Star of the upcoming movie “Trainwreck,” Amy Schumer meets and takes photos with fans on April 16, 2015. (Alex Joyce/CU Independent)
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the St. Julien’s conference room was a small, stuffed squirrel perched on the table. Well, that and the woman sitting right beside the squirrel dressed in a very classy black and white dress – comedian and Trainwreck star Amy Schumer.
If you’re not familiar with Schumer’s work yet, then rest assured you will be by the end of this year. Recently featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, the magazine proclaimed this to be the year that Schumer’s career will undergo a “seismic shift.” She hosted the 2015 MTV Movie Awards, her Comedy Central show is returning for its third season and her first feature film – which she penned herself – is debuting in July. So, yeah, you could say that’s a seismic shift.
But Amy Schumer is taking all the success with a cool head. Or at least that’s how she seemed when I sat down with her before the prescreening of Trainwreck on CU’s campus on Wednesday, April 15.
“It’s been really nice and painless,” Schumer said about the current college tour she was on for the film. “I do a lot of stand up at colleges so I’m used to the interaction. I write a lot about myself in college, so I identify with college kids, probably more than I should,” she said, laughing.
The Trainwreck college tour is four schools in four days – UC-Berkley, CU, ASU and OSU. Each stop is loaded with a Schumer meet and greet, a Q&A and a prescreening of the film, an opportunity that was surely not missed by the Buffs. Lines wrapped around the UMC for the meet and greet and CHEM 140 was filled to maximum capacity. The energy at the event couldn’t have gotten much higher (even in Boulder.)
The film, also starring Bill Hader and directed by Judd Apatow, is something Schumer holds close to her heart. It’s personal, she says.
“My dad has MS, the dad in the movie has MS and I’m close to my sister, the parallels are probably more than I want to admit,” Schumer said. “And I was falling in love when I wrote it and the movie is a love story and just how scary it is to be falling in love. It’s not necessarily that fun of an experience because you’re so scared it’s going to end.”
The film’s plot, like she said, is pretty straightforward: A magazine writer, who, thanks to her dad’s wisdom, believes “monogamy isn’t realistic,” meets Bill Hader’s character and falls in love. The edge of this film though, and the reason why it stands out over other love stories, is the personal quality to the writing. And Schumer says this is what drew Apatow to the project.
She’s actually known Apatow for a few years now. Their first meeting involved omelettes that Schumer was too nervous to eat. But when the “Knocked Up” director hopped aboard the project, he immediately picked Schumer to play the leading role – to her surprise.
“He was like, ‘Yeah, of course you’re going to be in it.’ I thought they would cast like a starlet,” Schumer said with another laugh.
Despite Schumer rapidly becoming a big name in the comedian community, getting slots on Ellen and ending up on rumored short lists as the Daily Show replacement, she remains grounded. When talking about her experience making Trainwreck, she said that she just took it one step at a time.
“I still can’t believe what happened,” she says. “I kept it small in my mind so that I wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the gravity of what it meant to be making a big studio movie, and Judd was really good at letting me do that and having it feel very familial on set.”
At this point, the atmosphere of the conference room was extremely casual and I was still really curious about the stuffed squirrel.
“This was in the hotel room and it was in the mini bar and Universal pays for the mini bar so I took it,” she said very pointedly. “I should name it Boulder — something so I remember it was here…”
With a little help from me, Schumer settled on the squirrel’s name: Buff.
A few hours later, I stood in the horrendously long line to get into CHEM 140 for the Q&A and prescreening. The crowd was buzzing, mostly from excitement but some from a little bit of alcohol. The doors opened and CU students flooded the auditorium. Finally, after much anticipation, Amy Schumer waltzed through the doors and proceeded to conduct one raunchy-as-hell Q&A.
Who knows what Schumer expected from the Q&A, but CU students definitely didn’t hold back with their ability to be bold. Most of the questions from the crowd consisted of offers to either smoke a bowl with her, get her drunk or take her out on a date. All of which she answered with the utmost sass and wit.
“I have my own weed,” she replied to the girl asking her to smoke a bowl with them on their porch later.
The Q&A wrapped, the screening began and the audience belly-laughed for a straight two hours.
But during the movie, I kept thinking back to something Schumer had said earlier.
“It just kept moving forward and I was so ready for disappointment,” she said about the early days of the project. “I just thought, ‘This is going to end any day.’ But it happened, it’s real.”
That it did, Ms. Schumer. That it did.
Trainwreck opens in wide-release on July 17.
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Xandra McMahon at xandra.mcmahon@colorado.edu.
