Interview with Amy Schumer – I Feel Pretty Movie

Thanks to STXfilms I was given the opportunity to attend an early screening of I Feel Pretty in theaters and take part in an interview with Amy Schumer on her role as Renee.

I Feel Pretty Spoiler Free Movie Review

This movie is just as hilarious as you would expect it to be. Hands-down the trailer does not do it justice. I was laughing even between the funny takes, simply thinking about the previous comedy and how it relates to real life.

You can always expect plenty of laughs when watching Amy Schumer. But this film is about so much more than comedy. The real lesson falls in learning to not only accept yourself but to truly love yourself and lead with confidence. This is a common struggle among women, no matter your size.

I read mixed concerns online when the I Feel Pretty movie trailer first released. Many women worried that by showing Renee hitting her head causing herself to believe she was magically skinnier, to then later realize she wasn’t, would send mixed messages to the audience. Losing the strength of the message of self-love in your own skin by displaying that she no longer sees herself as skinny. In the trailer, it shows how happy she is while her friends look at her like she’s crazy.

You would assume they think she is crazy for saying how skinny and amazing she looks, but that’s not the storyline. They are looking at her like she is crazy because she is acting and saying crazy things. It is hilarious and a great message to see played out.

Her friends already view her as beautiful when she viewed herself as much bigger than she is. She thinks no one recognizes her. There is one scene where she tells her friends that she believes they didn’t get any views on a group dating profile because she was in the photo. Her self-esteem was so low she thought she was holding them back with her looks.

I loved the fashion in this movie. It was one of my favorite parts. Even before her new found confidence, she dressed beautifully. But to see her walk with confidence made her look even more gorgeous. Amy Schumer did an amazing job portraying the difference between her two roles.

Interview with Amy Schumer

What’s your advice to women who want to feel confident but might not know how to get there?

My advice would be to pay attention.  Pay attention to the times where you feel your best.  Like, clock it and notice it, you know, like, “I feel really good right now.”  You know, and for me, it’s when I’m hanging out with my friends or my family, and you’re not even thinking about what you look like and you feel so confident, and try to carry that with you all the time.

I know people are really affected if their mothers are always saying, “Oh, I hate how I look in this, I gained weight,” or something, then your child’s more likely to be critical of themselves that way.  So, we need to be careful about how we talk about ourselves, and we’re all guilty of that.  And, you want your child to love themselves like they’re their own mother, you know.

So, I think really loving yourself is a great way to start, and I love myself and I love myself because of who I am as a daughter and as a friend and a sister and now a wife and the work I do.  And, all of that is what has helped me to be confident, and it really has nothing to do with a mirror, you know?

What advice would you give your ten-year-old self?

First of all, I would give my ten-year-old self a big hug and I would say, “Keep going, you’re going to do great things, and the world needs you.”  So don’t listen to anybody else.  When someone insults you, it’s saying more about how they feel about themselves than how they feel about you.  I actually feel bad for bullies, because they must be so unhappy to have to go out of their way to just be unkind.  So, I would just sympathize with the bullies and smile at them and smile at myself in the mirror, and say, “You know who you are.”

What is something that you learned personally from playing the role of Renee?

I’ve been pretty kind to myself.  Like, I do love and like myself, but playing Renee when she has her most insulated self-confidence and ego, I learned both that it’s important to love yourself, but not to the extent that it hurts anyone else.  But, when I was looking in the mirror in that scene where I discover that I’m suddenly beautiful, as an actress, I wasn’t picturing someone else.

I was really looking at myself and being grateful for the package I come in.  I was grateful for my strong legs and arms and for being healthy and it just gave me this really grateful sense of the package that I come in, instead of searching for flaws.  And, I’ve carried that with me ever since filming and I’m going to keep that with me.

What attracted you to this script?  You call this a feminist movie, can you elaborate on that?

What attracted me to the script was the message, the idea of getting out of your own way and confidence being so mental, and really letting in a love for myself and the way you want your best friends to see you. Well, why not extend that same love and courtesy to yourself?  It’s so much easier to comfort our friends, but this movie’s really about being open to loving yourself and not looking for other people’s experiences to define yourself.

Everything I do, I do as a feminist, which means that I am for the equality of women socially, economically, and politically.  And, I think this movie is such a great message because it empowers women and that’s all I want to do with this movie.

I think we can’t live up to our full potentials unless we feel comfortable in our own skin.  I think women really get held back by any perceived flaws they have of themselves.  If there’s something we’re uncomfortable with or we’re afraid, we’re going to be insulted.  I think that’s a really big part of what holds women back from speaking up, from raising your hand in class.

I think my character, Renee, she really does feel invisible and she doesn’t really want to be looked at at the beginning of this movie.  But, once she has the confidence and gets out of her own way, she’s able to live to her full potential and become really active at work and share her ideas and her thoughts.

Do you have any rituals that you do to get yourself ready to take stage, for standup or filming?

I meditate.  I started about five or six years ago, twice a day for 20 minutes a day, meditating and really just close my eyes and breathing and shutting my phone off, just twice a day.  That’s really helpful, because when we’re on our phones all day or we’re on the internet we have all these outside sources, advertisers, telling us how we’re not good enough so we buy their product, just to tune all of that out twice a day has been really helpful.

I make a real habit of looking at myself in the mirror and smiling and appreciating who I am, not wanting to look any different, appreciating the package I come in today.  Having those thoughts, being grateful for who I am, what I look like, everything, just being grateful for it.  And, I’ve gotten a lot better about it.

In the scene where I’m standing there in my Spanx, I added that moment in because it’s a moment that I’ve had so frequently, I think we’ve all experienced.  I don’t have those moments anymore.  I was looking at myself, almost angry and disappointed.

I was born looking how I look.  No judgment for people who get plastic surgery.  I’m not going to do that personally.  I want to just be grateful for the package I come in. I’m in a unique position where I’ve spent a lot of time with women who are famous models or actresses.  I know that they don’t feel any better about themselves than my friends who are nurses and teachers.

And, having that commonality, it really shows you how much it’s all mental, and it’s just such a waste of energy.  So, having all that knowledge, and just keeping that at the forefront of my mind, looking in the mirror and smiling and meditation.

I Feel Pretty opened in theaters today, April 20th. Head to your local theater to see it this weekend, you won’t regret it!