Teyonah Parris on Doing 50+ Takes for James L. Brooks

“With Mr. Brooks we were gonna do it until he felt he had it!”

Teyonah Parris has a mighty impressive filmography at this point. She played Monica Rambeau on WandaVision and is set to reprise the role in the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels. On top of that, there’s Justin Simien‘s Dear White People, Spike Lee‘s Chi-Raq, Barry Jenkins‘ If Beale Street Could Talk and more. But, she had to start somewhere, right? Parris’ very first feature film was actually a pretty significant production. She starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the 2010 James L. Brooks-directed comedy How Do You Know.

Witherspoon leads the film as Lisa Jorgenson, a softball player who’s thrown for a loop when she doesn’t earn a spot on the Team USA roster. While reeling from the disappointment, Lisa finds herself in the middle of a love triangle with Owen Wilson’s Matty Reynolds, a professional baseball player, and Paul Rudd’s George Madison, a businessman in hot water due to stock fraud. Parris makes her feature debut in the film playing Riva, another softball player who’s good friends with Lisa.

Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd in How Do You Know — Image via Sony Pictures

While on Collider Ladies Night celebrating WandaVision‘s run on Disney+, we took some time to look back on some of Parris’ earliest credits, How Do You Know included. Turns out, Academy Award winning director James L. Brooks is someone who likes to do a lot of takes. Parris explained:

“With Mr. Brooks we were gonna do it until he felt he had it! That was my first feature film, so I didn’t have a clue about a lot of things and, you know, once we got up into take 50-something I’m just thinking as a young actor who’s just out of school, ‘Okay, this is what it is. You have to have this kind of stamina.’ This is one scene, take 50-something! I’m like, ‘Okay.’ Then I look at other people and they’re like, ‘This is not normal.’ I said, ‘Oh! Okay!’ I didn’t know a lot of things.”

James L. Brooks and Kathryn Hahn on the Set of How Do You Know — Image via Sony Pictures

That wasn’t the only important lesson learned on How Do You Know. Parris’ learning curve continued with a scene that required her to race Witherspoon. Here’s how that went:

“I remember this one moment where we were on the National Mall. So I’m in DC, I got to travel here to work, it’s me and Reese. Our characters are racing and so Mr. Brooks is on, I don’t know, like an ATV or something with the camera and they’re going alongside us. In the script it says my character wins. So again, my first time really on camera like this so they say action and I’m like, ‘I gotta do well. I gotta bring it!’ He says action, I take off! I was like, ‘Yes!’ All I hear behind me is, ‘Stop! Cut! Cut!’ I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I look back, Reese stopped running. She comes up, she says, ‘You can’t run passed the camera, hunny!’ I was like, ‘Oh! Oh, oh, okay.’ Mr. Brooks was like, ‘Take it again! Take it again!’ But he was a lovely, lovely man.”

wandavision-teyonah-parris-social-feature — Image via Disney+

Eager for more on-set stories from Parris? We have you well covered in that department! Keep an eye out for her full Collider Ladies Night conversation dropping later this week and be sure to check out the other clips from the interview we shared already, including the one below:

KEEP READING: ‘WandaVision’ Star Teyonah Parris Reveals Ralph Bohner Almost Had Another Name: “None Topped Bohner, I’ll Tell You That”