Fast Company

Sizing Up the Talent

How writer-director Paul Feig gets the best out of his casts and crews
Feig says that a director’s natural inclination is to control things when working with actors. He tries to do the opposite.

From his late-’90s TV show Freaks and Geeks, which launched the careers of Seth Rogen and James Franco, to female-driven comedies such as Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy, which did the same for Melissa McCarthy, Paul Feig (pronounced Feeg) has demonstrated a knack for eliciting memorable breakout performances. His latest film, out this month, is the comedic whodunit A Simple Favor, which stars Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively as feminist oddballs whose humor is laced with an ominous

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Fast Company

Fast Company1 min read
10 kinetx
IN SEPTEMBER 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off the first samples from an asteroid collected by the U.S. The half-pound capsule that parachuted to the ground in Utah was the payoff of the craft's miraculous journey on which it landed on a
Fast Company2 min read
49 campus
WITH STUDENT LOAN DEBT BALlooning into a $1.8 trillion crisis, education entrepreneur Tade Oyerinde has developed an affordable alternative to a traditional four-year degree. In 2022, he launched Campus, the first national online community college. W
Fast Company1 min read
46 uncommon
WHEN ELECTRONIC ARTS NEEDED TO REBR AND ITS $2 BILLION soccer vedio game FIFA after a financial dispute with the global sport's governing body, it tapped the London-based agency Uncommon for the job—perhaps the most daunting marketing challenge of la

Related Books & Audiobooks