Melissa McCarthyrefuses to choose comedy or tragedy in her movies. She wants it all. A nice balance of both is what she prefers.
“I don’t love when characters are just all serious all the time or when someone’s goofy all the time. I don’t know how to do a comedy without pathos,” McCarthy says. “You have to really let a character fall and fail for you to root for them to get up.”
McCarthy’s latest film is definitely one of those wide-ranging emotional roles: In the Netflix dramedy “The Starling” (streaming Friday), her character Lilly is still coming to grips with the sudden death of her infant daughter while also trying to maintain a connection with husband Jack (Chris O’Dowd), who goes to a mental health facility in the aftermath of the loss. Lilly struggles at work and also at home, where a pesky black bird constantly dive-bombs her when she tends to her garden until she meets a veterinarian (Kevin Kline) who helps get her back on track.
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“I love and understood that feeling of somebody’s got to keep it going,” McCarthy, 51, says of Lilly. “I have two kids (daughters Vivian, 14, and Georgette, 11) and there is always that feeling of when tough times come, it’s like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t get to have this moment. Someone has to keep it together.’ You do that out of love and out of necessity and out of fear of if you do fall apart, will you ever put it back together?”
McCarthy, who recently spent time in Australia filming Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” as well as Netflix’s upcoming comedy “God’s Favorite Idiot” with her husband/filmmaker/frequent co-star Ben Falcone, checks in via Zoom to discuss “The Starling,” a childhood encounter with wildlife and playing the infamous Ursula in Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” (in theaters May 26, 2023).
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Question: Lilly goes to war with this little bird before coming to care for it. Do you remember having a similar encounter with a pet?
Melissa McCarthy: I grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Illinois and we had literally 35 cats outside. One cat we had was later diagnosed with epilepsy. It reacted aggressively to seizures and not a seizure. Its name was Sweetness – the irony – and it was OK as long as you were petting it. But if you went to walk away, it would start that like “Rrrrrrrr” and you knew you were in trouble. It was third grade. I remember thinking, “I won’t engage it.” Because it wasn’t OK if it didn’t interest you. It was like a cartoon. It went around me, all of the way up, all across my head, and back to my feet. It had already made two passes on me by the time it saw my dad and the farmer running towards me. I have also danced with animals.
Q: Did that part of Lilly’s story touch you personally, as a mom?
McCarthy: Absolutely. It requires the ability to not only contemplate but to also make the decision to live with the unimaginable over a period of time. It’s necessary to travel to uncomfortable places and to keep an eye on how much she is showing it. I’m not a very stoic person. In real life, I haven’t been able to put on a good poker face. I can’t help but cry when the opportunity presents itself. So to play someone that is going through this grief and loss but is choosing not to show it was a really unusual challenge.
Q: What is your favorite movie that you and Ben have watched together?
McCarthy: I don’t know. They have not seen all of them. They’re getting to that point now where they can, but I always feel creepy being like, “Do you want to watch one of our movies?” They really enjoyed “Thunder Force,” our last one, because that one was PG, but I’m about to let them see all of them, so we’ll see. They have seen parts of everything.
My youngest couldn’t see me getting hurt. It was very sweet. All of the stunts that I’m like, “I worked so hard on that!” – it was very upsetting for her. And now she’s like, “I get it, it’s a stunt.” I’m like, “OK, Ironsides.”
Q: So you falling off a ladder in “The Starling,” that’s totally fine?
McCarthy:Yeah, now she doesn’t care at all. That one actually hurt. She’s like, “Well, you signed up for it.” She’s grizzled.
Q: How was being a villainous sea witch in the new “Little Mermaid”?
McCarthy: Glorious. The world of Disney and (director) Rob Marshall is a world that I wish everyone could experience because it’s so creative, kind and lovely. Going to singing class every day, I was actually sad: I got to record with an orchestra, which is a mind-bender for someone who is not a singer, and then they were like, “That’s it, we’ve got your song.” And I was like, “Wait, I don’t get to go to class anymore?” I was actually kind of heartbroken about it, but it was such a fun process. It’s going to be incredible.
Q: Was a musical on your Hollywood bucket list?
McCarthy: No, because I didn’t think anybody would let me. I love to dance, I love music, I love musicals, but I was like, “Well, I’m not trained in that, so I don’t get to do that.” To me, Ursula is everything. She’s one of my absolute favorite villains so to play her was delicious.
You are flying high on wires and singing your heart out. What’s not there to love? I’m the only one who lets me sing and spin in the yard. They would be like: “You’re going to have to stop that.”
