IN A WORLD… written and directed by Lake Bell, with Bell, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry and Ken Marino. A Sony Pictures release. 93 minutes. Opens Friday (August 16). For venues and times, see listings.
Through a series of scheduling complications, my interview with Lake Bell winds up taking place on the 28th floor of a downtown hotel. The Childrens Hospital star isn’t there I’m talking to a speakerphone and recording the conversation. Weirdly enough, it’s the perfect way to discuss Bell’s debut as a writer/director.
In A World… stars Bell as Carol Solomon, a voice coach tapped to record the voice-over for a sci-fi blockbuster. Unfortunately, Carol is the daughter of an industry legend (Fred Melamed) who doesn’t handle competition well. Their rivalry triggers a series of upheavals in Carol’s life, both personal and professional.
“I was always really drawn to subculture movies,” Bell explains, “and the way people express themselves vocally is a profoundly interesting topic to me. I’ve always been very vocally aware of my own mechanisms, and those in others.”
But In A World… is not a straight-up movie about voice-overs. That’s just the hook.
“It’s an umbrella to tell a story about a father-daughter competition,” she says, “and then the quintessential hierarchies that evolve in a multitude of industries, where there are cliques [in place] and you’re not allowed in.
“The voice-over industry offers a very sort of cacophonous and colourful tapestry to discuss interpersonal relationships, and then later on the sexy-baby vocal virus and what it says about how women see themselves in this day and age. It’s a cultural comment on where we are vocally.”
The sexy-baby thing? The high-pitched, querulous inflection that makes the speaker sound like a child bride who’s just walked into a wall, currently very popular in Los Angeles and reality television? Bell slipping that point into her reply mirrors her movie’s soft-messaging strategy. In A World… has an agenda, but it’s been carefully packaged in a very funny comedy.
Setting the film in the world of voice-over, she says, “offered an interesting stomping ground to discuss why the omniscient voice is always deemed male. You know, not to be preachy about it – because I don’t like to be preached to myself – but the message is in there, whether people choose to latch onto it or not. They might enjoy it as a comedy, which it is, and that’s what it’s meant to be… but, yeah.”
The comedy aspects are top-flight, and Bell’s assembled a fine comic cast – including Michaela Watkins, Demetri Martin, Alexandra Holden, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro and Bell’s Childrens Hospital co-stars Rob Corddry and Ken Marino – to flesh out Carol’s social circle.
“The reason why I got that extraordinary cast is that I’m lucky enough that they’re all in my iPhone,” she says, laughing. “My friends were generous enough to lend their time and talent to not only just be funny, but to take themselves seriously for a moment or exercise real emotion – and you know what? For someone who’s in comedy, it feels really good. It feels refreshing for comedic performers to have that opportunity.
“I know all these people, all these comedians as humans,” she continues. “People who are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers. So I know they have that depth and profundity, and I guess I was excited to show it to the world.”
Interview Clips
Lake Bell on directing herself:
Bell on the importance of preparation, but being open to surprises:
normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision
