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First appearance on an episode of the hit Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, Alison Brie has become one of the most recognizable artists currently working and is part of Hollywood royalty, being married to star Dave Franco, with whom she often collaborates. A talented actress who has shown a great capacity for comedy and drama, Brie is a performer like no other, someone so incredibly specific that her name can be used as a descriptive word for a type of performance. When Marvel Studios was looking to cast the role of She-Hulk, it was reported that they were looking for an “Alison Brie type”.
While that could mean a lot of things, over her career Brie has played a number of roles that tend to be very sweet and compassionate people as well as strong go-getters who are very determined to achieve a goal. The performer is also ideal for casting directors, as she has proven she can work with any genre and even any medium with a stable career in voice work. From roles in Oscar-nominated films to cult TV series and working with some of the most talented filmmakers, storytellers and performers. Brie has a career filled with great roles. These are Alison Brie’s best performances in film and television.
9
The small hours
Set in the 14th century, The small hours tells the story of three misbehaving nuns in a rural convent, seducing a young gardener, who himself poses as a deaf-mute (played by Brie’s real-life husband, Dave Franco) and on the run for committing adultery with a lord wife. Brie stars as one of the nuns and the film uses contemporary dialogue and humor to create a clash of setting and subject with language to make a classic sex comedy but with nuns at the center. Brie stars as Sister Alessandra alongside Aubrey Plaza (whose husband writes and directs) and Kate Micucci as the other two nuns in this incredibly humorous, highly vulgar and extremely intelligent comedy.
8
The happiest season
While theaters were closed in 2020 due to COVID-19, Brie had an incredibly strong year with four movies released on various platforms and one was the holiday movie. The happiest season. The film centers on a couple Abby (Kirsten Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) who are invited to spend the holidays with Harper’s family, although she has yet to come out to her conservative family. The film’s central focus is the relationship between Abby and Harper, but the pair can’t work if Harper can’t be upfront with her family, and one family member is Brie’s character, Sloane. Sloane is the older sister and the one Harper has a competitive nature to, and Brie perfectly sells the extremely uptight Type-A personality that helps balance this comedic ensemble into a new holiday classic.
7
Mad Men
Mad Men is arguably the breakout role of Brie, where she plays the role of Trudy Campbell, the wife of Pete Campbell. Over the course of seven seasons, Trudy has to deal with her husband’s constant infidelities and portrays just one of many women who have to deal with the patriarchal power systems at work in the 1960s. While Brie would later move on to a number of comedic performances, that was his role in Mad Men it showed early on how capable she was in many genres.
6
Bojack Rider
For six seasons, Brie voiced the character of Diane Nguyen on the hit Netflix series Bojack Rider, a ghostwriter who has a complicated relationship with the show’s main character. Diane is a great character who is richly defined as being both troubled in her own way, like many of the characters on this hugely depressing show; Diane is also a person who wants to be better and who wants others around her to be better. Bojack Rider is an incredible series that deals with the dark and complex issues of loneliness, depression, and self-destructive personalities. While it’s a great performance, one of the reasons the role isn’t higher is that there were definitely issues with Brie voicing a half-Vietnamese character, which Brie herself later apologized.
5
Promising young woman
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Brie’s role in the 2020 Oscar-winning film Promising young woman is minor but vital in the film. She plays Madison McPhee, a former classmate of main character Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) who, after refusing to acknowledge that one of their classmates was sexually assaulted, is manipulated by Cassie into thinking she was operated under the influence.
As Cassie finally reveals to Madison that nothing happened, the psychological warfare waged against the character poses a grim ethical question to the audience: If Madison can be complicit in covering up something horrible, does that justify- he to make her believe that she was assaulted? The film never gives an answer, but Brie’s performance as aloof and materialistic at first but broken and saddened in her final scene shows her dramatic reach.
4
The Lego Movie
In the second animated portrayal of Brie on this list, in The Lego Movie, Brie voices Princess Unikitty, a master builder who lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land. After seeing his house destroyed, the character must expect to feel an emotion other than happiness for the first time in his life: anger/sadness. The character’s outward personality is a sweet and kind person, but one of the funniest elements of the character is the violent rage she feels when overwhelmed.
The Lego Movie is a clever dispatch of media tropes seen through the lens of a child playing with toys, and Princess Unikitty is a great example of how a child composes a characterization for a character whose main characteristics are a hybrid between a cat and a unicorn. The character was successful enough that Unikitty got a spin-off TV show.
3
Sleep with other people
Sleep with other people tells the story of Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudekis), two individuals who, after losing their virginity to each other on a one-night stand, reunite and vow to form a friendship l with each other despite their past history with the relationships being only sexual in nature. The film is very much a romantic comedy in the vein of When Harry Met Sally, just with a more modern sense of humor and an emphasis on sexual dynamics. Brie easily steps into the role of Lainey and becomes his big star vehicle after Community had officially finished, showed her ability to hold a leading role, but she was not only Annie from Community.
2
GLOW
Netflix’s hit series GLOW is a fictional story about the 1980s women’s professional wrestling circuit, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). Brie starred as Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress who finds her way into sports and begins to bond with girls, and is cast as the villainous Russian cartoon “Zoya the Destroya”, to battle her former friend Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan, whom Ruth betrayed by having an affair with her husband.
GLOW was praised for all three seasons for its writing, characterization that fleshed out all of the wrestlers, and the show’s attention to detail regarding the ’80s aesthetic. Brie said GLOW was his favorite work, and his performance earned him nominations for Critics’ Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Golden Globes. The series was canceled before it could get a proper conclusion, but GLOW stands as an escape vehicle for a number of great performers and another wonderful addition to Brie’s resume.
Alison Brie has had a long career with a variety of roles, but it’s hard to deny that her most iconic role was as Annie Eddison on the hit cult comedy series. Community. The series was set in a fictional community college and the lives of its various students, and the series was often known for its meta-humor, homages to classic movies, and pop culture references that satirized but embraced network clichés. classics.
When the series begins, Annie Eddison is the typical overachiever, she is organized and initially introduced as the naïve youngster of the group. But as the series progresses and her friendship with the other members of her study group and her move in with her friends Troy and Abed, she begins to become more relaxed and aware of her situations. While generally sweet, she’s also prone to tantrums, and her assertive competitive nature leads to some of the funniest moments in the show’s iconic paintball episodes. It may not be his main role, but for many, Community It’s what put Allison Brie on the map and it’s the defining performance of her impressive career.
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