100 InSTYLE FEBRUARY 2019
Melissa McCa r thy is thoug ht f u l ly per using a menu at a
restaurant in Los Angeles’s Silverlake neighborhood. She
looks like a very chic art teacher this evening, wearing a black
turtleneck and a Klimt-esque velvet robe. She pulls out a pair
of dark pink Gucci reading glasses, which make her resemble
the poster for Life of the Part y if the party were...fashion.
It ’s a good time to be McCa r thy r ig ht now, even thoug h
she, of course, excels at creating good times for other people.
She’s been nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Screen
Actors Guild Award as best actress for her performance as
the late biog rapher Lee Israel (who in fa mously forged let ters
from quotables like Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward) in Can
You Ever Forgive Me? It’s her first dramatic role, and it makes
you wonder why it took so long. McCarthy’s humanity and
pathos illuminate every thing she does—her big-screen gags,
highly physical or deliberately sly—and she is clearly proud
that her exploration of a less rib-tickling story is paying off.
After we order tequila gimlets (“Oh, I’m a Scotch girl, but I’m
gonna try one,” she says), we talk badassery and beyond.
LAURA BROWN: Can You Ever Forgive Me? received glo-
rious reviews, and now you have all this awards talk. Have
you felt any sort of palpable change?
MELISSA MCCARTHY: It just feels so n ice to do some-
thing that you like so much and had such a good time mak-
ing. I’ve been weird ly luck y with li k ing a lmost ever y th ing
I’ve done, but I loved [director] Marielle Heller, and I love
that damn Richard E. Grant. Also, it’s a story where there’s
a friendship and you feel something, and your heart feels
something, and you think about the world. Not in a preachy,
bu l lsh it way, just in a rea l ly n ice way. People have responded
so positively. It makes me very happy, but also it gives me a
boost that people still care about people.
LB: Do you think there’s a tendency to underestimate the
potency of a simple, emotional story?
MM: I think people go through their whole day not looking
at another person. You know, you take a train or a bus and
you could be sitting there naked and no one even looks up.
LB: There was the time you tried that.
MM: I tried it. It did not go well. You cannot unring that bell.
[laughs] But I do think the power of this movie is that you
can’t not click into the human condition.
LB: How important is it to you to represent that to people?
MM: Even if it’s a broad comedy, I think it’s important to see
people who maybe we shouldn’t like, but we like them any way.
Let’s not judge people like, “Ugh, they’re obnoxious, they’re
too much of a people pleaser, or they’re grating or harsh.” It’s
like, “Yeah, but we all do that.” I still think it’s good to show
people who aren’t so shined up and pretty and perfect.
LB: When did you realize what your currency was as a
performer?
MM: I knew I loved performing when I started stand-up in
New York [in the early ’90s], but I found the rooms to be very
negative and aggressive. The only way to survive was to shred
someone in the audience. That was not my thing. Not because
I’m some Pollyanna who can’t take a swing at somebody,
but there just wasn’t a point in it. Although for some reason,
the guy who yells “Show me your boobs!” is every where. It’s
amazing. I don’t think I ever did stand-up where someone
didn’t yell “Take off your top!” as I’m walking onstage. I was
like, “Are you the same guy? Do you think you’re original?
Do you really, massively wanna see my boobs?” Then I would
go home feeling so sad for him. He was lashing out at women
but probably really lonely and wanted a nice woman to go out
with, or whatever his deal was.
LB: You were compassionate to a heckler as opposed to the
opposite, which is supposed to be demolishing them.
MM: Yeah, but it didn’t work. And then when I got to the
Groundlings [the famed comedy troupe in Los Angeles, circa
2001 to 2009], I realized that to have a great show, it wasn’t a
bad thing, if the audience had had a rough day or a terrible
week, to let them laugh for an hour and a half. There’s a good
feeling about that for me. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not a
bad thing to put out into the world. And I take that seriously.
LB: It ’s the most power f u l th ing , you’re exactly r ig ht. The
idea of a story or an idea being minimized because it’s not
extreme is so thoughtless.
MM: I think we keep getting so dark. I had a friend ask me to
make her a list of 15 shows that everybody’s talking about that
are really good and weren’t going to give her nightmares. I
could not for the life of me come up with it. I was like, “Oh my
god, I’m not coming up with five.”
LB: There’s so much to nav igate on a da i ly ba sis. It ’s li ke
you’re in a rowboat in choppy sea s tr y ing to get back to por t.
MM: Yeah, it is a choice. And it’s also what you keep feeding
yourself all day. I’m obsessed with people and their behavior.
I used to go and watch people. Like, weirdly. I just love peo-
ple’s weirdness. And I do so many terrible things all the time,
by the way, so I don’t think I’m above it at all. [laughs]
LB: When you’re a s wel l-k nown a s you a re, it must be