Marisa Tomei Isn’t Into Sweat Pants

The new movie Cyrus started out as a bunch of dudes. Directors Jay and Mark Duplass wrote the part of a down-and-out single guy specifically for John C. Reilly, then cast Jonah Hill as the clingy, weird, full-grown son of the woman he falls for.

And then? “Honestly, we had a little bit of a freak-out,” Jay Duplass explained at last night’s Blackberry-sponsored Cinema Society screening of the film at the Crosby Hotel. “We had these two guys who are just really funny, brilliant minds, and we were like, we’ve got to find a girl who can hold her own.”

Enter Marisa Tomei (left, with Jay Duplass). “What I enjoyed was that it was a fuller picture of a woman than a lot of times we get to see,” said the actress, who came by the screening in a Lela Rose dress and Brian Atwood heels. Tomei did decide to tweak the character’s wardrobe, though. “The guys were wanting it to be really low-key—serious low-key, like sweat pants. But she’s the muse to this really creative, eccentric child. I just thought she was more of a creative person and that it would be expressed somewhat more through her style.”

“She was really picky about what she wore,” Duplass confirmed. But the gents were happy to oblige. “Once we realized the level of her heightened awareness of clothes, we were like, girl, just go with it. We don’t even need to approve it, just pick what you want. That’s awesome.”

—Darrell Hartman