The comic actor and former
Saturday Night Live writer talks about her first film lead, in Brittany Runs a Marathon, and how the character’s insecurities over body image fed into her own experience
When Jillian Bell was filmed by a small movie crew running the
New York marathon last year, onlookers assumed she was doing it for real. Some recognised the actor, others just clapped and cheered anyway.
Bell, now 35, has spent the past 10 years as a secret weapon, briefly unleashed, in a series of big
Hollywood comedies (and a couple of Paul Thomas Anderson pictures). She was a withering bridal shower guest in Bridesmaids, an unlikely pimp in Office
Christmas Party and, most memorably, a stunningly insulting and deadpan foil to Jonah Hill in 22 Jump Street. That film was a showcase for Bell’s particular gift: extra-dry delivery of wildly strange dialogue, much of it improvised.