The biggest laughs at the premiere of Numb came not from the movie, the story of a Hollywood writer played by Matthew Perry struggling with depersonalization disorder, but from the Q&A of the film's actors following the screening.
Kevin Pollack attempted to pay his costar a compliment, prefacing an answer about his character's sandwich eating by telling Perry "I thought it was incredibly brave to do this [film] as your first role after 'Friends.'" The packed house started laughing, causing Pollack to stutter, "I'm being serious..."
While Pollack looked confused, Perry, seated next to him, hammed it up, putting his head in his hands and contorting his face. "They're laughing because they know the show I just did! Nevermind. Everything is fine!" The laughter continued as Perry turned to Pollack with exaggerated exasperation, "Why couldn't you just say how many sandwiches you ate?" Perry's overhyped, underperforming NBC show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is not expected to be renewed for a second season.
But Perry, who arrived in a black stretch limo, was in good spirits, gnashing gum and wildly gesticulating throughout the Q&A as he teased his fellow cast members and took questions. The film, an autobiographical account of writer/director Harris Goldberg's struggle with the disorder that made him feel numb to the world, was a change of pace for Perry after a decade as the animated Chandler Bing. "I wanted it to be less external than the work I'd done in the past. [Harris] would say 'do less,' and I'd say, 'I'm not doing anything.' He'd say, 'Yes you are. Do less.'"
Of Perry, Goldberg gushed, "He's my Gregory Peck. He's fantastic and we've become really great friends."
The film, which Goldberg claims is completely true to his life, also costars Mary Steenburgen as a tenured UCLA professor and cognitive therapy specialist who starts an illicit sexual relationship with Perry's character when she's treating him. The highlight of the film is her crazed breakdown in a restaurant after she begins stalking him, with Steenburgen's doctor screaming out expletive-laced protestations of love. No doubt a UCLA tenured professor of cognitive therapy will be meeting with her lawyers in the near future.
For more HuffPost coverage of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, go here.
- Katherine Thomson
Photos from Getty