Alison Brie ‘super comfortable’ with nudity for film Somebody I Used To Know

Alison Brie loves being naked, and even streaked through her hotel before the premiere for her latest movie.

When it comes to nude scenes, Alison Brie has no qualms. If anything, it was her director and real-life partner Dave Franco who was feeling a bit awkward.

The couple co-wrote Somebody I Used To Know, a coming-of-age dramedy starring Brie and directed by Franco. The final scene called for Brie to be starkers.

“I’m this super comfortable naked person, I’ve spent 11 years just getting Dave a little more comfortable with my nudity,” Brie told news.com.au.

“Even when we were shooting that scene, I kept disrobing before we were even shooting and Dave was like, ‘Babe, not yet, too soon.’

“Part of the reason why I love being naked and streaking and stuff like that, part of it is it’s funny to me. It lifts my energy, it makes me laugh. I was streaking around the hotel last night before our LA premiere just to get my energy up.

“But it also has a way of bonding you, right? You’re literally stripped down, looking at another person.

“We were shooting that last scene with that actor, and we started with [the camera on her]. She was a little nervous because she had never done a nude scene before and I was like, ‘Solidarity, let me disrobe, how are you feeling?’ We locked eyes and we were really in it together. It was special.”

Alison Brie on the movie poster. Picture: Amazon Prime Video

Working with Franco was a no-brainer for Brie. They had previously collaborated on The Rental, which Franco directed and co-wrote with Joe Swanberg while Brie played one of the leads.

That experience convinced them to expand how they worked together.

“It really unlocked this thing, working in this new dynamic with one another, realising how well we work together, how much we love to be on set together and have that emotional support and how much we trust each other and admire each other as artists.

“This was about taking it to the next level, and it was even better because we were together for the whole process.”

Somebody I Used To Know is a story about Ally, a workaholic TV producer who suffers a career setback. She returns to her childhood home to visit her mother, and runs into Sean, the ex-boyfriend she left behind to pursue her professional ambitions.

Plunged back into a world that belongs to a different era in her life, she starts to wonder if she made the right life choices – including whether she should have abandoned that ex.

Somebody I Used To Know co-stars Brie’s Community castmate Danny Pudi. Picture: Amazon Prime Video

The genesis for the project – just like in the film – started with a visit home, to Franco’s family in Palo Alto, California.

“While we were there, we were exploring this idea of going back home and seeing people that used to be a part of your life and what emotions that brings up for a person. You can’t help but maybe compare yourself in the present to how you used to be in the past.”

Wedged within this late-coming-of-age story about self-discovery is a rom-com, a “weird detour” into My Best Friend’s Wedding territory when Ally thinks about making a play for Sean during the weekend of his wedding to Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons), someone Ally thinks is a younger version of herself.

Even though Brie and Franco spent a lot of time watching 1980s and 1990s rom-coms, the core of the story is this almost midlife crisis of, “Is this all there is? What am I even doing with my life?”

Alison Brie and Dave Franco co-wrote the film. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Somebody I Used To Know is a pandemic project, something the couple started while in lockdown, unable to work as actors.

Brie said: “We started writing this during the first two weeks of lockdown in 2020 and then over the course of writing it, we were watching a lot of people, and ourselves, going through this moment of reckoning and analysing our lives because we were trapped in our homes.

“We had nothing else to do but assess, ‘Do I like where I live? Do I like the person I’m with? What is my life? What is the meaning of life?’

“It was a real existential crisis for everyone and those elements found its way into the story.”

Somebody I Used To Know will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, February 10

Originally published as Alison Brie ‘super comfortable’ with nudity for film Somebody I Used To Know