To accentuate the contrast between the scary and the funny, director Paul Feig made the decision to shoot the movie like a brightly-lit comedy. "Thrilling things happen in the daylight rather than in darkly lit rooms." He adds, "in the suburbs, there's not a lot of hiding among the white walls and bright windows."
Anna Kendrick thinks that many women will be able to relate to Stephanie (Kendrick) and Emily's (Blake Lively) friendship because "Stephanie also wants validation from Emily." Kendrick says, "She's willing to put up with a lot of abuse because it's preferable to her loneliness."
Emily Nelson is a heavy drinker. In stark contrast, Blake Lively does not drink alcohol. In an interview she stated, "I don't drink. I've never tried a drug. It's just something that I genuinely don't have a desire for."
As noted in a recent article, Blake Lively deleted all of her Instagram photos and followed 28 accounts that share her character's name of Emily Nelson in the lead-up to this film's release.
One of the reasons that Blake Lively wanted Emily to wear suits was because she wanted to differentiate Emily from the character she played on Gossip Girl (2007). Both characters are women in fashion from the Upper East Side. "I wanted it to be a very different look and vibe," she says.