Alison Brie Worried What People Would Think of Her ‘Roar’ Episode
The new Apple TV+ series Roar reunites Alison Brie with her GLOW creators Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive. Betty Gilpin is in an episode too, but she and Brie do not work together this time. Brie had a lot of thoughts about what viewers might think about her episode, The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder.
Brie was part of a press conference for Roar on March 31. She spoke about a few aspects of her episode she expects to raise some eyebrows. Roar is now streaming on Apple TV+.
‘Roar’ star Alison Brie was self-conscious about the premise of her episode
Brie plays the ghost of a murder victim who follows the police officers on her case. She remembers talking about the episode in public and realizing she sounds like lots of actors in L.A.
“I remember taking a walk with a friend,” Brie said. “We thought this is such a funny overheard in L.A. moment. My friend was asking me if I had good chemistry with Hugh Dancy who’s in my episode. I said, ‘Well, it was sort of hard for us to have chemistry because my character’s a ghost.’ Anyone walking past us right now, that’s such a funny actor-y comment to say.”
Alison Brie ‘Roar’ episode has a lot to say about toxic masculinity and double standards
As a ghost, Brie’s character realizes the cops judge her. In life, her character was active on social media. She also dressed up when going out socially. Other episodes of Roar deal with racism and sexism, or objectification. The killers reflect the worst aspects of society’s double standard.
“The irony is not lost on me that I’m playing a character who, in her life, has sought out a lot of male attention,” Brie said. “Now [she] is deprived of any contact, is totally unseen and unheard by the men around her, by all people around her. But at the heart of it, I think what we’re analyzing is that no matter how a woman lives her life, no matter what kind of person she is, it never validates violence against that woman.”
Without spoiling it, Brie hopes women and men take a look at the way the characters treat her character.
“Also there’s commentary about Incel culture and the deep well of misogyny that exists online,” Brie said. “Sort of hidden behind the many layers of bright, glossy social media and things like that that everybody looks at and is a part of every day. Just because a woman wants to post a lot of photos of herself because she likes the way that she looks, because she likes wearing makeup really doesn’t excuse hatred and violence and vitriol and slut shaming and rape culture and all of those things. I think that’s one of the things that we’re examining in that episode.”
Every episode of ‘Roar’ is different
Brie was also happy to be a part of a show with so much variety. Although Brie’s Roar episode is very dark, others are whimsical and some more dramatic than comedic.
Each episode explores a different genre but also within each episode, there are many facets to the tone. There’s a bit of dark humor and drama and horror and drama and intrigue. That’s also filled with so much insight and commentary on the female experience. It truly was unlike anything I had ever read before or seen before. That was part of the joy of working on it was figuring it out as we went along which was really fun. I feel like even when I read it, I was like ooh, this is exciting. And I don’t really know what it is.
Alison Brie, Roar press conference, 3/31/22
