Looking for something out of this world? I’m Totally Fine is now available in theaters, digital, and on demand as of November 4. Directed by Brandon Werner and written by Alisha Ketry, the film — with a clever, relatable title — follows Vanessa (Jillian Bell) in mourning as she takes a solo trip to clear her head after the death of her friend Jennifer (Natalie Morales). However, Vanessa’s self-care vacation plans change when she’s met with an otherworldly situation: An alien pays her a visit in the guise of Jennifer. From there, they spend the weekend together and learn more about the past and “future.” At one point, they get stranded on the side of the road and require help from a thoughtful townie (Kyle Newacheck). And then later, the DJ (Harvey Guillén) who Vanessa forgot to cancel shows up to throw them a party.
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The film overall is a unique, innovative concept for an indie project. The small cast is stacked with familiar faces from some of your favorite TV series.

Jillian Bell On Trying Something Different

MW: Can you tell me a bit about what it’s like to capture that balance between comedy and drama?

Jillian Bell: I think it’s very important. It’s not always the easiest because you want to make sure you’re getting to the heart of things, but you’re also not tipping over too much. You know? You want to make sure that you get them back and laughing because I really think that’s the human experience. You can be having your saddest moment ever, but then something will make you laugh. And I think that is truly a human experience and something we wanted to capture.

MW: You guys definitely make it look easy, which I know is usually a result of so much preparation beforehand — because the chemistry between you and Natalie is outstanding. How did you guys accomplish that?

Jillian Bell: Thank you. Well, Natalie’s really easy to love. She’s a super-talented human being, but she’s also just got a great heart. I’ve known her for some time now. We did a charity sketch show together, like, over 10 years ago, but we’ve never worked on anything. We’ve never done a movie together. So this was really special. And when I found out about the idea and the script was coming together, I said to Kyle Newacheck, who was producing, and Brandon Dermer the director, I said, “This is Natalie. It’s got to be Natalie. Like, I’m telling you, this is it.” They didn’t need much convincing. And I hit her up and just said, “Would you like to do this with me?” And she’s like, “I don’t even have to read it. Let’s do it.” So I think we’ve always wanted to work together. We already had that friendship and connection. That chemistry was pretty natural… Originally, she was supposed to play my part, and I was supposed to play the alien. And we read it and sort of said, like, “I think that’s wrong. I think we should do something different.” So we switched it around. I’m so glad we did that. I think it brought different challenges our way that we hadn’t yet done.

MW: What was it that indicated the change needed to take place between your characters?

Jillian Bell: I can’t speak to Natalie. But for me, I lost my dad about 10 years ago. And when I was reading the script for the first time, I kept reading the lines that I eventually got to do in the film. I wasn’t reading any of the alien’s ones, like, out loud. I just kept saying these lines and feeling them and knowing what that experience is to have such deep grief. So for me, it just really resonated. I really connected more to the role I ended up playing.

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Getting Involved With I’m Totally Fine

RKM Studios

MW: So you hadn’t worked with Natalie before, but you had worked on American Dad, which Alisha Ketry writes with. Was there anything in her script that really made you want to be a part of this project?

Jillian Bell: Honestly, it was the balance, like you said, the balance of comedy and heart. The moments that were more emotional really pulled me in. And then the moments where a joke comes, you’re like, “Oh, it’s just where you need it to be.” I thought she had a really beautiful balance. It’s delicate. It’s really rare that you find that in a script. It’s kind of like music. You’re hearing a song, and the beat comes in right where you view to. It just feels sort of magical when that happens. And she had a beautiful script.

MW: In those more dramatic moments, there are themes of grief and coming to terms with reality. When you’re making a film like this, do you have any intention for messages that you’d like viewers to take away?

Jillian Bell: I mean, I think the themes are already in the script, you know? That’s going to come out naturally. I think that if there’s anything I want for people, it’s less of a message, but I think it’s more just [that] I hope they can connect to it and feel… I don’t know, it’s really a beautiful thing to be vulnerable. And for me, shooting this, I had to be very vulnerable. And you know, it’s the story of a woman who’s seriously grieving the loss of her best friend. And I think that, for me at least, I just felt like, the more real I play that, to how I felt in the walls I put up when I was grieving and wanted to put on this face that everything was OK when I wasn’t, I just wanted that to feel very real. And if people can connect to that, I feel like then, hopefully, I’ve done my job.

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Improv and Dialogue in I’m Totally Fine

DECAL Releasing

MW: Alisha mentioned that part of capturing the dialogue in a way, as authentic as it could be, requires a lot of rewriting on set, especially for the alien character. Can you tell me a bit about that process for your character? How maybe you and Natalie played off of each other? And if there was room for any improv on set?

Jillian Bell: Yeah, definitely a lot of room for improv. But I think, you know, what we really wanted to nail was exactly what you said, it’s just the believability of this alien and figuring out the roles of how she works, like how this whole process works. So the thing about it was, I had so much time with Alisha and Brandon and Kyle, just talking about my character and the backstory and everything, Natalie was coming off of Plan B. She just directed her first film, which is amazing by the way, if you have not seen it. And she was coming straight in from that to our set, so she had very little time to go through and do the same kind of process that I was lucky enough to have, just because I had that time on my hands. So every night we’d be meeting at this big table with the five of us and just kind of going through what we did that day, how it affected tomorrow’s work, and making these quick rewrites with Alisha and working stuff out, you know? Not just saying to her, “Hey, this doesn’t work now. Well, good night, we’re gonna go get our beauty rest.” [laughs] It was a really collaborative effort. And I thought Alisha handled it like a champ. I mean, it’s really hard when that many rewrites are coming up the night before you’re shooting something. And I thought that she just did such a good job putting everything together and making it make sense. And not only that but adding comedy and heart to it.

MW: Can you tell me a bit about Brandon’s direction style and how he kind of played into this large collaboration?

Jillian Bell: Brandon is probably the most excited director I’ve ever worked with. He is so passionate and driven and happy, genuinely a happy person. And that really affects the whole shooting process because that energy at the top just sets the table for how the whole shoot will go. And I really had always wanted to work with him. But I mean, we were supposed to work together on even just a promo of something, and it didn’t end up working. But I’ve heard his name forever. And when I met him, I just was like, “Oh, thank goodness we’re in these hands,” because he’s so passionate about what he’s doing that it just really excites you as an actor when you get to work with someone like that. And then he would really handle it so gracefully by giving the actors space when they needed to go into emotional places. I just thought he did a really good job of handling everything, and this was his first film.

MW: Do you have a favorite memory while filming?

Jillian Bell: I mean, shooting the Papa Roach dance was very fun. I mean, we had to have a little bit of a margarita, which Natalie and I had very quickly right before we were shooting it, and then danced our butts off, and then realize that’s not the best combination… to have a margarita very quickly and then dance. But that was really fun. And then the scene right after it, where we’re falling asleep on the bed, and we’re kind of connecting, I think that’s a very special scene. That’s probably my favorite scene.

MW: Did you have to learn the lyrics of Papa Roach, or did you know those beforehand?

Jillian Bell: Oh, I knew most of them. There are a couple that I still have trouble with, or I didn’t realize were the words. [laughs] And I’d been singing it wrong for way too long, but I love Papa Roach. Like, I have a bathing suit that says, “Cut my life into pieces. This is my bathing suit.” So I’ve been a fan of theirs forever, and so when we found out we were actually going to be able to have the song in the movie and sing it and dance around, I was thrilled.

I’m Totally Fine is available now on demand.