt Ross, from “Big Love,” and we improvised a movie together and through improvising we wrote it down. And then this New York theater actress, Marin Ireland, we did the movie together, and it’s 10 years in hotel rooms, two people having an affair over 10 years. Then we improvised what was on the page and we shot it in LA and New York. I want to direct.
What about your next few projects.
RJ: I’m still learning about improv. I get to work with such talented improvisers it makes it much easier to learn. And yeah, having done that in “I Love You, Man” and in “Parks and Recreation” and a tiny bit on “The Office” I think maybe I got to bring some of that to this movie.
But it ends up being the same thing that you’re doing when you’re acting, which is you’re just listening. That’s really all it is. I think it’s the kind of thin you can only get better at.
Besides “My Idiot Brother” what else do you have coming out?
RJ: That’s coming out and then “The Muppets” comes out on Thanksgiving. And I’m in a movie called “The Big Year,” which comes out in October with Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
And these are all comedies?
RJ: “The Big Year” is kind of. David Frankel directed it, who did “Marley & Me” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” so it’s kind more of a heartfelt comedy about bird watching.
Doing something like this that’s more romantic as opposed to comic did it help inform how you do your romantic comedies now or do you think it will?
RJ: I like to do things that feel challenging and different from what I’ve done before, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do that. And hopefully every experience I have I can bring to the next one.
CM: Obviously Rashida is very funny, but what makes her so funny is that she’s so real. She’s so honest; I think that’s what’s so funny about her. And she’s funny in this movie. I was watching it last night laughing. But touching and moving. It’s funny out of the truth. I don’t think of you as a comedic actor, you’re just an honest actor.
Is this the first time you sang on film?
RJ: I think so.
Why did you wait so long and what was the experience like?
RJ: It was horrifying. No, it wasn’t horrifying, it was scary. I was definitely scared. I don’t know. How could you pursue singing in a film? It’s such a small category of thing to do.
CM: You could put out an album. You have a nice voice.
RJ: Yeah, I don’t know, maybe. I would like to. In a vacuum it would be a nice idea, but I would love to do it in a way where I could actually commit to it and be good at it and also not have to promote it or be an artist at a label.
But you have connections.
RJ: Yeah, but who wants to do that? I’m 35. Who wants to start all over?
What made it scary?
RJ: There’s something out it where you feel so vulnerable. And I was in front of extras, which is basically like being in front of an audience on open mic night; they’ve never heard be sing.
CM: And you did it over and over.
RJ: Over, and over, and over again. We’re also playing out the scene between us where we’re making each other cry. It was just very exposing. I did not feel good.
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