Why Rose Byrne Chose To Take On Her Role in 'Physical'
You may remember her first from her role in Kristen Wiig's Bridesmaids, the hilarious blockbuster comedy that featured Rose Byrne as the beautiful and seemingly perfect and poised Lillian. Her character was the new friend of Annie's (Kristen Wiig) longtime best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph), with whom Annie feels intense competition. Rose Byrne waas perfect for the part and proved her comedy chops ten times over in that role, so it's not surprising that she's gone on to many other successful endeavors.
In a recent interview with Vogue she got real about her new series Physical, released earlier this year on Apple TV+ and already renewed for a second season. No stranger to portraying women in multiple degrees of personal chaos and crisis, she was eager to sink her teeth into another role like Sheila, the suburban mom and housewife who descends into a world of eating disorders and addiction when she discovers exercise as an outlet for her insecurity and pain. Here's why Rose Byrne wanted to play the role of Sheila in Physical and what it has meant to her to make the show.
7 It's A Different Genre Than Her Other Work
By now, Rose Byrne has practically every genre of movie on her resume and she only continues to diversify, continually proving herself a force across many different roles. In 2002, she was seen in the small role of Dormé in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, followed by Troy, 28 Weeks Later, and the legal thriller series Damages. Fans may also forget that she had killer comedy performances in Marie Antoinette (2006) and Get Him to the Greek (2010), before launching further into the spotlight with a co-starring role in Bridesmaids (2011). In the lead role in Mrs. America (2020), Rose Byrne played Gloria Steinem, staunchly set on ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. Physical is a 10-part comedy-drama, and Rose Byrne was eager to tack another genre and format onto her ever growing list of accomplishments.
6 The Script Grabbed Her Right Away
Rose Byrne explains that she was taken by the script from the very first time she read it and was immediately compelled by the character. "She’s the ultimate antihero and I was like, 'How do you root for her?' She’s living in this terrible space of lies and they just get worse and worse," she said. "I was shooting Mrs. America in Toronto and Annie [Weisman, the show’s creator] came up to see me. I was a bit scared. I know what it takes to do a long-running series. I did Damages with Glenn Close. It’s a lot of hours and I hadn’t done that for years, but the world of this show was full of potential."
5 The '80s Costumes And Hair Were Super Fun
Creator Annie Weisman had specific images in mind when she decided she wanted to tell this story set in the 1980s. Full of big hair, neon colors, leotards, and leg warmers, the show is aesthetically delightful in addition to being an excellently acted and well written. Regarding Sheila's hair, Annie Weisman wanted it to be big enough so that the character filled the frame. "At the beginning, I wasn’t sure, but by the end, I was like, 'I want it bigger, bigger, bigger!'" Rose Byrne said. "Kameron Lennox is our costume designer and she was so specific. It’s hard with a show that’s set in a period that is often so comedic. You have to try to make it feel authentic and not like a costume or a Saturday Night Live sketch. You’d think I was doing a Marvel film. I had hours of fittings for those leotards."
4 It's A Compelling Portrayal Of Addiction
One main convention of the show is that the audience gets to hear Sheila's inner thoughts, which are often streams of self loathing and insecurity. Rose Byrne explained what it's like to play a character strruggling with addiction: "It informs everything and so does that voice. It’s uncomfortable and people get a little squirmy, but they relate."
3 It Depicts An Important Time In Women's History
Just like Mrs. America put Rose Byrne in the 1970s and the second wave of feminism Gloria Steinem was a part of, Physical depicts an important time for women as well. The 1980s saw a rise in fitness and exercise, especially for women, who were suddenly being pressured with the new demands to not only be a strong woman wielding power in a way that was suddenly allowed but to also still maintain the body ideals that women were bombarded with in decades prior. Rose Byrne explained that as a woman of the 1980s, Sheila is really the product of the decade that came before. "She’s an activist, she went to Berkeley, and her husband is a liberal professor, but she’s suffering," she said. "There’s an appetite for different stories about being a woman. It’s not a monolithic experience. I see more representation on screen and great strides being made but then, you look at reproductive rights being taken away or not [being] accessible to women in so many parts of the world."
2 The Role Lets Her Unpack Health And Fitness Baggage
Creator and executive producer Annie Weisman wanted to begin Sheila's journey how she imagined many women's fitness journeys began: as something positive that soon began to unravel when the interest became an obsession. "The show really tracks her journey when she discovers this new source of joy and power in her body,” she says. “She’s also in this moment when video technology is really starting to boom and she catches a wave and comes up with this great idea to put this kind of liberating physical exercise onto videotape.”
1 She Enjoyed The Exercise Routines
With the demanding production schedule and nature of the scenes, Rose Byrne had to get a taste of the aerobics lifestyle she was portraying as Sheila. She worked with a choreographer and aerobics instructor on Zoom for several months and found that she enjoyed the exercise just like her character. “The aerobics aspect of it is so physical it gets you out of your head. I’m so focused on trying to do the moves or the choreography, I found it actually quite liberating," she said.
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