“Diary of a Teenage Girl” filmmaker Marielle Heller is back with her next film, and this time she’s enlisting an A-list star for the lead role. In a trailer that premiered as part of Entertainment Weekly’s “Female Filmmaker Friday,” Heller introduces her newest film, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” And this time, Heller has comedic actress Melissa McCarthy as the lead, in what is sure to be McCarthy’s darkest, and most dramatic role yet.
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” follows the true story of writer Lee Israel, who is in a professional slump. To make ends meet, Israel decides to forge letters from famous writers. Israel then sold these forgeries to people for exorbitant amounts of money. Unfortunately, she was eventually tracked down and caught by the authorities. In the first footage seen from the film, we see McCarthy dialing back her comedic sensibilities by about 90%, to give what looks to be a refreshing performance as Israel.
Of course, don’t mistake “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” for being a dull drama. As seen in the trailer, the film still has the comedic moments that Heller was known for in her last film. Funny enough, most of the comedy in the trailer doesn’t come from McCarthy, but by co-star Richard E. Grant. Heller also wants to make sure that people don’t take this new film as your everyday biopic.
“There are pitfalls to biopics that are hard to get away from,” Heller explains. “There’s an expectation that you’re doing a certain amount of journalistic storytelling that’s going to give an exact play-by-play showing someone’s entire life from cradle to grave. This does none of that.”
Joining McCarthy and Grant in the cast are Jane Curtain, Dolly Wells, and Anna Deavere Smith. The film will be released by Fox Searchlight on October 19.