String Theory
The All-Sex, No-Emotions Relationship Gets the Big Screen Treatment in Liz Meriwether's No Strings Attached
By Alexis Swerdloff
Photographed by Jacqueline Di Milia
It was in Denver, at a test screening of her upcoming film No
Strings Attached, that screenwriter Liz Meriwether had a realization:
"I saw a ton of couples in the audience; and I thought, 'Wow, I think
my first movie might get a lot of people laid.'"
While that remains statistically unverified, what is certain is that her first movie is quite a first movie. Directed by Hollywood legend Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), No Strings stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher as two 20-something friends attempting to maintain a relationship based purely on sex. "Every rom-com ends with a kiss," Meriwether says, "but most relationships these days start with a kiss, then move to a hook-up, then everybody disappears for three weeks, then they're dating, then they're not dating, then they are again." Reitman's know-how paired with Meriwether's nutty, smart script makes for a good old-fashioned, yet slightly off- kilter comedy. (And we're not just saying this because Meriwether is our friend -- which, for the record, she is.)
Meriwether, 29, got her start in the New York theater world soon after graduating from Yale in 2004; Heddatron (Hedda Gabler... with robots) and The Mistakes Madeline Made (about a girl who develops ablutophobia, a fear of bathing) delighted critics. In 2007, she moved out to Hollywood to make a go of it in the biz. Her Fuckbuddies script, which later morphed into No Strings, was near the top of 2008's "Black List" -- a ranking of the year's best un-made films -- and soon Meriwether and her weird, wonderful humor were in high demand. In the wake of No Strings' buzz, she sold a sitcom idea to Fox: Tentatively titled Chicks with Dicks, it's about a girl and her three male roommates.
With a first movie made, a sitcom sold, a collection of short plays set to be published in the Spring, Meriwether hopes to do some traveling in the near future: "I'm obsessed with TripAdvisor.com," she says. "It's sort of like porn for me. I can really fall down a Trip Advisor K-Hole, and five hours later I'll emerge knowing everything about the fjords of Norway."
No Strings Attached is in theaters January 21, 2011.
While that remains statistically unverified, what is certain is that her first movie is quite a first movie. Directed by Hollywood legend Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), No Strings stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher as two 20-something friends attempting to maintain a relationship based purely on sex. "Every rom-com ends with a kiss," Meriwether says, "but most relationships these days start with a kiss, then move to a hook-up, then everybody disappears for three weeks, then they're dating, then they're not dating, then they are again." Reitman's know-how paired with Meriwether's nutty, smart script makes for a good old-fashioned, yet slightly off- kilter comedy. (And we're not just saying this because Meriwether is our friend -- which, for the record, she is.)
Meriwether, 29, got her start in the New York theater world soon after graduating from Yale in 2004; Heddatron (Hedda Gabler... with robots) and The Mistakes Madeline Made (about a girl who develops ablutophobia, a fear of bathing) delighted critics. In 2007, she moved out to Hollywood to make a go of it in the biz. Her Fuckbuddies script, which later morphed into No Strings, was near the top of 2008's "Black List" -- a ranking of the year's best un-made films -- and soon Meriwether and her weird, wonderful humor were in high demand. In the wake of No Strings' buzz, she sold a sitcom idea to Fox: Tentatively titled Chicks with Dicks, it's about a girl and her three male roommates.
With a first movie made, a sitcom sold, a collection of short plays set to be published in the Spring, Meriwether hopes to do some traveling in the near future: "I'm obsessed with TripAdvisor.com," she says. "It's sort of like porn for me. I can really fall down a Trip Advisor K-Hole, and five hours later I'll emerge knowing everything about the fjords of Norway."
No Strings Attached is in theaters January 21, 2011.
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