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16 MAY 2016
CINEMA
SISTER ACT
I n Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising,
Byrne and Rogen’s Kelly and Mac have
given up trying to be cool, resigned to
the fact they are married with a kid and another
on the way, courtesy of Byrne’s own real-life
pregnancy during production.
Director Nick Stoller can’t get enough of
Australia’s beautiful Byrne, having first cast her in
his comedy Get Him to the Greek.
“When she first came in I only knew her from
If Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen thought the frat boys were bad, then
they’ve got nothing on the girls in Bad Neighbours 2. After a sorority
moves in next door, they enlist their original nemesis, Zac Efron, to
help oust Chloë Grace Moretz and her bad girl posse. By Gill Pringle
Damages and I was like, ‘Why is Rose Byrne
here? She’s a serious actor’. But she was just
absolutely hysterical and Paul Feig cast her in
Bridesmaids immediately after,” he says.
“She has the face of a silent film actor. Her
eyes are really big and expressive and she’s
always reacting and doing something funny. She’s
pretty quiet on set but she knows exactly what
the deal is and can do an impression of everyone.
This is the third movie I’ve worked with her on
and I would work with her on a hundred more.”
Bad Neighbours 2 mirrors where Stoller, 40, is
at in his own life.
“It’s increasingly difficult to tell these stories
because I’m getting farther away from that time
in my life," he says. "My way in is really through
Seth and Rose and the issues they’re going
through. They’re scared they’re going to be bad
parents and scared their daughter is growing up
too quickly – all stuff that I’m dealing with right
now, compared to the quarter-life crisis stuff that
Zac’s going through.”
Since graduating from High School
Musical, Efron, 28, has devoted himself to
comedy between the first Bad Neighbours,
That Awkward Moment, Dirty Grandpa, and
upcoming movies Baywatch and Mike and Dave
Need Wedding Dates.
“Zac has this vulnerability that makes him
really funny and awesome in comedies," notes
Stoller. "Baywatch is potentially more of an action
comedy and our movie has a fair amount of
action and you’ll see his skills. I see it with a lot
of actors, for example with Chris Pratt who was
very boyish and I think he needed to grow a little
bit. People want their action heroes a little older
and more grizzled, so I think that’s what’s going
on with Zac. The minute he decides he wants to
do action he’ll be able to do it.
"He has the whole thing. He even runs as
intensely as Tom Cruise,” says the director who
surprisingly left the two funniest women in
comedy, Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer, on
the cutting room floor. “They get it. They make
movies and TV, so they understand when stuff
doesn’t work. The worst thing you can do to an
actor is put something in a movie that doesn’t
work. That would have just sucked for everyone
and I didn’t want to do that to them.”
Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising is in cinemas on May 5