Alison Brie plays wide-eyed ingenue Amber in the new dark comedy Spin Me Round, which parodies the classic adult novel formula.
Amber works for an Italian food chain and is selected to fly to Italy for a “luxurious” immersion program, but things spiral into chaos when she catches the eye of the hunky CEO Nick, played by Alessandro Nivola.
Amber is swept into Nick’s fancy world and, up until the very end, she misses all the ominous red flags signaling his perverted ulterior motives. His sordid fantasies are finally revealed when Amber is asked to participate in a massive orgy.
So, what was it like to film the X-rated scene?
“I did not mentally prepare myself — and it was jarring!” Brie told ABC Audio. “It’s funny when you write a scene like that, so you know what’s coming.”
She added of when she saw the live set for the first time, “That was certainly a new one for me.”
Dirtiness aside, in addition to Spin Me Round flipping common adult novel tropes on their head, Brie revealed the movie was partially inspired by real-life events.
She said director Jeff Baena came up with the movie after reading an article about an “Italian food chain in America that sends their managers to an exemplary managers program in Italy to experience food, wine and culture” — but the trip turns out being a week spent “living in dorm style housing … learning how to make a Bolognese.”
“I think we just thought there’s something really inherently funny about thinking that you’re going on a really exotic European adventure, only to find this sort of lackluster, still very Americanized experience,” the actress added.
Spin Me Round — also starring Molly Shannon, Tim Heidecker and Aubrey Plaza — is now streaming on AMC+.
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