If you saw photos of Mary Beth Barone and Joe Alwyn wandering around New York City last week and thought, “Wait… are they dating?” — well, there’s a much more Hollywood explanation.
The comedian and the Hamnet actor are starring opposite each other in Still We Met, a new romantic comedy written by Barone and loosely inspired by her own experiences. And yes, that means their Williamsburg Bridge stroll suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Barone, 35, revealed the project Tuesday, Sept. 22, sharing a series of photos with Alwyn on Instagram and jokingly captioning the post, “hard launching this project 😍.” The carousel included a selfie of the pair having drinks and a particularly goofy photo of Alwyn throwing up a rock-star hand sign while sticking out his tongue.
Honestly, if you were going to reveal a new movie after accidentally fueling dating rumors, this is a pretty fun way to do it.
So, What Is Still We Met About?
The film follows a young woman at a crossroads who meets Isaac, a charming British stranger, and ends up spending an unforgettable night wandering New York City with him.
As the two get to know each other, they reveal more than they initially planned. Barone wrote the screenplay and will make her feature screenwriting and acting debut in the film, while Alwyn takes on the role of Isaac.
The story is loosely inspired by Barone’s own experiences, which makes her decision to write herself into the movie’s central romance especially fitting.
“It’s a very personal project,” Barone told Deadline. “I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to share it with the world.”
She also praised the creative team behind the movie, saying she was excited to contribute to her “favorite movie genre” and calling Alwyn “just” right for the role of Isaac.
Production is scheduled to begin this fall in New York.
Lena Dunham Is Along For The Ride
Adding another interesting name to the project is Lena Dunham, who is executive producing Still We Met alongside Michael Cohen under their Good Thing Going banner.
Dunham’s involvement is particularly notable for anyone who has followed her work from Girls through Too Much. The new movie also comes from Assemble, Irony Point and Good Thing Going, putting a few familiar comedy names behind Barone’s first feature.
The film marks the narrative feature directorial debut of Zackary Drucker, the Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose previous work includes The Stroll, The Lady and the Dale, Enigma and Hulu’s Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl.
That gives Still We Met a pretty interesting combination: a comedian writing a story pulled from her own life, a familiar face from the indie-film world playing her romantic counterpart and Dunham helping shepherd the whole thing.
And About Those Joe Alwyn Dating Rumors…
The timing of the announcement is almost too perfect.
On Sept. 17, Barone and Alwyn were photographed walking across the Williamsburg Bridge before stopping at a New York City establishment. The two appeared comfortable together, which understandably got people talking online.
Then came the movie announcement five days later.
Barone has had some practice with this particular brand of celebrity speculation. Earlier this year, she was linked to Emily in Paris star Lucas Bravo after the pair were spotted together, and she later joked on Late Night With Seth Meyers that the whole thing had been a Netflix-orchestrated “PR relationship” tied to her comedy special Galaxy Brain.
In other words, Barone seems to have a sense of humor about the internet trying to figure out her love life.
And her latest Instagram post suggests she knows exactly how funny this particular situation looks.
Mary Beth Barone Is Having A Big Moment
Still We Met is another step for Barone as she expands beyond stand-up.
She currently stars opposite Benito Skinner in Overcompensating, the Prime Video comedy that draws from Skinner’s own experiences. Barone has also set up the A24 romantic comedy series Hard Feelings at Hulu.
And if you haven’t gotten around to Galaxy Brain yet, Barone’s Netflix comedy special is streaming now. It is a good introduction to the sharp, dating-focused humor that has become such a big part of her comedy (plus, she’s just fabulous and all around hilarious) and makes the idea of her turning some of those experiences into a romantic comedy feel pretty natural.
For LGBTQ+ audiences, Barone’s comedy has also included plenty of candid material about dating and bisexuality. In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, she joked about not really having a type before landing on a particularly self-deprecating answer: “guys who aren’t nice to me.” She then added that her “girl type” is women who look like her.
So while Still We Met is being billed as a romantic comedy, it will be interesting to see how much of Barone’s own dating perspective makes its way onto the screen.
For now, we know the basic setup: Mary Beth Barone plays a woman wandering New York City with a handsome British stranger played by Joe Alwyn. Lena Dunham is producing. Barone wrote it. And those suspiciously rom-com-coded NYC photos suddenly have a very reasonable explanation.
The movie just has to live up to the “hard launch.”