TORONTO—Director Shira Piven, who is also an actress and sister of Jeremy Piven, introduced her sad but funny drama “Welcome to Me” starring Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, and Joan Cusack at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5, 2014.
Piven said her film steps outside of the limited genre niche that’s dark comedy.
“These days I think genre is much looser and I don’t think of it exclusively as a comedy,” Piven said, recalling that audience tell her that they have different reactions to the film, ranging from laughing out loud to sobbing to being moved.
“It’s not necessarily a traditional dark comedy,” Piven added.
“Welcome to Me” tells the story of Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) who spends half her time struggling with a personality disorder and the other half memorizing lines from “Oprah” reruns. Klieg then stumbles across fame and fortune as she wins the lottery and decides on producing her own talk-show.
For Piven the clash between the narcissistic reality TV culture and the life of a troubled, mentally unstable woman was explosive.
“I think sometimes cartoons and comedies are the best way to deal with subversive issues,” Piven said.
“Most of the funny people I know have a sadness underneath them,” Piven said during the red carpet premiere, using the late actor Robin Williams as an example.
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