Lil Rel Howery Interview

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The Sundance 2019 award winning hit, Brittany Runs a Marathon, follows Brittany Forgler, a hilarious, friendly, hot mess of a New Yorker who always knows how to have a good time, but at 27, her late-night adventures and early-morning walks-of-shame are starting to catch up to her. When she stops by a Yelp-recommended doctor's office in an attempt to score some Adderall, she finds herself slapped with a prescription she never wanted. Forced to face reality for the first time in a long time, Brittany laces up her Converse and runs one sweaty block. The next day, she runs two. Soon she runs a mile and realizes she must take control of bettering everything about her life.

Rendy Reviews caught up with actor Lil Rel Howery who you might recognize from works such as Get Out and Uncle Drew and the upcoming Free Guy to discuss his role as Demetrius in the movie.

Read our full interview below:

Please tell me about your character and his relationship to Brittany.

Lil Rel Howery: Demetrius is basically the father figure character to Brittany. Because his wife and Brittany, his sister-in-law lost their dad and he just takes over that role. Brittany only listens to him. You know, when he puts his foot down, when he's checking out, he's only going to keep it real with her. And she listens to him. But she also is a mirror for Demetrius. Like, he's cheering for her because she's accomplishing things that he couldn't. He didn't have… I don't know… maybe the motivation or energy to do. I think what's great about this movie is you're seeing a human being take the small steps to get to the big thing. That first time it's just hard to do the first step. I think that's what makes this movie brilliant. It's just watching the real human reaction to a first step and how hard that actually is because people love to say, "Let’s just go." "Nah, bro." “Come on, it's the first step.” And Jillian Bell does a good job of clocking that. I'll be annoyed if she doesn't win a few awards.

I thought the same thing when I saw it.

Lil Rel Howery: What one performance is better than that this year, so far?

I can't even think of one.

Lil Rel Howery: And there's a lot of good stuff.

Rendy: Yeah, there's a lot of great stuff this year.

Lil Rel Howery: Nobody's gonna expect what she did. They know she'd be funny, but the emotional rollercoaster going from being mean to being funny and then being vulnerable enough… Man, she did a great job of channeling all of those emotions and I'm very proud of her. That's why I wanted to be a part of this project. I just wanted to work with her.

How was it reading the script for the first time?

Lil Rel Howery: The script was amazing. My character didn't even exist. I met with Paul about playing a central role, you know, the love interest. But then I read the whole script and I just started talking to him about how much I love [it]. I was really into doing it, which is crazy. To the point of like, me and Brittany being mean and somebody needs to tell her about it. Initially the dad was alive and then they changed it. He rewrote the role. It doesn't happen all the time.

But that's a great dynamic. It's a new, interesting dynamic that you don't really see.

Lil Rel Howery: I take what movies that I pick seriously. Like, I really do. I'm very selective on it. Sometimes people say, "You are working all the time. Why do you say yes to everything?" No. That's what all this stuff is. It’s all pretty dope in its own way. I like a lot of different genres of things. That's why I did Uncle Drew; I'm a basketball fan. Bird Box was so crazy; an insane sci-fi horror thriller. I love Sandy Bullock and I've always wanted to work with her. Same thing with Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds, and Issa [Rae] in The Photograph, which are both going to be out next year. I'm working on a very dark, dark, dark comedy with Kathy Bates. And with Kevin [Hart] now, Fatherhood. Everyone was waiting to see us work together and we just shot our first day the other day.

I didn't know you were in Fatherhood.

Lil Rel Howery: That's what I'm saying, bruh. I'm very selective with what I do. I like to pick things that I know are special and end up being something that I would want to watch. It's one thing about being okay with who you are, which is so interesting. That's what this movie is. It's being okay with who you are and learning to do things for you and not doing it for everybody else. You're not doing it for other reasons. I mean, Brittany Runs a Marathon is one of the things that honestly motivated me to be in better shape and be healthier — to have stamina to do things for myself — because I find people walking up to me like, "Aw, man you're looking great, man. What did you do?" I didn't do it for that. I did it for me. I didn't think about a compliment. I didn't give a damn, to be honest with you. Not even just physically. Mentally, you know, because I know beautiful people that are still some of the most insecure, crazy people I've ever met in my life. They haven't dealt with the mental part of it. It's crazy when you do a film. From reading the script to watching it, you're like, “Damn, this is really motivational.” Then, when you meet the real Brittany and when you see Paul and the real Brittany interact with each other as friends it's just beautiful, man. He wrote a movie with good intentions. I'm proud to be a part of it. I keep telling people this is a special one. There are other movies that will make you think this is like some of the other things we've seen in the last few years, especially with a female comedic lead. Nah, it's completely different.

It's a movie where you see so many archetypes being fleshed out as people that you don't see in other things.

Lil Rel Howery: Well, it's usually politically motivated right? There's usually some agenda to why we have an interracial couple — and we've had this conversation about it being an interracial couple — or, “Look at these two gay men with sons.” When you see this thing with the dads with kids in bed just laughing, you just see a family. Yeah, same thing with Demetrius married to this white woman. Because Black women would go, "Oh, he's married to a White woman again." It can be like that but I don't mind it. I had some of my home girls, the Blackest of Black women see it, and they were crying.

There’s the pivotal scene towards the third act — the birthday scene — and everybody in the theater just went silent. What was the vibe like on set for that scene where Jillian is breaking and you're breaking?

Lil Rel Howery: That's funny. It was very emotional for everybody involved. If you watch the film again you’ll know when I'm telling her to chill. I'm in it now. Like, chill the fuck out. And Jillian is a sweetheart. She had to take these walks and stay in her own zone. And every once in a while you gotta *holds onto the shoulder*, “You okay? You good?” And you know, even when you see the aftermath — the letter and the email exchange — and to watch our director Paul watch that and end up crying… it was crazy. Damn, that shit was cool. As an actor it was fun watching these [other] actors really delve into the character and into the moment of what they do. Paul was in it, man. After every take, he took a breather, “Wooo!” You really can hear it sometimes.

This is a very motivational movie where everybody's committed. What do you expect audiences to take in when they see it for the first time?

Lil Rel Howery: There is something they need to see. And what I mean by that is, you think about everything that's going on in our world now. You know what I love about what we do? As artists, as creators, we’re sometimes able to create something that just gives people a sign of relief or just decide to look at everybody as humans. Let's show them what that looks like. What if we looked at each other's, you know… stopped being in everybody's damn business and what they do. I think audiences are gonna walk away excited. And about right wing people, I think they got to see it and be confused like, "Wait, I’m not supposed to hate them?" I just think people are gonna leave the theater happy and inspired. That's one of the good things about some of the films I've been able to do. It leaves people inspired, man. Even with Get Out, you know, as crazy as that was. Me picking up Daniel at the end, people need to know a friend exists that isn't Superman or Spider-Man. Yeah, just a regular guy picking up this homeboy. Hey, I didn't do nothing. I didn't knock anybody out. I just picked up a friend and rode. It's just these different things. I like to pick stuff that has that type of humanity message to it. Just somebody just being a good person, man.

We need that in the world today.

Lil Rel Howery: And this movie, it's diverse. New York is a beautiful place, man. And I think a lot of times these movies and TV shows segregate New York. You watch Friends and go, “Really? Just these people and that's it? There's no Puerto Rican party or anything?”

Every time I watch the show I keep thinking like, “This is a bunch of gentrifiers.”

Lil Rel Howery: That should be Boston, but it's not New York. New York is very diverse. I'm from Chicago and I've lived [in NYC] for three years. I’ve lived in New York for three years and I just never saw that. This is a melting pot for people and this movie displays that more than anything I've seen so far.

Yeah, I mean, when I saw it at Sundance I was completely homesick. Just watching like, “Wow, this is capturing the New York that I know and love.” How was it premiering this film at Sundance?

Lil Rel Howery: It was great, man. That was my first time at Sundance. It was very electric seeing a crowd going on this ride from the beginning when they were like, dying laughing at Jillian in the first 10 minutes in a movie that they think is just a comedy. What they don't know is that it's an emotional rollercoaster of a movie. Watching the audience take that in and seeing people crying was just beautiful to watch, and the energy and that ovation we got at the end was crazy. It was surreal. I was like, “Is it always like this?” Get Out had the same response, which is crazy. So, I'm very blessed to have two films that killed it.