Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd on dealing with grief in ‘The Starling’

Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd discuss their new movie ‘The Starling’ and what it was like teaming up for the 4th time in such an emotionally challening film.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- (SINGING) You've been everything to everyone.

- I carried her for nine months. So why are you here?

KEVIN POLOWY: "The Starling" follows this couple dealing with every parent's worst nightmare, to lose a child. You know, there are, of course, lighter moments throughout and plenty of much-needed levity. But, you know, especially as parents yourselves, how emotionally difficult is that to put yourselves in that mind state?

MELISSA MCCARTHY: You have to be willing to kind of commit fully, go all in, and at the same time, you have to kind of make sure you come out of it at the end of the day. You know, at the end of this movie, it is ultimately-- it's like there is hope, and there is joy to be had again. And I think you couldn't tell this story without that. It wouldn't be balanced.

KEVIN POLOWY: And how about for you, Chris? I mean, especially playing a character who clearly, you know, this trauma has taken a heavy toll on psychologically.

CHRIS O'DOWD: There's no real way of imagining that happening without imagining it happening, and that's just a very difficult mental state to put yourself in and, I found, increasingly a hard one to get out of. I would find that you would need to kind of like put on music and all-- distraction techniques to just shake you out of your job mindset and remind you that you're going to do bath time and your kids are OK. It felt like you have to go through that, really, to do justice to everybody else's pain.

KEVIN POLOWY: Obviously this story deals with such heavy subject material involving, you know, grieving and mental health, but it has a lot of, you know, lighter moments. How challenging as a filmmaker is it to sort of balance those elements in shaping the film's tone?

THEODORE MELFI: When you shape a film like this, you kind of just try to balance the drama and the comedy. Try to get them closer together. And then you try to make the drama not so dire because if you're being honest-- if we're being honest with ourselves, no one lives in those worlds. No one lives in the broad comedy world their whole lives, and no one lives in the dire devastation, drama world their whole life. Real life is in the middle. You laugh in inappropriate places, and you cry at appropriate places. I'm basically shooting life as I see it.

KEVIN POLOWY: This is actually your fourth movie together, going back to "Bridesmaids" a decade ago, though I don't believe you guys have shared, you know, all that many scenes--

MELISSA MCCARTHY: Right.

KEVIN POLOWY: --over the years. Still, I'm assuming you've gotten to know each other over the years. How did that sort of level of familiarity make an experience on such an emotional film like this, you know, easier for you both?

MELISSA MCCARTHY: You readily go back to working with the same people for a reason, because they're kind and they're incredibly talented, and that's just what Chris is. Doing something that's like this that is a tricky tale to tell yet, I think, a really important one on grief and mental health and having hope. And to do that with with Ted, who's such a great storyteller but a great person-- like, I don't think you-- I don't think you run back to people and you're like, oh, that was awful. We should do it again. [LAUGHS]

KEVIN POLOWY: You don't see Kevin Kline in too many projects these days. Was he tough to reel In?

THEODORE MELFI: You know, they call him Kevin "De-Kline" because he passes on every project he's ever given. I grew up on Kevin Kline movies back from "Fish called Wanda." I mean, I adore Kevin Kline. I actually tell him all the time, I miss you. I don't even know you, and I miss you. I miss seeing you.

When he said yes we were all like, what? Kevin Kline-- like, how is Kevin Kline going to be in this? He's like Chris and Melissa, so honest, so grounded, so real, so raw. He's an actor. He's like the quintessential actor.

KEVIN POLOWY: Chris, you were Kristen Wiig's love interest in "Bridesmaids," Maya Rudolph's husband in "Friends With Kids," Rose Byrne's boyfriend in [? Love ?] [? Juliet ?] and now Melissa's husband in "The Starling." Is there like a "Bridesmaids"--

CHRIS O'DOWD: Watch out, Jon Hamm!

KEVIN POLOWY: --bucket-list thing going on?

CHRIS O'DOWD: Somebody pointed that out to me the other day. Isn't that wild?

MELISSA MCCARTHY: I didn't even-- I never actually strung that together.

CHRIS O'DOWD: You know, just the top-quality gals.

MELISSA MCCARTHY: You got to complete the list, though. It's really now important.

CHRIS O'DOWD: That's it.

[LAUGHTER]