BRENDA BLETHYN INTRODUCED TO STAND-UP COMEDY

Brenda Blethyn plays a once famous British comic struggling to hold onto the spotlight touring the Australian clubs while raising her two sons in Introducing The Dwights.

Brenda developed a deep respect for stand-up comedians because she had to perform her routines in front of a live audience.

“Well it’s quite hard to do the stand-up comedy. I take my hat off to all those wonderful stand-up comics we know and love. But doing it on this was different again because it’s like doing theater on film. Whereas if you’re doing it for real in a club you get the instant reaction from the audience; you know how you’re going. On film however depending on which way the camera is shooting, they’re not allowed to make a sound.”

Luckily Brenda had the opportunity to test out her material before they shot the stand-up scenes.rn

“But what we would do before filming is actually do the routine to know what response I would’ve got. That was kind of rewarding because it worked.”rn

Brenda got so into the craft of her character that while shooting she found herself waking up in the middle of the night to jot down punch lines. Introducing The Dwights opens Friday in theaters.rn