In the 2018 original “A Simple Favor,” Blake Lively portrayed dual roles as Emily Nelson and her estranged sister Faith. The film also reveals they had a triplet sister, Charity, who was stillborn.
Emily drowns Faith in a lake and ends up in jail after her frenemy Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) cleverly exposes her scheme.
The sequel introduces a twist with the revelation that Emily’s triplet sister Charity didn’t actually die but was stolen by their aunt at birth.
Lively discussed playing dual roles again in the new film and how director Paul Feig surprised her with the plot twist.
“I was like, no nerves, I know what I’m doing this time — and then right before we started shooting he said, ‘I have, like, a little bit of a curveball idea.’ … It definitely upped the ante. It was very uncomfortable to watch in this theater with you all. It was my own personal torture,” she explained.
However, she enthusiastically shared that Emily is “probably my favorite character I’ve ever been fortunate enough to play.”
Feig also offered insight into how the intricate storyline was finalized.
“There were a lot of times in the development of this I tried to kill it because I was just like, ‘If we don’t get it right, let’s not do it,’ ” he said, according to USA Today.
“We actually had a script that was green-lit, and we threw 70 percent out of it,” he shared.
