Kiersey Clemons Is Somebody to Know
“Somebody I Used to Know” star Kiersey Clemons can’t imagine a better streaking scene partner than Alison Brie.
“I couldn’t wait to see my streaking scene, because I found [the experience] to be liberating,” says Clemons, who stars in the new Amazon movie. “But seeing it on screen is totally different because you’re realizing, oh my gosh — I’m the audience, and there’s gonna be an audience. I was so comfortable and I can’t imagine doing that with anyone else other than Alison. And honestly, Dave.”
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Director Dave Franco cowrote the rom-com with his wife, Brie, who leads the film as a work-focused woman who runs into her ex-boyfriend during a trip to her hometown. Clemons stars as the ex-boyfriend’s new fiancée, who reminds Brie’s (aptly named) Aly of the woman she used to be when she was younger.
“I wanted to understand the complexity of that relationship, and what she needed from Aly,” Clemons says of her approach to her character. “Why was she participating in that friendship? That’s what me and Dave talked about mostly, to be honest.”
Clemons met Franco several years ago when they both starred in the comedy anthology series “Easy.” Although they didn’t work on the same episodes, Franco reached out to Clemons afterward and asked if she was interested in collaborating — he’d written a role with her in mind. He sent her the script for “Somebody,” Clemons hopped on a Zoom call with Franco and Brie — and now they have a film to show for it.
“Not only did I want to do a rom-com, but I wanted to do it with them,” Clemons says of the project’s appeal. “And I think them actually being a couple really serviced the project. It was so funny to see the way that they bounce off of each other, but also that they’re so different. They have the same sense of humor, and yet their energy and the way they go about telling the same joke or a story together. It’s hilarious because they’re opposites and they brought that to set.”
Clemons lends credit to the personal undercurrent running throughout the film from pre-production to filming in Portland, Oregon.
“We got to have a real bonding experience, which Dave really encourages,” Clemons says. “I love when a director encourages the personal relationships, because they totally don’t have to do that. They don’t have to partake in that whatsoever. But he made sure that [the cast and crew] were hanging out and that we were friends, and we’re still friends now.”
As they say: the friends that apply merkins together, stay together.
“We applied merkins together and ran across a golf course butt naked,” Clemons says of the enduring bond with her costars. “We were having this really vulnerable bonding experience that you normally don’t have making a movie.”
In March, Clemons will head to Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest and the premiere of her next film, “The Young Wife,” directed by Tayarisha Poe. Clemons leads the film with Leon Bridges.
“It takes place over a wedding weekend and my character is getting married. Her fiancé is played by the wonderful musician, Leon Bridges,” describes Clemons. “We shot on a marsh; it’s contained in this home and it’s Afro futuristic and the set is ridiculous. Tayarisha is brilliant and we knew that only she could write this and direct this movie, and everyone’s perfectly cast. It’s my favorite movie that I’ve ever made.”
The former Disney star is also in pre-production for “The Young King,” which she’s producing with director Larin Sullivan; the film costars Michael Shannon and Barbie Ferreira. “It’s about drag kings, but also it’s about a father-daughter relationship,” Clemons says. “It’s a big creative process for all of us.”
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