Alison Brie on wrestling training and proving yourself

ALISON Brie’s role in GLOW is not like anything she’s done before. And it had the kind of preparation that left her sore all the time.

WHEN you think of Alison Brie, you think of the petite brunette from Community and Mad Men. You think of polished characters with a vulnerable core.

You don’t think of a scrappy female wrestler.

To play wannabe actor, the “stripped-down” Ruth in Netflix’s wrestling comedy GLOW, Brie and the rest of the ensemble had to undergo extensive training in preparation for their roles.

“I was also doing intense strength training while we were doing our wrestling training,” Brie told news.com.au. “I really wanted to build muscle mass to be strong enough to execute some of these moves and there was a two-week period where I remember thinking ‘Am I ever going to not be sore again or is this my life now?’

“Every morning I woke up and had to take three Advil and that was my life for the course of the show. No one got seriously injured on the show, but there were a lot of bumps and bruises. I took a lot of Epsom salt baths, it really was something.”

But the pain was worth it because the experience of training and then performing the wrestling moves helped Brie appreciate the physicality of her body in a different way.

“It was a really empowering and confidence-building and I walked away from the show a totally different person in the way I view my body and the way I think about myself. That relationship with my body, I think of it more — we became athletes doing this show.

“We had to overcome fear and try something we didn’t know if we could do. It’s a really powerful feeling to even prove to yourself you’re capable of more than you can expect.”

‘Am I ever going to be not sore again?’

Proving things to yourself and others is something Brie shares in common with her character. Ruth is the anchor in a large ensemble cast of aspiring actors who wound up involved with a women’s wrestling show. Each are outsiders in their own way and the first season tracks the team coming together and going up against the odds to successfully launch an improbable TV show.

The Netflix series was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, executive produced by Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black, Weeds), and was based on the real-life women’s wrestling series of the 1980s.

Brie found the experience of working with female showrunners and a predominantly female cast vastly different to some previous sets she’d been on. More than half the episodes were directed by women, including Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister).

“It was different and it was really wonderful,” she said. “It was sort of ego-free and there was constant very open communication which was so nice and different from sets I’d experienced before. It just made for this environment on set that was very comfortable and safe and fun.

“It enabled all the women on the show to take risks, not only in the ring but outside of the ring with our characters. I think everybody felt like they could take big swings and really make themselves vulnerable which is important for this kind of show.

“I was surprised at how harmoniously a group of women can work together. There were 14 of us on the show and they’re like sisters to me now. We have such a strong bond.”

Female relationships and camaraderie are core to GLOW, similar to Kohan’s OITNB (at least in the first seasons).

Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin as a pair of besties with issues.

At the centre of the friendships is the one between Ruth and Debbie (Betty Gilpin), who starts off the series as best friends before something happens that causes a potentially irreparable rift. Brie said she met Gilpin during the audition process and they clicked immediately, and it fuelled their conflicted on-screen relationship.

“We went through wrestling training together and while we were doing that, we were having all these deep conversations about our relationships with our bodies and our histories with friends and men and things like that,” she said.

“We bonded so quickly and I have such a deep love for her and it’s very specific to her and I think laying that groundwork really helped. Then when we went to shoot the show, we only shot two scenes together where our friendship is going well and we get to enjoy each other’s company. Then it all combusts and for the rest of the shoot, I did have this longing to be around her and be in scenes with her and wanting attention from her and not getting it.”

GLOW is part of the current wave of TV shows that focus on women, both in its content and in the creative brainpower behind the camera. And Brie contends it is undeniably feminist.

“It’s a show about women empowering themselves, making their own way, lifting each other up, lifting themselves up. I think all of those things make it a really strong feminist show.”

GLOW is streaming now on Netflix.

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