As Alison Brie laces up her rental shoes, she gives a wink-wink and provides an out. “We really don’t have to do this,” she says. We’re seated side-by-side on a cracked leather couch at Highland Park Bowl, L.A.’s oldest operating bowling alley. A quiet, young-ish couple and their two elementary schoolers flank us on our right; three adult children and their parents bickering over whose turn is first on our left. They’re all here for an afternoon of low-stakes competition and landmark tourism, pure fun. Brie and I, on the other hand, are trying to make fun out of a work-mandated interruption to the actress-writer-producer’s leisurely summer Friday in June.
The actress, 42, had gone on a walk that morning with her mom. She’d spent some time collecting and cutting videos from friends and family for a surprise virtual birthday card that “Davey”—as in Dave Franco, as in her husband, as in her co-star in many movies, including their latest codependency freakout Together—will open on his 40th the following week. Later that night, they’ll meet up for a dinner date.
