Barb & Star's Annie Mumolo Talks Controversy with Her 'Joy' Script, Which Was Rewritten

Annie Mumolo is one of the stars of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and she’s also an Oscar-nominated screenwriter.

The 47-year-old actress and writer recently opened up about writing the original screenplay for the 2015 movie Joy and the controversy that surrounded the film.

Joy starred Jennifer Lawrence and was directed by David O. Russell, who decided to rewrite the script that she turned in. The movie was praised for Jennifer‘s performance, but the screenplay didn’t get great reviews.

“The Joy movie was a very heartbreaking experience for me, and I had to just sort of separate because of that aspect of things. When it was going in one direction, we got a phone call overnight that there’s a change happening. And then I was asked to do things that were against my morality, and it was very difficult. When I didn’t feel comfortable doing those things that were against my values, I was lambasted. I can’t say too much. I guess probably because I was living in fear,” Annie told Variety.

She added, “It’s sort of a testament to the power of how in show business, people have a tremendous amount of power and what they can do with it and how they wield that power. Sometimes, the people who have so much power are people who shouldn’t, and in the normal world, they wouldn’t have that much power they’re being given. Judd Apatow told me, ‘”Certain names,” if they are studios, if it’s money and numbers, they don’t care what the behavior is. They just don’t.’ And he said that’s a hard thing. He was a very big advocate for me back then. It was tremendously scary and a life lesson. It was a lot of upheavals, and it was just very strange. It’s something I never saw coming.”

Click inside for what else she said…

Annie said, “I have such a love for Joy Mangano, the woman that the movie was about, so that still shines through for me. I just think she’s a tremendous human being, and she’s an inspiration. That’s what I took away from meeting her.”

“You almost can’t talk about certain things, which is sad as a writer because anytime you speak up for yourself, people warn you, ‘You better not do that, fake people won’t want to work with you,’ and you’re just defending your basic human rights. I had many people approaching me at the time to come out and say things or talk about it. But then it was, ‘Oh no, you can’t because you won’t get hired. You might not get hired again because you’ll be perceived as being “difficult.”‘ I just kind of had to swallow it. It’s just one of those things about the writer’s position,” Annie concluded.