In a new profile in GQ, Lauren Bans reveals how the very dark but still very funny military rape video game sketch on this season of Inside Amy Schumer came about: through a little risk taking.
For her piece, Bans got to watch Schumer and her team editing footage for season 2. It was during this time that she learned that the sketch almost didn’t make it on air:
But Schumer is concerned that this military-rape sketch is too pointedly political to make it past the network execs. Specifically, she’s hung up on her response when the boyfriend comes back, beer in hand, and doubts her story: “Trust me, it happened.”
“I just think that’s way too heavy-handed,” Schumer argues. “I could see a young male viewer feeling reprimanded.” Some of the other writers disagree. Jessi Klein quotes something she heard in a Kathleen Hanna documentary: “When a guy says something, it’s automatically true. Women need to say the same thing four times.” The group debates the line for another seven minutes, interrupted only by a brief discussion about the hotness of the current Bachelor, Juan Pablo. (“Ay yi yi,” Schumer says affirmatively, imitating what Juan Pablo says every time he sees a contestant’s boobies.) Eventually Amy decides to keep it.
“If we are going to go for the joke,” she explains to me later, “let’s really go for it and not apologize for it.”
Somewhat relatedly, Schumer told Bans about how she chose not to let Jerry Lewis literally force her into pretending they were having sex during a Friar’s Club Roast:
He came up, and we hugged each other, and then he started pushing me back, trying to lay me down on the stage. So I buckled down and used my knees to stay in place, and he was in my ear saying, ‘Lay down.’ I whispered ‘No’ in his ear. Even after I said no, he was still trying. I had to use my core to stay up—he’s a strong motherfucker. I’m not going to be the girl who gets fucked after her set. Sorry, Jerry Lewis.
Schumer also revealed that, like with most performers, there’s a line between her boozy, sexually adventurous performance persona and her true self. “The guys who actually know me know that it’s really pretty hard to fuck me,” she said.
Along those lines, Schumer’s speech from the Ms. gala last week about having and holding onto confidence is definitely worth a read. (It includes the line “Matt, what is this? The Braveheart soundtrack? Can you put something else on, please?”)
Image via GQ