LOS ANGELES, March 16 (UPI) — Amy Schumer said her new show, Life & Beth, premiering Friday on Hulu, shows her at her most vulnerable.
“It helps alleviate my pain and it is sort of therapeutic,” Schumer said in a recent Television Critics Association Zoom interview. “I’m sure I’ve shared more than some people would have cared for me to, but I think it’s helpful.”
Schumer, 40, named her character Beth after her own middle name. Beth is approaching 40 and re-evaluates her life and career after a sudden tragedy in her family.
“I just think we’re all hopefully evolving and trying to become the best versions of ourselves,” Schumer said.
The comedian said Beth represents conflicting parts of her personality. Although Schumer has been performing stand-up since 2004 and acting on stage and screen since then, she said she struggles with her introverted nature and social career choice.
“So many of us have these conflicting sides of ourselves,” Schumer said. “I feel supremely confident, and also, I do consider myself someone with really low self-esteem.”
Schumer has spoken out about Hollywood’s standard of beauty and weight for women. Schumer said Beth also faces expectations placed upon women by society.
Beth has been working as a sales representative at a wine company with her boyfriend, and she begins to assert herself and embark on new career paths.
“It’s just part of the culture — the culture I definitely grew up with, where the boys are supposed to be funny and the men are supposed to speak,” Schumer said. “You just try and look pretty, and we’ll call you when we need you.”
Schumer speaks about personal experiences in her stand-up comedy, and wrote about them in the film, Trainwreck. Schumer said joke construction only gets comedians so far, but endearing themselves to a crowd makes them funnier.
“When Lucy [Ball] stepped out on stage or Totie [Fields] stepped out on stage, you loved them,” Schumer said. “And I think that’s a powerful thing about comics. You want to know who they really are.”
Life & Beth, Schumer hopes, achieves the same balance between comedy and drama.
“We really wanted to make something special and grounded in reality, but also having fun,” Schumer said. “Life is major trauma and pain, and being able to laugh about it and grow from it is all we can do.”
Schumer said she established herself in a fulfilling career earlier than Beth did. Producing her Comedy Central sketch comedy series, Inside Amy Schumer, from 2013 to 2016 also honed her skills, she said.
“Starting out with standup or with a sketch comedy show where you had no money and no time to shoot anything, you have to work really hard and be really prepared,” Schumer said. “That’s still how I know how to work is to really hustle.”
Schumer said her first memory of performing was a Catholic high school production of The Sound of Music when she was 5. At first, the audience laughter upset her until she learned what it meant.
“I remember the director explaining to me, ‘No, it’s funny. It’s good when you make people laugh. It means they love you and you made them happy,'” Schumer said. “I didn’t mean to become a comic. But I always knew I wanted to be a performer.”
Schumer said she “tried stand-up on a whim,” but found herself at home.
“So I just kept trying to get better and stronger and work hard,” Schumer said.
New episodes of Life & Beth premiere Fridays on Hulu.