At first, Aubrey Plaza is a little defensive when it's suggested that "Emily the Criminal" seems like a bit of a departure for her.
"Everything's a departure for me," the actress says during a recent video interview in advance of the film's release last week. "I mean, I don't feel like ... I've treaded on the same territory in a while."
Yes, yes, sure. We just mean that the steadily busy Plaza — whose career has included black comedies such as 2017's "Ingrid Goes West" and 2020's "Black Bear" and who arguably still is best known for portraying April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" for several seasons — doesn't need her comedic gifts for the titular role of a film she sees as "a thriller."
"It's definitely not a comedy — that's for sure," Plaza says. "That was definitely something that was appealing about this movie."
In "Emily the Criminal," Plaza's Emily starts out as a young woman drowning in college-loan debt. Because she has a DUI and an aggravated assault on her record, the best job Emily can get is in food delivery.
When she agrees to take a shift for a co-worker, he thanks her by giving her an introduction to a gig as a "dummy shopper," which, she learns, involves buying goods with a stolen credit card. After her first attempt is successful, she accepts increasingly risky work from the handsome and charismatic Youcef (Theor Rossi), bringing in serious money for herself.
As the story progresses, Emily has some scary moments, and she has to make lightning-quick choices regarding whether to venture deeper and deeper into this potentially dangerous world.
"What's fun about the part for me was tracking all of those micro-decisions and steps that she takes to get to the place where she is by the end of it — and to make those moments feel real," Plaza says. "That's what was challenging, I think, about that kind of character."
Plaza also is a producer on the drama, as is Tyler Davidson, whose northeast Ohio-and-Los Angeles-based Low Spark Films has been involved in making movies that include "Take Shelter," "The Kings of Summer," "The Land" and "Galveston."
"Tyler's the best," Plaza says. "We really adopted the mentality of Emily to make this film. We had to make up the rules ourselves."
She says she read the script — by first-time feature director John Patton Ford — years earlier and very much wanted to bring it to the big screen.
"And Tyler was really the first producer that kind of just said, 'I'm doing this — I don't care what it takes,'" she says. "He was on fire about it, and we worked very closely."
In a separate phone interview, the day after the premiere — at which Davidson for the first time actually saw the movie on the big screen, in part because its debut in January at the Sundance Film Festival was virtual — says he, too, responded strongly to the script.
"And Aubrey was on board before I was, so envisioning her in the lead role — and doing something she'd never done before as an actor — was really interesting to me," Davidson says. "I think she's fantastic, and she was willing to help me produce, as well. I didn't know what to expect there.
"She was a real producer," he adds.
"Emily the Criminal" was shot in L.A. during the pandemic.
"We were one of the only productions in Los Angeles that didn't get a positive COVID test and get shut down," Plaza says. "I don't know how we did it."
It may have something to do with the shoot being only 20 days. During that time, though, Ford captured a whopping 130 scenes, some involving stunts and even a car chase. Plaza says she believes the number of scenes outnumbered the pages in the script, a rarity.
"It was insane how many scenes we shot — and in Los Angeles, which is really hard."
Although it can be expensive to shoot in L.A, both Plaza and Davidson say filming in Cleveland was only briefly considered.
"At the time we were making that decision," the latter says, "it didn't seem like there was a lot of tax-credit money available.
"When you're talking about relocating a lot of cast and key personnel that are based in L.A., you need that sort of offsetting incentive."
Says Plaza, "It was just so important for the movie to be in L.A. because L.A. is kind of a character in the film.
"It would have been a different movie in Cleveland, but I hope to shoot (there) at some point because it would be fun to go there."
Both also sing the praises of Ford.
"I think the script is so awesome," Plaza says. "There are (instances when) you think it's gonna go one way. You think, 'Uh oh, she's in real trouble. She's gonna make a left turn and go straight and, you know, get out of this mess.'
"And then when she doesn't, you're like, 'Oh (expletive)! She's gonna do THAT?,'" she adds. "That's what's so fun about the script, and that's what's so fun about the movie."
"I was really attracted from the beginning to the moral ambiguity of the film and, really, the kind of unapologetic nature of the conclusion," Davidson says. "I'm excited to hear what people think about it. I think at the very least it's a conversation piece. That's something I always try to do when I make a film."
In writing the character, Ford had to strike a balance between Emily making choices many viewers may question while also being at least somewhat relatable.
Ultimately, she's an antihero.
"You don't see that a lot; you don't see a female character that's unapologetic in that way," Plaza says. "(She) isn't trying to get the audience on her side — the audience either is or they aren't."
In his director's statement, Ford, who graduated from college with $90,000 in debt, refers to the character as a "Millennial Dirty Harry." Is that how Plaza saw herself in the role?
"I love that," she says. "I didn't walk around with that attitude. I was kind of, in my head, like (Robert) De Niro. I was doing my De Niro impression, but, yeah, I love that description."
That comment is all the opening we need to ask her about her experiences on the 2016 comedy movie "Dirty Grandpa," in which her, um, very flirtatious character has some memorable exchanges with the much older man the veteran actor is portraying.
"I'll never forget it in my life," she says of filming those outlandish scenes. "It was the best. It was one of the funniest days of my entire career."
In fact, she says, she recently spent five months shooting a movie in Italy, where De Niro is especially loved, and she regularly was approached by fans hoping she'd sign copies of the "Dirty Grandpa" DVD.
"I'll never look down at that movie," she says. "De Niro is one of my favorite scene partners I've ever had. Hope he feels the same about me."
