AUSTIN, Texas — Any concerns that the recent legal wrangling involving star Blake Lively might overtake the world premiere of “Another Simple Favor” at SXSW were tucked away well before the film began on Friday. Lively bounded into the Paramount Theatre and greeted friends in the aisle and posed for pictures with fans, a security guard kneeling behind her to stay out of the shots. Lively then took her seat among the rest of the film’s cast and crew, with costar Anna Kendrick sitting a row in front of her.
The film is a sequel to “A Simple Favor,” which was a modest hit when it was released in 2018 but has grown in popularity since due to its availability on streaming platforms. In the original film, directed by Paul Feig from a screenplay by Jessica Sharzer, Kendrick played Stephanie Smothers, a widowed mother who strikes up a friendship with glamorous Emily Nelson, who draws them both into a tale of intrigue, murder, cocktails, false identities, increasingly complicated backstories and fantastic hair.
In introducing “Another Simple Favor,” Feig said, “I don’t normally make sequels because I’m terrified of them, because most sequels aren’t great. And it was really scary, but we just kind of thought, ‘I just love these characters so much.’”
Feig, dressed in an elaborate Western-themed outfit, complete with boots, hat and fringed jacket, added, “It just felt like there’s something more to be done with these characters. But if you don’t want to repeat the first movie, what can we do? Well, let’s take them to Italy. And so that’s what’s going to happen with this film. So I think you’ll have a great time. We had so much fun making it.”
From a screenplay credited to Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis, the new film opens with Kendrick’s Stephanie under house arrest in Capri, accused of murdering the new husband of Lively’s Emily. The film then flashes back to show Emily, apparently freed from prison, reinserting herself into Stephanie‘s life and ready to jet off to a glamorous wedding in Italy to a mysterious, handsome and wealthy suitor Dante (Michele Morrone).
With Stephanie once again uncertain of Emily’s true motives, she takes in the gorgeous surroundings and finds the mystery deepening when she meets Emily’s mother (Elizabeth Perkins) and aunt (Allison Janney). When Dante ends up dead barely an hour after marrying Emily (and having impulsively set his prenup on fire), somehow Stephanie is blamed for the murder. And things only get more complicated from there.
After the screening, Feig came back onstage with Kendrick and Lively, along with Perkins, Morrone and fellow cast members Henry Golding, Andrew Ranells, Bashir Salahuddin and Alex Newell.
Lively said, “I love this character so much. It’s probably my favorite character I’ve ever been fortunate enough to play. And so when Paul asked us to come back, I was so excited. I was really nervous on the first one because we didn’t know if we were making a drama or a comedy. And when we asked Paul, he said ‘Yes,’ which is not really an answer to the question. But it worked out. So I was like, ‘OK, no nerves. I know what I’m doing this time.’ And then right before shooting he said, ‘I have a little bit of a curveball idea.’”
Without giving away one of the film’s big twists, Lively added, “It definitely upped the ante. It was very uncomfortable to watch in the theater with you guys.”
On returning to her character, Kendrick added, “Stephanie is, as the kids say, addicted to not serving. So I was like, ‘Can I just be not very well dressed but comfortable?’ I was really excited to play Stephanie, but in sneakers.”
Kendrick spoke about how she had recently rewatched “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” before shooting and based some of her performance on the blasé attitude to murder and mayhem of Robert Downey, Jr.’s character. As she noted, “I think on this one I was like, ‘Ok, if I’m going with her into certain peril, I think maybe I start out just not taking any of it that seriously.”
Throughout the Q&A Kendrick and Lively were cautious about explicitly talking about some of the story’s bigger twists. When Feig pointed out that the audience had just seen the movie, Kendrick countered that there were countless cameras in the audience.
“There’s this thing called the internet, Paul,” Kendrick said to a great laugh from the crowd.