Shira Piven on Welcome to Me's edgy but empathetic humour
Filmmaker Shira Piven takes us inside the magical and painful world of an amateur talk show host with borderline personality disorder, played by Kristen Wiig.
Filmmaker Shira Piven joins Shad to discuss Welcome to Me, her indie comedy starring Kristen Wiig as an unmedicated, mentally-ill woman who uses lottery winnings to fund her own Oprah-style talk show.
The film plays borderline personality disorder for laughs, but in a way that humanizes Wiig's character.
Piven shares her approach to edgy but self-aware humour, explains how our delusions of grandeur are a product of our times, and notes that she wasn't trying to "fix" her protagonist.
"We see people we know in Alice, as well as ourselves," says Piven. "The character came first, and the diagnosis came second."
WEB EXTRA | Watch two clips from Welcome to Me in the windows below.