So, when “Snatched” screenwriter Katie Dippold and her mom were abducted in South America …
“Y’know, I sat on it for a while,” says a playing-along Dippold. “I thought, ‘I don’t know if this is cinematic.’ No, my mother and I did not get kidnapped in a jungle.”
That said, the Upright Citizens Brigade-trained writer of “The Heat” and last year’s “Ghostbusters” reboot, as well as “Parks and Recreation” and “Madtv” on the small screen, drew many of the underlying character issues in her raucous Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn-starring action comedy from her own New Jersey past.In the film, which was directed in Hawaii by Jonathan Levine (“50/50,” “The Night Before”), Schumer’s Emily Middleton finds herself stuck with two non-refundable tickets to Ecuador when her musician boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her on the eve of their vacation. Retreating to the home of her rarely visited mother Linda (Hawn, in her first movie since 2002’s “The Banger Sisters”), Emily is saddened to find the once fun-loving woman leading a drab and somewhat fear-governed life.
In the film, which was directed in Hawaii by Jonathan Levine (“50/50,” “The Night Before”), Schumer’s Emily Middleton finds herself stuck with two non-refundable tickets to Ecuador when her musician boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her on the eve of their vacation. Retreating to the home of her rarely visited mother Linda (Hawn, in her first movie since 2002’s “The Banger Sisters”), Emily is saddened to find the once fun-loving woman leading a drab and somewhat fear-governed life.
Eager to bring Mom out of her shell, but mostly so her vacation investment won’t go to waste, Emily persuades the reluctant Linda to join her in paradise. Where the pair are promptly kidnapped for ransom, escape into the mountains and, amid much cussing and a few unintended killings, come to a new understanding of each other.
“The reason for the movie, for me, was more wish-fulfillment,” Dippold explains. “My parents got divorced when I was in college. It was a very friendly divorce, but I noticed that my mom, who was always really adventurous and fun and kind of fearless when I was a kid, something had shifted in her. She just became more cautious and cynical and a little bit more negative about things; it was like she was always expecting to be disappointed by someone or something.”
Maybe including her Rutgers graduate daughter, who was consumed with establishing her own life at the time.
“I was in my 20s, and I didn’t have the wisdom — I hadn’t been through therapy yet — to understand what was going on with her,” Dippold admits. “I was so focused on my temp job and my improv shows, I was like ‘Oh, Mom seems sad.’ That was all I could really offer.”
Dippold’s “Snatched” script might compensate a little. She reports her mother was pleased by a gag based on their own family cat, and, of course, was a bit more duly impressed that comedy legend and Oscar-winning actress Hawn was playing a character inspired by her.
“My whole family has loved Goldie Hawn since the beginning of time,” Dippold says of the “Private Benjamin,” “Shampoo,” “First Wives Club,” “Laugh-In” and so much more icon. “I think Mom’s mind is still kind of blown about the whole thing.”
While Dippold stops short of describing Emily as semi-autobiographically based, she was nonetheless super pleased when the red-hot Schumer came onto the project, not only as star, but also executive producer with her sister and writing partner, Kim Caramele. That team did a pass on the script during development, which Dippold describes as a collaborative process.
What certainly seems unmistakably Katie about “Snatched,” though, is how Emily can sometimes be as dangerous as she is uncensored.
“I think I’m naturally kind of a mild-mannered, gentle person,” says the creator of some of Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon’s most formidable roles. “I swear a lot, but my general way is pretty mild-mannered. It makes me sad that I grew up watching a lot of movies where the guys did these amazing, crazy things and I didn’t see a lot of that for women.
“I just wish I’d grown up seeing more of an aggressive type of woman, and I guess it’s a part of me that always wishes I was a little more confident and aggressive in real life,” she adds regarding her creative outlet. “So what I really wanted to try was something I hadn’t seen before, an R-rated mother-daughter movie. That was exciting, so I just pushed myself to go for things harder. I was sure there were going to be moments and scenes that an actress wouldn’t want to do, but Amy was the opposite. She just embraced it and then pushed it further.”
Like Schumer, Dippold is also no stranger to the comedy of painful embarrassment. Back when she was the hot new Hollywood commodity for her hit “Heat” spec script, there was little opportunity to bask in the buzz.
“In 2013, just so you know, I was so stressed out about ‘The Heat’ coming out that I ground my teeth so hard that a tooth died right before the premiere,” she reveals. “It was so painful, then it went away. But there was a little piece of my face, right below my nose, that I always noticed felt tender and weird if I pushed on it. Then just last year I went to a specialist who found that the tooth did die and had caused a massive infection, contained in that one spot of my face.
“So right before ‘Ghostbusters’ came out, I had to have surgery where they went in through the gums to clear it out. It was a whole ordeal, and it was disgusting and horrible. So I haven’t really spent too much time feeling so pleased with myself.”
Silver lining? At least Dippold had that distraction when the all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot came under attack by insecure male internet trolls and didn’t do the amount of business that had been hoped.
“Ironically, the way that I describe myself as a successful person is that I weirdly feel Zen about that experience,” she confesses, laughing. “The thing is, when you get that many comments, and you see that much of that kind of thing, for a neurotic person there’s a certain limit of hurt. And it’s freeing in a way. I’m working on a script right now, and for the first time I’m not thinking about what I should write and what people would want. I feel more focused on what I want to do and write, because it’s very hard to please everyone.”
Dippold wouldn’t say what her next project is about, though.
“I can’t, but honestly, mostly because if I heard disappointment in your voice, I would throw my computer out,” she cracks.
Anyway, she’s happy enough that her mom was moved by “Snatched.” Katie has more big plans for her, too.
“I’m gonna take her to Amsterdam in August,” Dippold says.
That ought to be an adventure. Just stay out of those … Oh, on second thought, hit some of those places. There may be another screenplay in it.