We all know a Darcy. Not literally necessarily, but Darcy, the character from the film Something Borrowed. Darcy, played by Kate Hudson, is extroverted and fun, but also narcissistic and self-involved. I myself have been accused of being a Darcy a time or two in my life and living in West Hollywood, I know dozens of Darcys. A Darcy can easily be the life of the party and has a tendency (not always consciously) to be the center of attention, sometimes at the expense of others.

In most romantic-comedies, the Darcy character would be the villain, while her more introverted best friend/nemesis Rachel, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, would be the heroine. Something Borrowed, however, likes to take the usual rom-com clichés and turn them on their heads. In fact, no one associated with Something Borrowed wants to describe the movie as a rom-com. Goodwin describes the film as a comedy-romance-drama hybrid, something that’s more realistic than the usual rom-com, since real life is usually a combination of comedy, romance and drama, natch.

Something Borrowed is directed by Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door), based on the best-selling novel of the same name, by Emily Giffin. In it, Rachel is a talented attorney at a top New York law firm, a generous and loyal friend and, unhappily, still single – as her engaged best friend Darcy is constantly reminding her. But after celebrating her 30th birthday, perpetual good girl Rachel unexpectedly ends up in the arms of the guy she has had a crush on since law school, Dex (Colin Egglesfield) ... who just happens to be Darcy’s fiancé. As one thing leads to another in the frantic weeks leading up to Darcy’s wedding, Rachel finds herself in an impossible situation, caught between her treasured friendship with Darcy and the love of her life.

In many Hollywood films, and especially in romantic comedies, many of the characters are actually more caricature than character. You take the most clichéd personality traits and mix them together to create a walking cliché. In Something Borrowed, however, the characters possess some things not always seen on the big screen – flaws and three-dimensionality – you know, things that all of us human beings possess. Humans, like life, are full of gray areas – no one is all good or all bad. We all fall somewhere in between. Everyone associated with Something Borrowed is proud of the fact that the characters are more complex and three-dimensional than the characters you would normally find in a rom-com. Hudson, who recently became engaged to Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, liked playing Darcy since it meant “committing to a character that is extremely ‘out there’ and walking the fine line between what’s funny and endearing and what could easily become unlikable.”

Hudson goes on to say, “Darcy’s such a hilarious character to me. She’s so deeply self-centered. I’d never really played a part like that before … It was very easy to make her the villain, then it would have made it easier for Dex and Rachel. But I thought that it was more real to have all the characters somewhat likable.”

Hudson was planning on taking a break for a while until Hilary Swank, one of the producers of Something Borrowed, helped to talk her into taking the role.

“It really was one of those things where the decisions become more about where you are, and where it’s going to take you and the family. This was just one of those things where it all worked out perfectly,” Hudson shares.

Since the book is told from Rachel’s point of view, it was easy for the reader to understand why Rachel and Darcy had remained friends over the years. The movie doesn’t have voice-over, so the filmmakers had to be able to show the roots of their friendship without a lot of exposition. The extent of their friendship was brought out during a memorable scene when Darcy and Rachel end up having an adult sleepover. They performed a dance routine to Salt-N-Pepa’s hit, “Push It” – the same routine they had performed as girls decades earlier.

“We said, ‘If this is bad, can we please cut it out of the movie?’ Then we started doing it, and it brought back so many memories of doing routines as little girls. For me, it was Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation.’ I remember specifically the routine that (my friends and I) would do,” says Hudson.

And just like how we all know a Darcy in real life, we all have someone in our life with whom we have a metaphorical “Rhythm Nation” routine that will keep us together no matter where our journey in life takes us.



Something Borrowed releases in theaters May 6.