Alison Brie is good at making tightly controlled characters funny without treating them as fools. We rate her most when that composure has something to work against: another character’s vanity, the demands of physical comedy, or her character’s own ambition.
Fi1m perspective
In Masters of the Universe (2026), Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn watches Jared Leto’s Skeletor with the patience of someone who has heard this complaint before. He makes vanity noisy; she lets him carry on. We grinned whenever the film returned to them, because both actors take the villains seriously enough for their scenes to be funny. Travis Knight’s film wears us down with its winking, but Brie never seems to be asking permission to enjoy her part.
The tightly controlled woman is familiar territory for Brie, though it can become a casting habit. Trudy Campbell in Mad Men (2007–2015) and Annie Edison in Community (2009–2015) brought recognition through drama and ensemble comedy respectively. Those roles also encouraged a narrow perception of what she could play. The useful question is what a part gives her to do beyond being sweet, organised or anxious.
With Ruth Wilder in GLOW (2017–2019), the work became more physical, through wrestling training and performance. That gave her comic timing a different job, and the character’s vulnerability mattered as much as the exertion. Writing and producing Horse Girl (2020) was another way of moving beyond the roles already on offer. Those are directions we would like her to keep pursuing, rather than another variation on the woman who has everything under control.
Brie also voices Diane Nguyen in BoJack Horseman (2014–2020) and Unikitty in the 2014 Lego film. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s film is funny and inventive, and its affection for ordinary people gives the cleverness a purpose. The pace still wears us down at times, but it earns an evening even for viewers with no particular interest in its cast.
Brie’s scenes with Leto suggest that she does not always need a more elaborate role; sometimes she needs an actor who gives her something precise to respond to. Their exchanges have a snap the hero’s scenes lack, despite the script’s uncertainty about its own joke. We would happily watch her Evil-Lyn again, preferably without so much waiting between the good scenes.
Biography
Alison Brie is an American actress, producer and writer. She was born Alison Brie Schermerhorn on 29 December 1982 in Hollywood, California, and trained at the California Institute of the Arts, where she received a BFA in theatre.
Brie first gained recognition for her roles as Trudy Campbell in the drama series Mad Men (2007–2015) and Annie Edison in the comedy series Community (2009–2015). She later voiced Diane Nguyen in the animated series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020) and played Ruth Wilder in the comedy-drama series GLOW (2017–2019), earning nominations for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. Her film credits include Scream 4 (2011), The Lego Movie (2014), The Disaster Artist (2017), The Post (2017) and Promising Young Woman (2020). She appears as Evil-Lyn in the 2026 film Masters of the Universe.
