Slate, Evans are grateful for the gift of ‘Gifted’
Jenny Slate wanted to try something different.
Before she could be pigeonholed as a comedic actress who’s most at home in small, smart indie films, Slate wanted to do something more mainstream, something more typically Hollywood, something unexpected.
So there she is in a tailored skirt and a collared blouse, her hair in a bun, playing a softhearted schoolteacher in “Gifted,” an earnest Fox Searchlight film about a 10-year-old math prodigy who’s embroiled in a custody battle.
“I read this and thought, ‘This feels like a movie I would have loved when I was young,’” Slate, who grew up in Milton, said in a telephone interview last week. “I kind of miss those movies of the ’90s that weren’t huge blowout films, but were intriguing, medium-sized movies with a good story. Like ‘The Pelican Brief.’ Where did those movies go?”
In fact, “Gifted,” which opens in theaters Friday, doesn’t have much in common with “The Pelican Brief,” the 1993 legal thriller adapted from John Grisham’s novel, starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. But it does have the high shine and straightforward story of a standard Hollywood film, and that’s what Slate was looking for. It also has Chris Evans, who, like Slate, plays against type as the little girl’s uncle, a character more damaged and downcast than the handsome superhero Evans plays in the “Captain America” movies.
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